Category Archives: Internships and Experience

Q & A Monday

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Question: What can I do over the summer or while I’m searching for a permanent job so that my resume doesn’t have a gap in it?

Excellent question! There are many things you can be doing over the summer to gain experience, build skills, network, and in turn, make your resume stronger. Here are some ideas:

  • Internship – 9 in 10 employers said they look for students to have one or two internships before graduating, and that those internships should be at least three months each to provide enough experience. If you don’t already have an internship for the summer, create your own! Here’s how! Or get planning for next summer.
  • Part-time or temporary job – you can gain many skills through a part-time or temporary job no matter where you work. Communication, teamwork, adaptability, problem-solving, initiative, hard-working…these are all qualities employers across industries seek in their employees and you can easily demonstrate this on your resume through a part-time job. Also, sometimes that temporary job could turn into full time!
  • Volunteer – there are so many places that could use your help and volunteering is a great way to assist others and also improve your own skills. Thinking about becoming a vet? Volunteer at the humane society. Want to be a writer? Volunteer to start a blog for a nonprofit and write the entries. Interested in teaching? Volunteer at a kids camp or summer school program. The opportunities are endless!!!
  • Go abroad – summer is a fantastic time to travel! Going abroad either through school or on your own can be a great way to learn more about another culture and yourself. You can also build your network internationally and even better if you learn another language (or at least the basics!).
  • Take a class or two – either for your major or just to learn another skill (Photoshop, html code, typing, pretty much there is a class for everything these days!)…and oftentimes you can find them online.
  • Start your own business – due to technology pretty much anyone can start their own business and with little cost. Find out some strategies to get you started.
  • Start your own blog – blogging is a great way to network and be known in your field…or even in an area that isn’t necessarily related to your career. It shows that you have something to offer and you become somewhat of an “expert” on that topic. It also demonstrates your written communication skills and these days many companies have blogs and therefore need people to manage and write for the blog. There are various blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, Weebly, etc. Here is a great article about the top 10 free online blogging platforms.

These are just a few ideas of ways you can gain experience and skills over the summer or while searching for a permanent job and still have some fun! And hopefully you will find that the things you are doing to gain experience and make yourself more marketable on your resume are FUN…this means you are probably going into an industry that fits your interests, strengths, and values and therefore you are more likely to be happy in your career.

What will you be doing this summer to develop your skills and gain experience? Any new ideas from the list above? Any career related questions you want answered during our Q & A Monday post? Comment below!

Jen Busick, Career Advisor & Outreach Coordinator at Oregon State University advises students about internships and the job search, applying to graduate school, resumes/cover letters, and interviewing. She also organizes and updates resources, manages social media for Career Services and coordinates outreach opportunities. She enjoys working with students in coming up with a plan to finding a job and assisting them with figuring out the next steps. She has a lot of international experience, including the Peace Corps, study abroad, and independent travel.

Confessions of a Career Changer: An Opportunity in the Arts

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Howdy, Career Beavers blog readers! Week 7 of spring term already, and the Career Changer is back to continue the story of her wavy career path. All school year, I’ve been writing the story of the shifts and changes on my professional path that got me here to OSU after graduating with my undergraduate degree twelve years ago. In my last post, I told the story of how I began working as a real estate office manager in Colorado, a totally new position in a totally new industry for me. While I was contributing to this office, I was also keeping my ears open about other opportunities. One arose about nine months later that could be a good fit for my skills, experience, and personal goals.

In the small town of Creede, the arts are very important. So important, in fact, that in addition to the Creede Repertory Theatre, there is a local nonprofit arts organization that sponsors gallery shows, arts education, art in public spaces, and other arts related events. The Creede Arts Council’s director was leaving after many years of building a set of programs that added value to the community, events that people had come to expect and count on to sustain them year after year. The Council needed a new Director.

With my background in writing and theatre and because I had completed an internship in nonprofit development while in graduate school, I was chosen to direct this organization of very dedicated volunteers as they worked hard to provide arts programming for their community. This opportunity may not have happened in a big city, but the available candidate pool was small, so I got lucky! Because it was part time, I continued working in the real estate office while taking on grant writing, volunteer organizing, event planning, and marketing.

Some of these tasks were brand new to me. Some of these tasks were new facets of skills I was already comfortable with. All of these tasks were a challenge, so I learned as I went, asked the board and the previous director lots of questions, and tried things out to see if they would work. I learned so many useful skills in this job that there isn’t the space to list them all. Looking back on it, I’m so glad I took a chance in applying, and they took a chance by hiring me!

The most valuable skills I cultivated regarded working on a team while leading that team. A volunteer board hired me to manage them but also to serve their needs. I needed to balance my leadership style with the goals and purpose of my position, supporting everyone’s ideas and acting as a facilitator for conversations to decide the direction of the organization. So, many of the skills I cultivated in that job are skills I use today and skills I will continue to use in the future. However, I still knew I wanted to work in higher education. In Week 9, I will tell you about my next steps in achieving that goal. Have a great week!

Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.

What You Could Be Doing With Your Spring Break

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So, what are your plans for this short week away from school? Are you going to be sunning and sailing, reading a book on a beach somewhere? Or do you have a trip planned to Vegas or LA or NYC for some fun? Or will you be working at your job and preparing for next term? Maybe you’re going to keep it low key by spending your days relaxing at home. Well, some OSU students are going to have a pretty incredible experience this coming week doing an alternative to all of that: Alternative Spring Break.

Instead of spending the week with the usual spring break activities, three teams of 12 to 20 OSU students are going to spend their spring breaks serving others in several Pacific Northwest communities. The participants on the first trip go to Yakima, Washington to learn about the city and the local Native American Reservation, Yakama Nation, and help nonprofit organizations there serve residents. The participants in the second alternative spring break experience this year are headed to San Francisco to work with the local homeless population. Finally, the students on third trip are staying close to home to restore vital ecosystems near Newport, Oregon. The trips cost $120 to $350 for a week of lodging and most meals as well as all programming and transportation, pretty minimal.

Why would someone devote their spring break to learning about Native American culture in Washington, helping the homeless in California, or cleaning up the beaches in Oregon, you may ask? Well, for one thing, Alternative Spring Break is a great way to engage in a meaningful service experience while having fun and traveling. It’s a way to make a difference. Participants will challenge themselves and form lasting friendships. And as a bonus beyond the inherent value of the experience, Alternative Spring Break is a way to gain leadership experience that can go straight on to a resume in a compressed amount of time. In a week, with some preparation before and debrief time after, students will gain knowledge, insight, and leadership skills that an employer would be excited to hear about in an interview.

So, next year, ask your advisor about going on an Alternative Spring Break trip or apply directly through the Center for Civic Engagement, http://oregonstate.edu/cce/alternativebreaks. You’ll get more out of the experience than you ever thought possible.

Building a Resume –Ways to get involved at OSU

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Creating a resume is tricky, and deciding what to put on one, how to talk about past experiences, and getting it all to fit on a page is an art we will forever be attempting to master.  But often the most difficult part of our job, at Career Services, and as students, is trying to create a solid resume out of experiences that we simply have not had.  Many of us were involved in high school and had the occasional house sitting type jobs, but now that we are past our freshman year and can no longer include this information on a resume, we feel as though we are left with nothing.  It is absolutely important to enjoy yourself in college, and to focus first and foremost on your studies, but it isn’t enough to be just a good student anymore.  We need to build a collection of experiences that can strengthen our resumes and give us valuable examples of how we apply the things we learn in class.

Thankfully, Oregon State University is equipped with an overwhelming number of opportunities, big and small, for us to get involved and add to our experience list.  But where can we find these opportunities?  Below is the start of a basic list, and following are tips to search for more on your own!

For those of you who have not explored OSU’s website in depth, now is the time!  Click through all the links and pages, and opportunities will start pouring out:

  • Academic clubs in your major can be found on your college’s webpage.  There are usually brochures lying around in the main offices, as well.
  • OSU has a long list of clubs and organizations around campus.
  • ASOSU (Associated Students of Oregon State University) is the student government.  They have many positions available to students among the various branches, as well as task forces and committees for students looking for a smaller role.  You can also get involved with the Center for Civic Engagement.
  • MUPC (Memorial Union Program Council) provides many opportunities for leadership and involvement through event planning and activities.  You can keep an eye out for conferences, festivals, and other events occurring around campus.  Attending a leadership conference, for example, is totally something you can put on a resume.
  • There are six cultural centers on campus: The Asian & Pacific Cultural Center, The Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center, El Centro Cultural César Chávez, The Native American Longhouse, The Pride Center, and The Women’s Center.  There are numerous ways to get involved at each of these centers, so go check them out!
  • Student Media runs the Barometer, KBVR –FM and TV, Prism, and Yearbook.  They have job openings and volunteer opportunities calling for a wide array of expertise.
  • We have many religious groups on campus, a long list of which can be found at: Religious/Spiritual Organizations
  • The Greek system is a great way to get involved.  There are 21 fraternities and 19 sororities, both social and academic based.  These are organized through the IFC and Panhellenic and recruitment, although mainly done in the fall, goes on all year.
  • The Student Sustainability Center is the hub of all things environmentally conscious and green on campus!  Involvement in organizations such as this looks great on resumes.  They offer jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities and activities.
  • Interested in unique volunteer opportunities around campus and Corvallis that require little long-term commitment and fit well into any schedule?  Get on the mailing list for the Community Service Center, and be notified about volunteer opportunities.
  • The Disability Access Services office offers opportunities for involvement both paid and unpaid including note taking and mentoring.
  • A fun way to build a resume and learn about teamwork and strategic planning is through the various intramural sports offered each term, and for a more competitive environment, there are numerous sports clubs that compete against clubs from other schools.

If you are looking for some bigger commitments that are incredible experiences and really shine on a resume here are some ideas:

  • Apply to the University Honors College
  • Visit the Study Abroad office and plan a term or a year abroad
  • Become an RA –live right on campus, have your housing paid for, make a significant impact on first year students’ college experiences
  • Join ROTC
  • Start a Corvallis chapter for any significant cause or organization that you are passionate about
  • Get a job or internship.  If you are sick of your summer job, want to earn some extra money, or try out a career path, then look on Beaver Job Net, and see what opportunities are available!

Do not forget to utilize your professors as a resource.  They will have tons of ideas for ways to get involved, as well as be in the know for opportunities coming up.  Many professors look for students to help with tutoring and many recruit their own teaching assistants.

This is the time to get creative!  What unique things have you done, even just for fun?  Taking classes at Dixon, the Craft Center, Community Centers, etc are places where you learn, and any information you gather or regular activity you commit to, can be tailored into a valuable resume builder.  Also, if there are any hobbies that you enjoy that offer certifications, then take the little bit of extra time to do the paper work!  (Many of us are bloggers, or very computer savvy –think about Druple training.  There are periodically sessions offered on campus.)

Some things to remember: coursework and group work are valuable learning opportunities.  You can talk about these things on a resume.  Work experiences DO NOT need to be paid.  Many students think that if it’s not an official job it doesn’t count, but just about any experience does.

If you need help brainstorming or professionally organizing your ideas to polish off that resume, do not forget about Career Services.  We are here to help!

 

Confessions of a Career Changer: Back to the City Grind…

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Here I am in the Autumn mountains of Colorado!

Hello!! Jessica, the Career Changer here, and I left off last time with my first job experience as an actor in the mountains of Colorado. At the end of that summer in 2004, after some traveling and visiting with family and friends, I returned to New York City. I quickly found a job back in the restaurant business at a very fancy restaurant in the TriBeCa neighborhood. They trained me to be a hostess, and I had to memorize the faces of a slew of famous and not so famous but important people that would be seated first, treated better, and given whatever they asked. The whole thing made my skin crawl a bit. This was the first place I worked where they actually trained me to treat some people better than others, and I did not like the concept at all. I’m one of the people who wouldn’t get treated very well, and so are my parents, and so are my friends. I followed the procedures I learned, but whenever possible, tried to treat everyone, famous or not, the same. I went back to auditioning periodically and performed in a couple of small projects.

But here is where my story gets a bit dramatic and complicated. That year, my mother was pretty sick with cancer, so even though I was living in New York and working at this fancy restaurant and auditioning for theatre, a lot of my time was spent at home in New Jersey with her. And here is another lesson I’ve learned. There are more important things than work. I needed to work less that year and spend time with her more because I knew she might not be around much longer. So, I let my supervisor know this situation, and he was very understanding. I left that job and my apartment in February of 2005 to live with my parents and help take care of my mother. My plan was to return to Colorado for another season of acting in May.

In May, just before I was scheduled to leave for the summer, my mother passed away. I believe she did that on purpose so that I could be there with her and with my dad. I still made it to the beginning of my contract in Colorado, but I knew then I probably wasn’t going to back to the New York City area. I’d worked really hard to make a life for myself there, but in Colorado I didn’t need to work quite so hard at jobs I didn’t like or didn’t feel right about doing. The community in Colorado embraced me and took care of me through this grief, through a time of mourning, and also showed me where to go and what to do next. And I did figure it out… Next time, I’ll let you know what I figured out in “Confessions of a Career Changer”.

Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.

I’m too busy to start the job search process before I graduate

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Ever have the thought of, “Ah, I am so busy that I don’t have the time to job search before I graduate, what should I do”? Don’t worry you’re not alone. We are all busy with school and finding the time to job search in between classes isn’t an easy task, but trust me it isn’t impossible either.

No need to worry, there are some ways to get organized and motivated when it comes to finding a job during the process of graduating. Continue reading →

Confessions of a Career Changer: Summer camp as a job? Yes, please!

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My Professional Actor Headshot: What Do You Think?

Remember me? I’m Jessica, the Career Changer, telling you the story of my wavy career path. Before the winter break, I wrote about working at a pretty fancy New York City restaurant. I was let go from that particular restaurant because of new management, and I soon got a job at a café as a hostess. I worked until May of 2004 at this café, which was a stressful, busy Austrian dessert and gourmet coffee café on the Upper East Side. But then I got an amazing job offer. I was offered, along with my boyfriend at the time (who is now my husband, by the way), an acting job in a small mountain town in Colorado. I was going to work as an actor at the Creede Repertory Theatre for the summer. Continue reading →

Confessions of a Career Changer: Have You Decided What You’d Like This Evening?

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Jessica in Costume Once Again

Hi, it’s me again with the final installment of “Confessions of a Career Changer” for the fall term. Last time, my tour of Superfudge the Musical was coming to a close in the middle of 2002, and I was left wondering what might be next for my work life. The job climate in New York City was very different than before 9/11; things had slowed and were slowing even more, including theatre work. I had to find something to do in this environment, and although I was not excited about fulfilling the cliché of the actress/waitress, one of my best friends was working at a great restaurant in midtown Manhattan. She told me they needed someone new, and I went in to talk to the manager and got the job.

So, waiting tables at a fancy restaurant in New York City was both a good and bad experience. I learned a ton about food, about wine, and about the “correct” way to serve, a job that I would return to many times over the course of my life. The chef at this restaurant was an amazing chef and a nice guy who really cared about the food and service at his restaurant. So, he trained us well and allowed us to taste specials and the menu items for a reduced price. He also fed us a “family meal” every night that was healthy and tasty. The manager of the restaurant was pretty hands-off, trusting that the servers were doing their jobs well and not micro-managing our performance.

But I also learned that being a server means that some people believe they have the right to treat you poorly or disrespect you by tipping badly. At the time, I made less than $3 an hour through the restaurant, so practically all my money came from my tips. The restaurant was quite small and the prices quite high, so I could feel a significant chunk taken out of my nightly pay if even one table tipped poorly. For some people, this discrepancy was because of their culture or nationality. But for others, I believe it was simply the result of disrespect, a sense that servers aren’t worthy of making a decent living.

However, another great result of my experience at this restaurant was meeting the diverse group of employees who worked there. Anwar was a busboy from Bangladesh; there were cooks from Mexico and servers from Tennessee. Learning about their cultures and getting to know them was a really great opportunity for me, and because of the friends I made at this restaurant, I was encouraged to stay for a fairly long time. I stayed at this job for 18 months while I auditioned and did as much theatre as possible during my off time. Unfortunately, when the management changed, 1 year after I started, so did the climate at work. As the last person hired, I was the first let go when the new management began to make some cuts. It was better for me in the long run; I got to focus on my auditions and took some much needed down time. I’ll be continuing my story in the winter term. Hope you are enjoying hearing about my wavy career path. Have a great winter break!!!

Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.

Confessions of a Career Changer: Sets, Costumes, and Conflict, Oh My!

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Jessica performing improv comedy with troup called Boomtown.

Hi, it’s me again, talking about my wavy career path, through hill and dale, over rivers and through woods to, not grandmother’s house, but Oregon State University! When I last blogged, I was talking about the national children’s theatre tour gig I landed in the aftermath of 9/11. So, today I’ll talk about what that was like, 6 months on the road in a van with 5 other actors and a stage manager. We went from school to school, and from venue to venue, rarely staying in one place for more than two or three nights.

The show was Superfudge, and I don’t know if you read Judy Blume books when you were a child, but it was based on the Judy Blume book of the same name about a kindergartener called Fudge who gets into all kinds of shenanigans and, of course, lessons are learned in the process. This book was preceded by Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, a quite famous children’s book that maybe you read. In this musical adaptation of Superfudge, I played the mother of two boys, Fudge and Peter, who were played by grown men. Both of them towered over me at 6 feet or more, and I was 22, definitely not the right age to be a mother of an 11-year-old. There were three other actors in the musical, a guy who played the dad, and a man and a woman who played all the other characters. So, I was one of two women on the tour; the stage manager was a guy too. The other actress and I shared hotel rooms to save money because we were given a “per diem” as part of our salary that was meant to cover our daily expenses, so if we could cut costs on hotels, we would make more money in the end.

Each morning (And many of the show times were in the morning. For some reason, schools like morning shows. Have you ever had to sing for 45 minutes at 8 am? It’s not easy!), we would drive our two vans to a venue, put up our set, put on our costumes and microphones, do a sound check, then have about 20 minutes to warm up before we performed. The contract I worked under for this tour employed me as both an actor and a stage manager so that I would be contractually obligated to unload, put up, tear down, and load our set back into our van. Lots of work! We often did more than one show in a day, and sometimes in different locations, so we could end up doing this routine more than once in a day. But we were being paid pretty well, for actors, and we were contributing to our union initiation fee as part of our paychecks, which would, in turn, entitle us to health insurance. Whoo hoo! I hadn’t been a union actor before this experience, and it felt good to be paid well and treated with respect.

It turned out that we needed that respect and those union rules a couple of months into the tour. Remember that the seven of us are crammed into two vans over six months, and we didn’t know each other before the rehearsals began. Would you ever take a six month long road trip with strangers? It was inevitable that personality conflicts would arise. The other woman thought she was being harassed by the man who played the dad; she complained to the stage manager and the union representative; and all hell broke loose. For a week or so, I didn’t want to room with her and ended up paying extra for my own room. She eventually left the tour, as did our stage manager, and we got a new actress who became a really close friend. Conflicts like that are going to come up when perfect strangers spend months together, 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. We did get one day a week off, but on this day, if we were out on the road, we were limited by the available transportation (our two vans), so we really couldn’t get away from each other. In all, touring with Superfudge was a pretty stressful, amazing, great, and fraught experience. I recommend everyone try it. You’ll learn a ton about yourself and what you are willing to tolerate in others.

When my tour ended, I needed to find work, so I began asking around to friends and friends of friends. This strategy paid off. I’ll talk about what I did next in “Confessions of a Career Changer”. Hope you are enjoying my story and have a great Thanksgiving break!

Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.

Confessions of a Career Changer: How to get a job when the world is ending…

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Jessica's Theatre Headshot

The last time we talked, it was 2001, and I mentioned that I had a job as a receptionist in New York City; I went to Texas to do a film for the summer, thinking that I would just slide right back into my receptionist job when I returned. But as I was returning, while I was driving through Nashville toward home, a couple of planes crashed into the World Trade Center in my city.

New York City in the aftermath of 9/11 was, as you can imagine, a chaotic place. For several days, no one was allowed into the city unless they were emergency personnel. I stayed with my parents in New Jersey, watching the unbelievable footage on television over and over. When they finally opened the bridges and tunnels, I went to my old job headquarters on 6th Avenue and asked when I could begin working again. I needed to work. I had spent most of my savings doing an unpaid, low-budget film. My previous boss, a nice young woman from Staten Island, said they didn’t need me, and in light of the recent events, they needed to downsize and cut costs.

Many events converged to put me out of a job in September of 2001, but half of the city was out of a job. Lots of people were volunteering at Ground Zero or around the city to help families find their loved ones. I decided this was the perfect moment for unemployment insurance.

So, this stuff is insurance, and our employers pay it on our behalf. Sometimes we need to use those systems that are set up as safety nets. Sometimes we fall, and a program like unemployment insurance is designed to catch us. I used the few months after 9/11 on unemployment insurance to audition vigorously for any and all performance opportunities. I worked a day here and there as an extra on several television shows. I spent time with actor friends, working on audition material and perfecting my acting resume. And this work actually did pay off.

In early December of 2001, I found out I got a really good tour gig. This 6 month tour would be a children’s theatre production in schools and venues across the country. We would get in a van, drive to St. Louis or Montauk or Ithaca or Cleveland, check into a cheap hotel, put up our set, perform our 60 minute musical, and drive on. Sounds like hard work, right? It was. But we were paid fairly well; we got to join the actor’s union, and we got health insurance because of the union. In all, it was an amazing break for me.

Next time, I’ll talk about what happened on the road. Hope your semester is going great and  that you’re enjoying “Confessions of a Career Changer”.

Jessica Baron is currently a Graduate Assistant in Career Services at OSU and a full time student in the College Student Services Administration Program. Before making her way to Oregon State, Jessica worked as an actor, waiter, online tutor, receptionist, college composition instructor, creative writer, gas station attendant, nonprofit program director, writing workshop leader, high school drama coach, Hallmark card straightener, substitute teacher, real estate office manager, and SAT tutor, not necessarily in that order. Her “Confessions of a Career Changer” will focus on her wavy career path and the challenges and joys of wanting to do everything.