Tag: job search

In addition to expert advising and free coffee, Olin’s Weston Career Center offers courses, skill-building workshops, networking activities, and resources to prepare students for a lifetime of career management.

Students new to Olin may not be aware of the plethora of resources the WCC provides students. (Did we mention free coffee?) Allow us to introduce some of the WCC’s best offerings for students interested in career development or embarking on the job search:

Access to the Bloomberg Terminal

The Bloomberg Terminal allows students to access the Bloomberg data service, which provides real-time financial data, news feeds, and messages. The terminal is available in the WCC office by request.

Career development videos

On the Olin Careers website students will find recruiter advice and insights on topics such as résumé writing, effective business communications, interviewing, and strategic relationship building.

Guidance for veterans

Veterans have a proven record of performance and are ready to serve in civilian jobs where there is a need for leadership, team building, organizational commitment, and advanced technical training. The WCC offers coaching and resources for veterans and collaborates with the Olin Veterans Association to prepare students for the transition to civilian employment.

Interview Wiki

The Wiki is a student-editable archive of historical interview questions, along with other information, that is searchable by company. Students can update the Wiki questions after interviews to ensure that the questions are current.

LGBTQ resources

For the sixth consecutive year, the WCC was recognized with the highest level of certification (A+) by the national OUT for Work Career Center Certification Program.

The WCC offers resources to LGBTQ students seeking information on locating gay-friendly companies, coming out during the job search and transitioning into the workplace. In addition, the Weston Career Center partners with the WUSTL LGBT Student Involvement and Leadership office to provide a variety of programming. Any student seeking a confidential advising appointment may contact the Weston Career Center at wcc-director@olin.wustl.edu.

Management 201–Management Communications

A collaboration between faculty and Weston Career Center career advisor, MGT 201 Management Communication is a required course for all sophomores and offers students tools for a successful job search. Students get individualized attention to identify, articulate, and sell their value to an employer. They will develop their résumés, elevator pitches, and interview skills and build a strong online brand presence. Each professional development session is supplemented with workshops led by Weston Career Center experts, to provide hands-on tools and exposure to the technology and resources offered at Olin and the Weston Career Center. The course also teaches students to develop their business writing and public speaking skills as they solve real life client communication challenges.

Seminar series and workshops

Designed to give Olin students an advantage in the marketplace, seminars and workshops are presented by outside experts and corporate partners.

Working closely with our network of alumni, employers, and faculty, our employer relations team explores domestic and global markets for hiring trends and employment opportunities. We’re continually cultivating our partnerships with exceptional companies—and building a reputation for interns and graduates who are ready for business, with the tools and talent to create value for their organizations.

A student meets with a representative from evetos at the 2013 Meet the Firms event.

On-campus recruiting

Throughout the year, hundreds of companies recruit Olin students through on-campus, phone, and Skype interviews. The WCC interview-suite computers are fully equipped with Skype services and webcams that are available for student use.

BSBA and specialized masters students can apply for positions and sign up for interviews through CAREERlink. MBA candidates can do the same through MBAFocus.

Upcoming recruiting events: 

• Wednesday, Sept. 14: Meet the Firms
• Tuesday, Sept. 20: Meet the Firms

Networking road shows and career fairs

The WCC sponsors several events to provide networking opportunities, including Meet the Firms events, domestic and international road shows, symposiums, New York and Silicon Valley Career Treks, and club-sponsored activities. Other networking opportunities include all-campus career fairs at Washington University.

A network of professional associations

Olin has chapters of the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA), the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), National Association of Women MBAs (NAWMBA), and Net Impact. These organizations sponsor annual career conferences that provide access to recruiting companies. In addition, these associations encourage academic and career development.

Olin is also a member of the Forté Foundation—a consortium of major corporations and top business schools that has become a powerful change agent in educating and directing talented women toward leadership roles in business.

In addition, Olin is a founding member of  The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management—the country’s preeminent organization promoting diversity and inclusion in American business. The Consortium has built a 50-year legacy of fostering inclusion and changing the ethnic and cultural face of American business.

Information sessions

Companies host these events to enhance visibility on campus, preview the quality of Olin’s talent, and serve as a precursor to their on-campus recruiting schedules. Don’t miss the chance to meet recruiters and learn more about their companies, industries, and career opportunities.

Upcoming company information sessions:

• Tuesday, Sept. 6: AT&T, Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), Bain & Company, and Raymond James
• Wednesday, Sept. 7: Capital One, The Resource Group, and Bain & Company, Inc.
• Thursday, Sept. 8: Deloitte Consulting LLP and ECG Management Consultants
• Monday, Sept. 12: Cardinal Health and Booz Allen Hamilton
• Tuesday, Sept. 13: Bayer, Lincoln International, Kimberly-Clark and Travelers
• Wednesday, Sept. 14: Wal-mart and Bain & Company, Inc.
• Thursday, Sept. 15: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Protiviti, Avascent, and General Mills
• Friday, Sept. 16: Deloitte Consulting
• Monday, Sept. 19: RBC Capital Markets & MasterCard International
• Tuesday, Sept. 20: Nielsen & Bloomingdale’s
• Wednesday, Sept. 21: Nielsen, Citigroup & Villhard
• Thursday, Sept. 22: Anheuser-Busch, Essilor & Accenture

Salary information and employment statistics

The WCC compiles internship and job-offer data to provide employment information to students, employers, and relevant partners. Information that is reported is confidential, and statistics are aggregated in report format.

When you are searching for a job, demonstrating strong communication skills is essential, yet most people understand this concept superficially. The Weston Career Center put together this checklist for students looking to improve their business communication skills:

Know your audience

Whether you are writing a letter, interviewing, or presenting, the number one rule of business communication is to know the audience—the people who will be receiving your communication. Let’s put this into the context of looking for a job: Research the company. In addition to reading the company’s website, find out about the culture, and learn about its specific business problems. It is hiring people who can solve business problems. What do you have to offer the company? Also, do you fit with its culture?

Go beyond basic research, and use a little psychology. That recruiter you’re talking with has been flying around the country talking with one person after another, day after day. Can you put yourself in that person’s shoes? He or she wants to talk with an interesting and confident person who’s ideal to work with and who stands out from the crowd. You’ve made his or her day if you turn out to be the right person to bring in for a second interview.

In the cover letter and interview, briefly convey your knowledge of the company, and communicate information that demonstrates your fit with the company and the advertised position.

Know yourself

You can’t effectively communicate what you have to offer an organization if you don’t know your own talents, strengths, and weaknesses. To effectively differentiate and sell yourself, know what makes you unique. In the cover letter and the interview, prove with examples and results that you have skills to help business professionals solve their business problems.

Prepare

Good presenters and writers prepare in advance. They rehearse their presentations and tweak their writing until they feel their messages are clear and compelling. Even if you are a charmer, no one will be impressed if you demonstrate little preparation for the interview. For interviews, predict the questions you could be asked, prepare for them, and practice answering them.

In letters, customize your message for that particular audience.

Be concise and organized

You’ve heard that time is money. That’s why businesspeople won’t have patience for a disorganized and wordy paragraph or a rambling answer during an interview. Avoid wordiness. Consider whether headings, subheadings, and bullets in your written correspondence will help the busy reader easily navigate your message. In general, make the first sentence of each paragraph the main point, and then support that point.

Be accurate and truthful

If someone discovers you’ve lied, you’ll lose your credibility. Proofread, or you’ll be perceived as someone who doesn’t pay attention to details.

Know when to listen and when to talk

Good communicators have different personalities. Some are outgoing, and some are thoughtful listeners. The best communicators can listen to the other person and keep a conversation going.

One strategy for keeping a conversation flowing is to demonstrate interest by asking good open-ended questions.

Really listen, and you’ll learn a lot about the job and the company.

Being intentional in your career transition is, in my mind, the most overlooked “step” in successfully going from A to B. If you Google “intentional career transition,” what are the results? (Because face it, everything these days starts with a Google search, right?) I found a few websites for services to help with career transitions; however, the number of references were fewer than I expected. When I Googled “steps for a career transition,” I hit the jackpot. On the first page alone there were sites or articles that listed as few as five steps or up to 10. Most of the steps are very tactical: “Put together a resume” or “Update your LinkedIn profile.” All good advice, but I am going to talk about a more strategic step.

I believe the first step is to be intentional. Being intentional when you decide to venture into something new is along the same lines as putting together a solid project plan when you are about to implement new software or develop a new marketing campaign. The project plan documents your intentions. Documenting your intentions in your career is not really all that different.

When documenting your intentions, or your plan, you need to specify the five w’s – why, what, when, where, and who.

Why am I seeking a career transition?

You need to articulate why this change is occurring. Being very clear with why helps to make sure your plan is focused and leading to your desired end state. Without a clear understanding for why, then you may easily veer off into something interesting but not necessarily relevant. Ask yourself: Why now? Why something different?

What am I looking for in this career transition?

This is the big Kahuna of intentionality. This is where you get down to brass tacks on what exactly the plan is going to achieve. What is it that you are looking for in your next career or job? Can you define the characteristics, objectives, outcomes?

When will this transition take place?

Depending on when you are looking for a change, the actions you take to get there may be different. Timing is also partially dependent on what it is you are looking for in the future. If you are thinking the change should happen in six months there may be one set of actions to get there. If it is a longer-term plan (say 3 years) there is a totally different set of actions.

Where are you looking to go?

We are taking simple geography here. If you need to – or want to – only look in a particular part of the world then you need to be clear on that. Don’t waste your time looking in say, Australia, if that is simply not realistic. While the job down under sounds fun and exciting, if it really isn’t in the cards don’t put it in the plan. Being distracted during your intentional search will derail your progress.

Who will help you in this career transition?

This is where your network comes into play. You have a network, right? If not, you need one. (I feel another blog topic coming on!) Being intentional with who you want to connect with about your new career/job search will allow those connections to be meaningful and sincere. Again, it is about intentionality, the foundation for focus. Additionally, you don’t want to abuse your connections, and if you simply randomly tap into your network you could wind up alienating them and doing more harm than good.

Being intentional is hard. I know–I have been there myself. Determining the 5 W’s for my own career transitions laid the foundation for all the changes I made. Some of my transitions were made in six months, some in three years. Whatever my time frame was, I approached it intentionally. I can help you do the same.

This post originally appeared on LMHAdvisors. In addition to LMHAdvisors, Lisa Hebert serves as a Career Advisor specializing in supply chain, consulting, and Olin’s veteran student population.

There are millions of students across the country investing in college tuition to better prepare them for the future. I think it is time to dive into the question of what that future is and what students want to do in it.

A lot of people go through college for different reasons. Of all the reasons, perhaps the most common among students across the country is to help find a job. Naturally, the next question is, what type of job?

There are many paths you can take, and of course there is no better or worse, but I’d argue that you want to allocate your time in hopes of learning. As Justin Kan calls it, “optimize for learning.”

And this is the perfect time do to this. To “hustle” and put yourself in an environment where you can accelerate growth super quickly. This time frame (5–8 years) is not about making money ; rather, it is the best opportunity to learn about the world and about yourself. (Gary Vaynerchuk does a great job of demonstrating the urgency in this time period.)

As a recent post-grad, you have a few competitive advantages that may keep you alive in the highly competitive workplace.

1. A network

If you did college right, you likely have a network there to support you. Perhaps the most valuable asset you gain as a student is the resource of alumni connections and classmates. Use those to your advantage.

2. Energy and passion

Another advantage you have is incredible inflow of energy. You can stay up longer hours and sleep less at night. You can survive on your friend’s couch and afford to eat cheap.

3. Intrinsic motivation

Perhaps the biggest advantage, though, is that you are willing to learn. Why? Because you have the least to lose. And that, in itself, is a huge opportunity for you to excel.

Be different and you will find yourself in an opportunity to grow.

Now,  this is not to say you should go out and quit your day job to go “learn.” Money is important and will help you in going far. But  try to put yourself in a situation where you can get the most out of learning. This applies not only to post-grad jobs, but also to internships and random gigs. Optimize for learning.

This post was originally featured on Medium and was republished with permission from the author.

The Weston Career Center shares this article on optimizing your LinkedIn profile for the job search. Check out the Center’s resources for students, including career advising and job search resources. 

A LinkedIn profile can be a window to potential employers and the first place where recruiters will look when seeking talent. Here are useful tips to make sure your LinkedIn profile is ready for prime-time viewing:

Consider your job-seeking objectives

You cannot effectively brand your LinkedIn profile without a clear understanding of what position or role you are seeking.

No typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors

Your LinkedIn profile should be error-free, succinct, and articulate.

Who do you want to be seen as?

Make sure you brand your LinkedIn headline in a way you want to be seen, especially by potential recruiters.

Communicate your value proposition, using keywords

Adding specialties to your LinkedIn profile is the perfect time to include some keywords for which recruiters are likely to search. Here’s an article with tips for LinkedIn SEO.

Search engine optimization is very important on LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn profile is about to become your electronic résumé, so scatter keywords recruiters are seeking throughout your profile. Add an industry in your professional summary because recruiters often use that field to search for candidates.

Seek recommendations and endorsements

Ask your internship or work supervisors or colleagues for a long-form recommendation or LinkedIn endorsement. Having positive recommendations and endorsements can often be the deciding factor between candidates and is an extra touch to your LinkedIn profile.

Consistency matters

Make sure the messages on your website, Twitter, Facebook, and any other online sites are all consistent. Recruiters will do online searches for you before they decide whether to call you.

Update your status regularly

LinkedIn can be your very own PR machine. Recruiters are looking for evidence that you are keeping your LinkedIn profile active and up to date.

Add more content

Use the experience section to explain and highlight each company in which you worked, and remember to include any board, civic, or voluntary positions.

Make sure you are open for business

If you are searching for a job, make sure your contact settings are set to include career opportunities, consulting offers, new ventures, job inquiries, and reference requests.

Follow relevant influencers and channels

Get the most out of your LinkedIn experience by following influencers and channels that interest you. This will allow you to tap into cutting-edge insights and trends from industry leaders and trends from industry leaders, and stay on top of news and events.

Main photo credit: Flickr/Ben Scholzen

LinkedIn released its latest iteration for both iPhone and Android in April: the LinkedIn Students app, geared specifically toward soon-to-be graduates looking for jobs and internships.

The app leverages LinkedIn’s database of over 400 million professionals. “The brand new app helps you discover jobs that are a best fit for graduates with your major, companies that tend to hire from your school and the careers paths of recent alumni with similar degrees,” a LinkedIn spokesman said when unveiling the product.

I preface this critique by detailing that I use my LinkedIn a ton. But it is far from perfect. And while I would say that one opinion normally does not matter , in this case, I am the target market. So my opinion does matter.

I have been looking for a solution like this for a while. I, personally, have tried to attack this problem in the past — bringing in VCs to my school and connecting students with jobs in the area — but it is not easy.

So I have been looking for a platform to help other students join the conversation.

So here is how my test run of the LinkedIn Students app went (not the best):

You enter the app and it prompts you with “5 ideas” to get your career exploration started.

These custom ideas are populated by the information you provide LinkedIn.

Screenshot of the LinkedIn Students app.

The app gives you a chance to confirm this information before you begin your search. However, the credentials are extremely baseline: school and major. (***Does not support a double major).

From there , the app populates news, alumni (who are not really alumni, but rather classmates), and job postings (pretty generic ones).

5 ideas to find your future career? Generically?

Is that enough ?

The simple answer is no. This attempt by LinkedIn fails to help students because it is not serious enough. Finding a job is not “extra-credit.” To find the right job takes time and effort. Job postings are already available to the masses, and LinkedIn’s display of information — using “ideas”— is not customized and lacks depth.

But , I believe that LinkedIn is identifying a serious problem.

There is currently a gap between young talent and jobs. This is an opportunity for technology to merge and create new opportunities. Jobs cannot be offered “conveniently” — you need to make students work and hustle for them. But the industry can be more transparent and welcoming to students , and tech can help bring talent to opportunities.

“Talent is universal, while opportunity is not” — Niko Bonatsos.

This post was originally featured on Medium and was republished with permission from the author.