Next step? background check and paperwork!!!

Ohh mannn... so as if tax reason wasnt enough, I'm in the middle of pre-employment paperwork. I released all this info about me so they could perform a background check on me. One day, my boss comes up to me, and tells me that she had a pretty tough time having a conversation with my "background checker"... they were convinced I didnt have a job right now. eeek... next week I need to go get a drug test... good times... who knows what picking payment plans and benefits will be like... oohhh maannn... more to come on this!

do I like my major????

so now that I'm leaving WPI pretty soon, I realize that I spent a lot of time trying to decide a.) what school I would attend for my undergrad... b.) what i wanted to major in ... and c.) what to do with that.... those are all legitimate questions.... I came in as Undecided and didnt really know much about chemical engineering or engineering in general... all i knew is that i was good at math and liked both physics and chem.... still i did some reading and decided that i would do chem eng.... i took the sophomore chem eng series and enjoyed it... still i didnt really know what i could do with it... i attempted to meet with the management department to create some sort of management enginering with a concentration ion chem eng kind of major... but it seemed a little complicated and decided that i might not have the time to crerate this... instead i did a management major.... I took my minor courses and loved them... i still enjoyed chem eng and the background i was getting but realized that I personally didnt want to work in a plant specifically... i wanted to work with people and bigger projects... I am now going into project management as my entry position in a company that thought my major was a good background but still relating to my minor.... the great thing is that WPI is so flexible and the curriculum is so useful that you can go into mostly any field with whatever background you have as long as you pin point what type of working environment you would like...

Interviewing! UYYYY

Last year I had two on campus interviews after the Fall Career Fair. I did not do any interview practices. I walked into my first interview which was a CATASTROPHE!!!! Some of the things that happened: I was asked to talk about my organization skills. I mentioned that I'm very organized and I love post-its. The interviewer says: "did you know that studies say that people who use post-it notes are very unorganized?!".... oh my god!!!!! By that moment, I could have literally walked myself out of the room and nothing would have been different. That was pretty bad. Ironically right after that, I had an interview with another company which I did end up being hired by. Now, I read about companies, the departments, the locations, and theri products/services. I am ready with questions, pick my outfit days in advance and make sure it's cleaned and pressed. I had a WPI portfolio ready with extra copies of my resume just in case. I've had about 5 interviews this year, and with every single one I have learned something new and useful for my next one. Always see an interview as an option but also as practice for the many to come in the future as well. It definitely is a learning experience. For more info on how to prepare for an interview and about interviews themselves go here: http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/CDC/interviewing.html

Job Finder Week! + Career Fair

So last week the CDC was in the Campus Center "strutting their stuff". We had a movie with interviews of students talking about how they chose their majorsand other students talk about how their job search process was going. There were also pictures of the Fall Career Fair. The main event was the wheel that students spun if they registered for a JobFinder account (reigster here if you don't have one: https://www.wpi.edu/weblogin/index.cgi). We gave away candy, CDC resources, CDC stress stars and t-shirts, and 24 HOUR RESUME CRITIQUES! Pretty exciting especially right before the career fair. All in all, it was a fun week! This week was the Career Fair, and we videotaped employers talking about how students should prepare for career fairs as well as what kind of info they would like to hear from students when they are approached during a career fair. These will be published soon and added to the facebook page. Join here if you're not a fan yet: become a fan!!!!

Career fair anyone?

So this Wednesday, Feb. 4th is the internship career fair and Thursday, Feb. 5th is the internships, full time, and coop career fair. Looking back and thinking about what I've done correctly AND INCORRECTLY at career fairs is relatively amusing but also useful. I didn't go to a career fair either my First Year or Sophomore year. This was MY FIRST MISTAKE! I should have gone even though I didn't really want a job in the U.S. I should have gone, or at least volunteered to help the CDC at the Career Fair, just to get a sense of what it looks like, how people dress, where I would need to go, and what employers do and expect. My first career fair was my junior year. I was really hot and I realized my hands were kinda gross. PUT SOME BABY POWDER ON! I also realized that the last thing I wanted to do was think about my outfit during "impressing" time. Make sure to pick your outfit at least a couple days in advance and have it clean and pressed before the day of the career fair. Have updated copies of your resume ready in a professional looking binder (I personally like black). This resume should have been read by the CDC, a roommate, youself (many times), and maybe even an employer. Attend every resume critique possible. A resume can never be too perfect. Actually, funny story about that: well now that I think of it, let's leave that for another moment. Continuing with Career Fairs: make sure to practice your small "talk" about you (your year, your major, what type of position you are looking for, maybe a short professional background, and why you are interested in the company you have approached. This obviously needs some preparation, so go online to www.wpi.edu/+cdc and take a look at the companies that are coming to the career fair each day and do some research. Read about their purpose, their products/services, and locations so oyu can ask educated questions and bring up relative details about yourself that might make you stand out. The purpose of all this is to get you an interview where you can actually shine individually. YOU NEED TO APPROACH THE EMPLOYERS WITH CONFIDENCE AND ENTHUSIASM, becuase if you don't believe that you're great for the job, how will they? They're here recruiting for a reason, they know you have the tools, just research how to show them!!! For more info go to this AWESOME website on how to prepare for a career fair: http://www.programminginterview.com
Get out there!!!