update!!!

well the craziest thing happened on the last day of finals... i had a voicemail from a friend (WPI alumni of 2008) she said she was calling as an employee of Company X.. the same company I had interned with... and wanted to bring me up to Houston for an on site interview in her department... this is the friend I had contacted about giving my resume to her boss... interesting how contacts are so helpful... my interview is on January 9th so I'll be traveling to Houston from Jan. 8th-Jan. 10th. Let's see what happens!!!

interview baskets!!!

so in Oct. and Nov. the CDC was raffling Interview Baskets for both men and women which each had everything ranging from resume paper to lint rollers = soooo exciting. The winners were recently pulled and were Emalee Drake and Brandan Sweet. I am so jealous!!! I hear that the CDC will raffle another basket sometime soon!!!

exciting times...

In your Senior year, you're thinking that you need to get a job/get into grad school. But what's interesting is that the smallest things can change what you think is the path you're going down. The goals I have now, might change. I'll be calling the department which asked me to wait sometime next week. Let's see what they say. I wonder where I'll actually be this time next year. I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Good to know!

so one of my bosses over the summer contacted me today asking me how my job searching process was going... I sent him an e-mail back telling him what the situation was and if he had any advice for me/suggestions. Hopefully that will bring some more options. It's funny, because I always hear that it's so important to keep good relations with past bosses/companies because of networking options. But I never really thought how real it was and how much that could potentially affect you. Good to know!

looking at my options...

I've been looking at the option of either taking part in a part-time MBA at WPI or applying to the Advanced Distance Learning Network and do an MBA through that. I've been reading a bit here and there: http://cpe.wpi.edu/Individual/Distance/graddegree.html. I'd need the application, three letters of recommendation, and my transcripts. It seems like a very possible option for me :)

didn't know!!!

So I was looking around the CDC site as well as my JobFinder account and realized that there's this awesome tool which tells you the average salary of a certain individual with a certain degree with a certain job title. That's really useful especially when coming to compare job offers ad starting to accept/negotiate/decline them. This tool is in the JobFinder account homepage/Career Search/Salary Wizard = NICE!!!

fresh start ;)

so not too much ended up working out until now... but I do have more practice with interviews, both on campous as well as on site. That will definitely be useful. As for my fresh start: I've contacted a couple of people including my bosses from my summer internship to see if they have any suggestions for me / who I should contact. So hopefully we'll see where to go from there. I'm excited!!!

and the word is...

So I heard back from the department in Houston... they decided that it wasn't a good fit for me unfortunately.. the other department called me today and told me to wait because they hadn't interviewed anyone else yet and they would early December. So, I'm going to call my bosses from the summer and ask them if they have recommendations for any other departments within the company that I could interview with. I'm sure something else will come up but I havce to pick it up now.

Still waiting

so I e-mailed my contact recruiter on saturday to see if there was any progress in my application process. I still haven't heard back from him, so I called another contact I had (the one who called me from Argentina) to ask her but she wasn't at her desk. So I left a message and hopefully someone will get back at me soon. :(

uyyy... :(

So I still haven't heard from the department in Houston with Company X. I really want that job. I e-mailed my contact person about two weeks from when I went to interview and I got an automatic reply from his e-mail telling me that he was out of the office until Oct. 27th because he was in Nigeria. I got a phone call the next day from another representative from the same department telling me that she was in Argentina and that they weren't going to be able to get back to me until the following week. I started getting scared so when a different department in Company X called me for an on-site interview I said yes. I just went this past weekend. I flew down to Fairfax, VA on Sunday, and returned last night. I enjoyed the experience but I really prefer the department in Houston since the job seems to fit my personality much better as well as I really really like Houston. A friend of mine, received an offer from the same company but with a different department down in Houston as well and has offered to get an apt. with me. Unfortunately, I still have no offer and I'm really worried. Let's see what happens. :(

My Interview!!!

So I went to Houston this past Thursday to interview with Company X. I left Worcester Thursday at 7 AM to catch a flight from Logan Aiport. My hostess picked me up from the aiport, and then we drove around Houston for a bit while she explained the different areas of the city. She then dropped me off at the hotel I would be staying at. She then pricked me up a couple of hours later to go to dinner. It was my hostess, a coworker, and myself. I asked questions about the department they worked in, about their new hire process and future career plans. The next morning, my hostess picked me up around 6:45 to go to breakfast and meet up with my first interviewer. My day ahead: 5 interviews back to back with a lunch in between. It was an awesome experience. I met a lot of brilliant, succesfull people who were all very excited about bringing new hires to their departments. They talked about their career paths, about their resposabilities and roles, and finally asked a couple of questions. My last interview was with the head recruitment person. His main job was to see if I was a good fit for the department. My hostess took me back to the aiport and I flew back to Mass. As nerve-wrecking as it was at first, I really enoyed my time there. It wa sa great learning experience and great practice for any future site interviewws I may have. I am really hoping I get an offer from them. We'll see what happens! ;)

Got an Interview!

So Company X called me back. They've asked that I come to Houston to interview with them on October 9th. I'm so excited! It will be a full day interview process in which I will interview with five different people. To prepare for this I'll make sure I have a good professional wardrobe for two days. I will also read about the department and make sure I know some of the background, products/services, and have some questions prepared about the department as well as the company in general. We'll see how it goes!!!!!

My Summer Responsabilities

As an intern at Company X, I was brand new to the department, the company, and the industry. I was lucky enough to come in during a transition period when there was a change in management. Therefore, I was able to attend a full department conference in which every member spoke about his/her responsabilities. I started out in the International Sales Department of Marine Fuels. In this department, I dealt with inquiries about our products and found out if we had availables for the clients. If so, I would then make the sale and contact operations to start the shipment process. I then worked in the Operations department. Here, I did blending calculations to make the best quality (while still looking out for profit) product out of the supply we got from Refining and Supply. I then worked in the Supply Chain Projects Management Department. This was a very exciting department considering that many decisions are being made that could affect the corporation enourmously. With this project, I traveled to Headquarters to meet with my boss's supervisor about updates on the process flow of these projects. Finally, I traveled to Panama and Houston to see the terminals there as well a refinery and the Chemical Department of the company. I had excellent managers who were always making sure that I was learning, and that's exaclty what the whole experience was: a summer of learning.

My Next Steps

So I interviewed with Company B (which I found at the Career Fair). The interview went well I believe. I will contact my interviewer in about a week and thank him/her for coming to campus and interviewing me. I will also ask him/her if he/she has heard about any progress on my application. I am currently also speaking with representatives from various departments from Company X (where I did my summer internship). I had an on site interview set up but unfortunately, due to weather, it was postponed. I am still waiting to hear from them to reschedule. I did get a call from a different department in Company X for a home-office based job. I have not accepted or declined. I want to weigh out my options. We'll see what happens with this....

My Career Fair Experience

I have been speaking to the company with which I interned this past summer (Company X) in order to get an entry level job once I graduate. This made my Career Fair day a little more challenging since I already had an idea of what I wanted and with whom. I stopped by the table of Company X just to say hi and network. This went well. I told them that I have been pursuing jobs in various departments within their company. Still, I made an effort to walk around and speak to other companies just to give myself options. I spoke to about five other companies and was asked to interview with Company A. We will see how it goes. All in all, it was exciting to see so many companies on campus eager to hire WPI students.

How I'm Preparing for the Career Fair

There is a Greek Alumni Resume Critique next Monday, Sept. 15th in the Odeum. I will attend and bring my resume. I also will have the CDC look at my resume once more, even though they have seen it before. A resume is constantly changing according to classes one is taking, experiences, and career objectives. I will then look at the list of companies who are attending and make a list of those who are attending. I have been doing some reserach on these companies: such as basic info about the company, about their products and services, and their opportunity locations. I made sure that I had an business casual outfit for both days of the Career Fair, as well as any interview days following it. I also made sure that my clothes were clean and freshly pressed with no wrinkles. The only thing left is to get excited, print plenty copies of my resume and go in with enthusiasm and confidence.

How I Spent My Summer

So I walked away from the Career Fair with two interviews in the next two days. I was so excited. My second interview with company YEY! went really well and they informed me about one week later that there was some interest. After a couple of e-mails and a phone interview I got the job. It felt incredible to have a summer job by October already. I moved to Coral Gables in Miami, FL the weekend before my first Monday at work with company YEY!. I found housing through roommates.com and bought a car upon my arrival. The job was fantastic. I was brand new to the industry and the company. It was non-stop learning from day 1 until the day I said goodbye. I was even sent to Panama; Fairfax, VA; and Houston, TX on the job. It was a fantastic experience in which I learned how to move somewhere by yourself (a skill I would need by graduation). I never thought I could have gotten a job that exciting with an experience as influential as the one I had this summer. :)