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!!!

Life After Colllege Speaker

So yesterday the CDC helped to bring Andy Masters to campus, a speaker from Ft. Lauderdale. It was called Life after College. He spoke about reasons to be inspired to be the best you can be. He mentioned attempting to get that perfect job that you have always dreamed of. About how to get the resources to start your own company if you wished. About not jsut accepting your future but planning it and executing it at the best of your ability. Some of the things that he mentioned that stodd out to me was concepts about the "hidden market". This is the theory that explains that 90% of people are just blindly applying online to 10% of the jobs out there. The other 90% of jobs are not marketed because companies don't like to market. He urged us to be part of the 10% of people who use their contacts to network and find your dream job. He mentioned that an article described that hte average person knows 250 people. So each of those 250 peopke that you know, knows on average 250 people. So each of us potentially has access to at least 62,500 people on average between the people that you know and the people that they know. He suggested that we treat every relationship as a potential networking favor that we might receive in the future. It was interesting to hear this, considering that I got my job through a friend by just sending her my resume hoping she had anything in her department for me. A position hadn't been posted online but there seemed to be a need. Finally, Andy Masters suggested that when we were talking to people and especially interviews we always asked more and more questions. All in all, it was a good speaker to listen to. He was very motivational, especially to underclassmen I find.

winter break continued...

so other than the lots of sleeping and catching up with family that I did over break... the most productive thing I did was go to an interview... after lunch during the interview I met up with Human Resources which went over the potential benefits of the company. Then I had "meet and greet time" with new hires. I asked them questions about their responsabilities and transitions to the job and city itself. It was very informativre and fun as well. My last interview was a little weirder and the person wasnt as talkative as the other interviewers. Eventually he asked me if I had any questions and I asked a couple of specific questions about the information i hasd received throughout the day. Finally he asked if I had any OTHER questions. So naturally I asked him what process should I follow, and he asked what I meant. I asked if I should expect a call or e-mail at some point or if I should call. He asked "what for?". I was extremely confused. "To see if the job is available and suitable for me?" And he responded "you what a job here? ohhh. why?" it wasnt until this point that I realized that he was humoring me. So I answered why and how I thought it was a good fit for my skills and personality. And he said they agreed and handed me an offer. Interesting to see all this happen. I was so frustrated last term with all the interviews that didn't end up working out. I'm glad I didn't give up and just kept interviewing. It finally came!

interview #4!

well I went to Houston on Jan. 8th for my interview with Company X... I went to dinner with two new hires and my hostess (the WPI grad of 08). I asked questions about their current responsabilities, their transitions to Houston and the company, and their training. It was actually a lot of fun. I had breakfast with my hostess on the day of my interview. I had 4 (45 minute) interviews before lunch. My first one was with a WPI grad of '76. The interviews were very conversation based. It was more an exchange of information between their experiences with the company and this department in particular and my experiences and projects to see if it was a good match. Throughout the four interviews I asked questions about the different departments within the company that they were describing and the differences on daily tasks etc. I also asked about the current economy crisis and its effect on the work this department did. I also asked about the training offered, how long it would be, and what it consisted of. Throughout the day, different individuals gave me information about the living situation in Houston, exciting things to do and visit, and involvement in the company such as intercompany leagues (including kickball and beach volleyball) and philanthropic events hosted by United Way. This all got me very excited about the company and this department specifically. More to come on this... :)