Category Archives: Rana Campbell ’13

Rana Campbell ’13, Major: Sociology. Lives in Mathey. Her favorite inspirational quote is: “Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.”- Danny Kaye

Seniors, what are your post-graduation plans?

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Wow, I can’t believe it. Three years ago, as a sopho­more, I began work­ing in Career Ser­vices as a Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Mar­ket­ing intern. Dur­ing this time, I learned so many new skills in the com­mu­ni­ca­tions arena. I know so much more about social media and social media mar­ket­ing as well as a lot of other facets of being a GREAT com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sional. I had the oppor­tu­nity to assist at many Career Ser­vices events where I got to con­nect with so many alumni and employ­ers over the years—and, of course, the Career Ser­vices staff. This is one of the things I will miss most about this job.

I’ve loved work­ing with each and every mem­ber of the Career Ser­vices team. Dur­ing my time in the office each week, I was able to talk to about life on and off-campus as well as get answers to my many career-related ques­tions. I urge any­one who has not taken the time to visit the office to meet the staff and make use of its many resources to do so ASAP. You are truly doing your­self a dis­ser­vice if you don’t!

For my last blog, I decided to hit cam­pus to talk to fel­low seniors about their post-graduation plans.  I wanted to know all the cool and excit­ing things my fel­low seniors will be pur­su­ing after they leave Prince­ton.  Some stu­dents are plan­ning to head off to full time employ­ment after grad­u­a­tion, while oth­ers are plan­ning to travel and do cool pro­grams such as Prince­ton In Asia. Not every senior knows what they are doing after grad­u­a­tion just yet and that’s totally fine. Some are still con­sid­er­ing their options and/or devel­op­ing a plan of action for their post-graduation job search. Oth­ers have decided to take the sum­mer off for some much needed R&R.

So what will I be doing next year? Great Ques­tion. I am pleased to announce that next year I will be a Put­tkam­mer Fel­low at the Vera Insti­tute of Jus­tice in New York City.  I will be work­ing with the Cen­ter on Sen­tenc­ing and Cor­rec­tions help­ing with the Path­ways from Prison to Post­sec­ondary Edu­ca­tion project as well as help­ing to develop a volunteer-based edu­ca­tion model that will be imple­mented in three dif­fer­ent U.S. states. I’ll also be dip­ping my feet into some cool social media and media rela­tions projects! I’m so excited for my next year at the Vera Insti­tute and hope to blog there, too.  I am also in the process of devel­op­ing my own brand management/social media con­sul­tant free­lance ser­vices com­pany. I’m hop­ing to take this pas­sion of my mine and turn it into some­thing bigger!

For those who don’t have a clear sense of what path you want to pur­sue just yet, my advice to you is not to worry. You’ll fig­ure it out.  For those who do know– good luck!  I hope you pur­sue your pas­sions and embark on a jour­ney that will yield much suc­cess for you in the future. We made it, you guys! We’ve finally reached what we have been work­ing so hard for the last four years… so do well on those finals and I’ll see you all at grad­u­a­tion!  To my read­ers, I want to thank you for fol­low­ing my blog. This is a not goodbye, but rather, see you later.

I’m only an email or a tweet away. If you want to stay in con­tact with me, feel free to con­nect with me on Linkedin or via email at . Also, make sure to follow me on Twitter (@rainshineluv).  I know the next year will be filled with many great opportunities. Thank you Career Services! Thank you Princeton! Thank you to everyone who has helped and guided me to where I am now.

~ On behalf of the entire Career Ser­vices’ staff, we wish Rana Camp­bell ’13 all of the very best! We will truly miss her in Career Services!

Question of the Week # 9: “How do I manage looking for a job and writing my thesis?”

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“How do I man­age look­ing for a job and writ­ing my the­sis?”  — Mary Adeo­gun ‘13

If you are a senior like me, you have a lot on your plate right now! Between classes, fin­ish­ing your the­sis, and stay­ing involved in extracur­ric­u­lars, it’s hard to find time for some­thing really impor­tant to most seniors… the JOB SEARCH. There’s a lot that you have to do and not a lot of time to actu­ally do it.  Though this time of the year can be espe­cially busy, it is impor­tant to try to keep a bal­ance and pri­or­i­tize. Your job search is sim­i­lar to any other endeavor in that your results will be directly pro­por­tion­ate to the amount of time and effort you expend. Don’t for­get to leave time each week for your job search tasks.  Here are some easy tips to man­age your time efficiently.

  1. Make your breaks worth­while. It’s not rea­son­able to think that you can write for 24 hours straight (and it’s not good on your eyes).  Typing activityWrite in one hour chunks and then­take a break. Trust me, you’ll be more pro­duc­tive if you set real­is­tic goals. Make your breaks some­thing that you can look for­ward to. Maybe one of your breaks can be look­ing up jobs using social media net­works. Cre­ate a daily sched­ule of breaks and make sure to include at least 2–3 (20-minute) blocks of time that you ded­i­cate to look­ing for jobs. If you want it to hap­pen, and you plan for it, it will!  Set alarms on your phone to remind you when these breaks will happen.
  2. Make an appoint­ment with a Career Coun­selor.   Arrange some time to get away from aca­d­e­mic work. Career coun­selors are here to help you. Maybe you need some­one to vent to about your job search wor­ries? Maybe you need some­one to help refine your job search strate­gies? Take this time to get com­pletely away from your the­sis for thirty min­utes. The Career Ser­vices office is pretty relax­ing (it’s def­i­nitely bet­ter than being stuck in your dungeon-like car­rel) and pro­vides a change of scenery for thesis-stressed minds. You will also feel good about mak­ing the time to do some­thing for your­self and focus­ing on life after Princeton.
  3. Set up Search Agents & Sub­scribe to Indus­try Newslet­ters.  You might be too busy to comb web­sites daily for the lat­est open­ings. Aggre­gat­ing con­tent is a great way to save time.  Make sure your Tiger­Tracks pro­file is up to date based on your cur­rent inter­ests (these may have evolved over the four years since your pro­file was cre­ated). You will receive emails as oppor­tu­ni­ties in your field of inter­est are posted. In addi­tion, you can usu­ally set up job search agents on com­pany sites or other job boards. You can set up how fre­quent you want alerts. Another use­ful tip is to sub­scribe to indus­try newslet­ters. As some­one who is inter­ested in media and com­mu­ni­ca­tions, I sub­scribe to the Medi­a­bistro daily newslet­ter.  I like to set aside some time each day to read through my emails and check out what’s hap­pen­ing in the indus­try. This is a great way to keep up-to-date and save time while doing so. Because you are so busy right now, let the infor­ma­tion come to you!
  4. Lis­ten to Career Talks Online While Writ­ing.  You might be the type of per­son who likes to lis­ten to music while writ­ing. While this is great for focus­ing, why not change around what’s com­ing into your sen­sory path­ways? The Inter­net is filled with career-focused webi­nars, career advice videos, and pro­fes­sional tes­ti­mo­ni­als that are avail­able for free. Instead of open­ing iTunes, try lis­ten­ing to an inspi­ra­tional career talk.  Not only will you be writ­ing your the­sis but you will also be gain­ing use­ful career infor­ma­tion and advice.bigstockphoto_Graduation__1766172
  5. Relax. One of the best things you can do dur­ing this time period is to just relax! You will be able to get every­thing done—from your the­sis to your job search. The lat­ter may take a lit­tle time, but just remem­ber to keep pos­i­tive through every­thing. Grad­u­a­tion is right around the corner!

Question of the Week # 8: “Why is it important to connect with alumni?”

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Through­out your time at Prince­ton, you will meet so many peo­ple who will have an impact on your future. One of the groups that can be extremely help­ful in the “career sphere,” in par­tic­u­lar, is alumni. Prince­ton alumni are great — they want to see and help other Prince­to­ni­ans excel in the world. They are also extremely well con­nected and want to help lever­age their net­works in order to give back to their beloved alma mater’s stu­dents. Through­out my four years at Prince­ton, I’ve reached out and stayed in touch with many alumni — and have seen pos­i­tive results through each interaction.

9708Tonight, Career Ser­vices is host­ing their annual “Alumni Con­nec­tions” student-alumni net­work­ing at Prospect House from 6–8 pm. Over 40 Prince­ton alumni from a host of indus­tries and fields will be in atten­dance. Come learn how their major influ­enced their post-Princeton choice and also get advice on how to pur­sue your own career inter­ests! RSVP today if you already haven’t. This is the largest student-alumni net­work­ing event of the year and you do not want to miss it! Tables are arranged by indus­try and each stu­dent will receive a book­let with bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion of the alumni participants.

Last year, I scoured the Alumni Career Net­work (ACN) and set up inter­views with alumni in my field of inter­est. (Of course, I blogged about this and you can read all about it here.) This is a search­able data­base of Prince­ton Alum who have vol­un­teered to pro­vide career-related advice to Prince­ton alumni and stu­dents. There are over 4800 vol­un­teers worldwide!

In addi­tion to the alumni vol­un­teers in the ACN, it is also impor­tant to main­tain your con­nec­tion to “soon-to-be alums,” or grad­u­at­ing seniors. Some of my clos­est alum contacts/friends are from groups on cam­pus. Since we were already friends (or acquain­tances) on cam­pus before they 9823grad­u­ated, I always make sure I get their phone num­ber or stay con­nected to them through Face­book, LinkedIn, and Twit­ter. I made an effort to check in with them every few months to see how they were doing. Another perk is that since these alums already know me in such a per­sonal capac­ity, they have been really influ­en­tial and help­ful through­out my time here. I feel very com­fort­able going to them to ask for both school and “real world” advice. They also are closer to my age so the Prince­ton expe­ri­ence (both highs and lows) is still pretty fresh for them.

Another impor­tant aspect of reach­ing out to alumni is the help they can give dur­ing the job and intern­ship search. Want to speak to some­one in a field you are inter­ested in? Want some gen­eral career advice? Need help con­nect­ing in a new city? Want real job search strate­gies from a Prince­ton­ian? Alumni can help with all of this! Career Ser­vices also offers so many other student-alumni engage­ment pro­grams you can check out: Princetern­ship, Princeton-in-Washington, the IMAGINE Speaker Series, and Alumni Panel Events based on Industries.

9907If you want some more advice on how you can con­nect with alumni, make an appoint­ment with a career coun­selor. A career coun­selor might be able to give you tar­geted sug­ges­tions based on your needs and interests.

Hope to see you all tonight at Alumni Connections!

Question of the Week # 7: What are some unexpected career paths for liberal arts majors?

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Ques­tion of the Week #7: What are some unex­pected career paths for lib­eral arts majors? – Emanuel Cas­taneda ‘16

As you may know, Emanuel, career paths are not always per­fectly lin­ear. For instance, you may not know where you will be career-wise five years down the road.  In From Bull­fight­ing to Finance, Car­men Bermudez gives a great por­trait of her career path and shows that where one starts out may not be nec­es­sar­ily where one ends up! With a lib­eral arts degree, the path to one’s “ulti­mate” career usu­ally involves many twists and turns. This is pri­mar­ily because lib­eral arts majors are extremely well rounded and suited for posi­tions in a vari­ety of indus­tries. Here at Prince­ton, lib­eral arts majors aren’t only well versed in their spe­cific major, but they have devel­oped ana­lyt­i­cal, writ­ing, prob­lem solv­ing, research, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills—all traits that are extremely valu­able in today’s job mar­ket! Don’t believe me? Check out this great Daily Finance arti­cle What Good Is a Lib­eral Arts Degree in the Job Mar­ket?.  Author Vanessa Richard­son out­lines some great tech­niques for lib­eral arts majors as they explore their career options. Here are some high­lights from her article:

  • Believe in your degree
  • Sharpen your skills
  • Mar­ket your skills
  • Give your skills a boost
  • Draft a port­fo­lio and cover let­ter that shows off your degree
  • Deter­mine whether you need more education

Another resource that can help you explore some “unex­pected career paths” is the Links by Indus­try page on the Career Ser­vices’ web­site.  Career Ser­vices’ posts links to a host of indus­tries that might not be typ­i­cal for lib­eral arts majors. Some that really caught my atten­tion were the fol­low­ing: TV, Film, Enter­tain­ment, Reli­gion, Sports-related, Man­u­fac­tur­ing, Fash­ion, and Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals & BioTech. The Career Ser­vices Annual Report is also a great place to learn about the post-graduation career plans of grad­u­at­ing Prince­ton seniors.  Stu­dents reported accept­ing posi­tions in fields such as Retail Trade, Health Care & Social Assis­tance, Infor­ma­tion, Edu­ca­tional Ser­vices, Con­struc­tion, Pub­lic Admin­is­tra­tion, and many more! Also included in the 2012 Sum­mer Expe­ri­ence Report that offers a look at the types of sum­mer oppor­tu­ni­ties Prince­ton stu­dents have pur­sued. Take a look at these pub­li­ca­tions to get a bet­ter feel for the types of indus­tries hir­ing Prince­ton stu­dents and graduates.

All career paths can in some ways be deemed “unex­pected.” Unless you have very solid­i­fied career goals such as going to med­ical school to become a physi­cian or law school to become a lawyer, there really is no set equa­tion that can pre­dict where you end up. My advice to you is to really use your lib­eral arts edu­ca­tion to become a well-rounded stu­dent and per­son. Take classes that both chal­lenge and inter­est you. Try to amass and refine your skills so that you can be mar­ketable in the job mar­ket later on. In “Strengthen Those Soft Skills” on the Savvy­In­tern site, author Dave Ellis points out that employ­ers are seek­ing can­di­dates with the soft skills gleaned through a lib­eral arts cur­ric­ula. Seek out oppor­tu­ni­ties such as extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, intern­ships, and even vol­un­teer work where you can fur­ther develop these skills, make con­nec­tions and turn inter­ests into pas­sions. Some­times the best career infor­ma­tion may come from out of the box think­ing or uncon­ven­tional expe­ri­ences. (For exam­ple, take a look at this great arti­cle about how one woman’s vol­un­teer expe­ri­ence turned into a career oppor­tu­nity).  Don’t limit your options—explore them while you are in school so you will plenty of future oppor­tu­ni­ties to choose from.

Make sure to set up an appoint­ment with a career coun­selor today to speak one-on-one to some­one who can help you get started explor­ing your inter­ests. There are also lots of pro­grams and resources for fresh­men such as you to get the ball rolling. Check out Career Ser­vices’ info­graphic “Fresh­men Year: 12 Steps to Begin Your Career Devel­op­ment,” for spe­cific steps you can take now. (In fact, you should con­sider apply­ing for a Princetern­ship as a great way for you to get an inside look at dif­fer­ent career paths and receive invalu­able advice from alumni. Appli­ca­tions are now live on Tiger­Tracks!)

Hope this helps, Emanuel.

Question of the Week #6: Is it too late to look for summer internships after exams?

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Is it too late to look for sum­mer intern­ships after exams?
-  Paul Riley  ‘15

Thanks, Paul! A lot of stu­dents have the same ques­tion on their minds—so, I think your ques­tion is very timely and important.

No, it is NOT too late to look for sum­mer intern­ships!  Although some of your friends have already secured sum­mer jobs, a lot of indus­tries and com­pa­nies are still actively recruit­ing stu­dents for sum­mer posi­tions.  With that being said, you still need to begin look­ing as soon as pos­si­ble! Though intern­ships can still be found, appli­ca­tion dead­lines vary. Don’t miss out on a great oppor­tu­nity because you didn’t know when the dead­line was! Here are my quick tips on how you can START your intern­ship search now.

  1. Make a list of your inter­ests. What do you like to do? Where do you want to work? Before you start look­ing, you want to have an idea of the type of oppor­tu­ni­ties you are look­ing for.  Also, remem­ber to keep your options open. Instead of look­ing for only paid intern­ships, also look at unpaid oppor­tu­ni­ties. Set on stay­ing in the U.S.? Why not research inter­na­tional intern­ships, too? Don’t box your­self in too early.
  2. Check out the Online Resources page on the Career Ser­vices’ web­site. This is a great one-stop por­tal to a list of indus­try search engines that can help your intern­ship search.  Of course, Tiger­Tracks and UCAN should be your first stop. Make sure to reg­is­ter for both and start scour­ing the sites look­ing for posi­tions that inter­est you. Try keep­ing track of each position’s dead­line and needed mate­ri­als. Some post­ings may require ref­er­ences, writ­ing sam­ples, or a link to a port­fo­lio of some sort. Make sure you know what needs to be sub­mit­ted and when!
  3. Ask around! Ask peo­ple you know about cur­rent oppor­tu­ni­ties they may have heard about. You never know who has infor­ma­tion about avail­able intern­ships.  Take the time to email friends, fam­ily mem­bers, for­mer employ­ers, pro­fes­sional con­tacts, alumni or even pro­fes­sors you know and ask them to keep you in mind if they hear of any poten­tial intern­ship opportunities.
  4. Fol­low and like the Career Ser­vices Face­book and Twit­ter pages. We are con­stantly post­ing about career events, advice, and oppor­tu­ni­ties specif­i­cally for Prince­ton stu­dents.  You’ll also be reminded about our upcom­ing Career Ser­vices events such as our Sum­mer Intern­ship Fair and Non­profit Fair, which will both take place on Feb. 15th from 11 am — 3 pm at Dil­lon Gym.
  5. Make an appoint­ment with a career coun­selor. Our career coun­selors are here to help you at what­ever point of the intern­ship search stage you are at. They can help you make a cus­tomized plan and search strat­egy. They can also review your resume, cover let­ter, or inter­view appli­ca­tions. Go to Career Ser­vices web­site or call us at 609–258-3325 to sched­ule an appoint­ment today.

 

Question of the Week #5: What are some ways I can get in contact with people whose careers I’m interested in?

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“What are some ways I can get in con­tact with peo­ple whose careers I’m inter­ested in?”
– Chengcheng Gui ‘14

Great ques­tion Chengcheng! I think it’s great that you are already think­ing about how to net­work and make con­nec­tions with peo­ple of inter­est in the pro­fes­sional world. As a junior, you are mak­ing the right strides towards devel­op­ing and build­ing your pro­fes­sional con­tacts. Here are my quick tips on how you can find and make last­ing con­nec­tions with those in careers that are of inter­est to you.

  1. Ask peo­ple you know to refer you.  One of the best start­ing points for any net­work­ing endeavor is by ask­ing peo­ple you know to con­nect you. Try ask­ing fam­ily mem­bers, close friends, or cowork­ers if they know any­one in the field or pro­fes­sion that might be will­ing to talk to you. Get­ting per­sonal refer­rals is always a ben­e­fit when mak­ing con­nec­tions. Be spe­cific about the kind of con­tacts you are look­ing for. You might be sur­prised to see how many peo­ple you are already con­nected to.
  2. Reach out to Prince­ton Alumni. Prince­ton alumni are always will­ing to help fel­low tigers! The Prince­ton Alumni Careers Net­work is  a great way to find con­tacts in careers that are of inter­est to you. Through Tiger­net, you can access the alumni direc­tory and find poten­tial con­nec­tions. Use the “cus­tom search” tool to search for employ­ment infor­ma­tion. Or, use the advanced search fea­tures in LinkedIn to iden­tify Prince­ton alumni work­ing at par­tic­u­lar organizations
  3. Try set­ting up infor­ma­tional inter­views at orga­ni­za­tions in your field of inter­est. Most pro­fes­sion­als love to talk about their career paths. If you don’t have a con­tact, look for one via search­ing by com­pany name in the advanced search sec­tion of LinkedIn. Or, visit com­pany web­sites or per­haps call com­pa­nies directly to ask for the con­tact infor­ma­tion of some­one in the role or depart­ment you might be inter­ested in. Explain that you are a col­lege stu­dent who is look­ing to find out more about career paths in the field and that you would like to sched­ule an infor­ma­tional inter­view.  Be flex­i­ble, accom­mo­dat­ing, and most of all, respect­ful of the individual’s time. Inter­views can be held in per­son, on the phone, or via e-mail or Skype! Pre­pare a list of ques­tions in advance. Don’t try to sell your­self or ask for a job dur­ing this meet­ing. Instead, focus on learn­ing more about the indi­vid­ual and their field. After­wards, be sure to send a thank you note and men­tion one or two spe­cific pieces of advice you were given and how you will act upon those in the imme­di­ate future. One tip for mak­ing sure the rela­tion­ship moves for­ward is to men­tion that you will be sure to keep in touch regard­ing your progress.
  4. Fol­low and Engage with pro­fes­sion­als on social media. Social media is a great way to con­nect with peo­ple that you want to get to know. For exam­ple, you might want to fol­low indus­try lead­ers and pro­fes­sion­als on Twit­ter and engage with them, too. You’ll be sur­prised by what hap­pens. Let’s say they post a really great arti­cle. I rec­om­mend reply­ing to his/her tweet with a per­sonal response.  You might say “Thanks for shar­ing this. As some­one who is really inter­ested in this field it was good to learn some­thing new!” Or, you might as a spe­cific follow-up ques­tion such as “What did you think about _______(be spe­cific if you can)?” is a great con­ver­sa­tion starter.  Finally, why not men­tion this per­son in your own per­sonal tweet. Once, on Twit­ter, I men­tioned a par­tic­u­lar com­pany in a tweet and the CEO responded to me ask­ing to know more about what I had learned about the com­pany. I fol­lowed him and thanked him for his response. He ended up fol­low­ing me back! Other great sites to uti­lize are Face­book and Linkedin! Great net­work­ing con­tacts are avail­able on social media so make sure you are uti­liz­ing it to your advan­tage. Check out this advice about using social media to make pro­fes­sional connections.
  5. Attend career fairs and employer pre­sen­ta­tions. Career fairs are great ways to con­nect with recruiters, hir­ing man­agers, and already-established pro­fes­sion­als in dif­fer­ent indus­tries. When brows­ing booths, make sure to get the con­tact infor­ma­tion from recruiters and make sure to reach out to them after the fair! Employer pre­sen­ta­tions and infor­ma­tion ses­sions are also great ways to make con­nec­tions. Not only do you get to learn more about an orga­ni­za­tion of inter­est, but you get to per­son­ally meet those who work there. Again, always do your home­work in advance and come pre­pared with questions!
  6. Join pro­fes­sional orga­ni­za­tions.  Most careers and indus­tries have one, so make sure to do your research and try join­ing one today. Many of them offer men­tor­ing pro­grams, con­fer­ences, job boards, and other resources for their mem­bers. Plus, some even have spe­cial mem­ber­ship rates for stu­dents. For a list by indus­try, visit the “online resources” page.

Chengcheng, I hope this infor­ma­tion was use­ful to you. There are so many ways that you can con­nect with indi­vid­u­als in careers that inter­est you. It’s all about keep­ing your options open, being cre­ative, and doing the nec­es­sary leg­work that is required to start build­ing those rela­tion­ships. For more advice, check out the Net­work­ing sec­tion in Career Ser­vices’ Career Plan­ning Guide!

Question of the Week #4: I have interviews coming up. What’s the best way for me to prepare?

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“I have inter­views com­ing up. What’s the best way for me to pre­pare?“
- Amina Yamusah ‘13

Great ques­tion, Amina! I am so glad that you asked this ques­tion.  Prepar­ing for inter­views is an absolute must!  You never want to go into an inter­view unpre­pared. Inter­view­ers will pick up on this and will cer­tainly not be impressed.  Even the most qual­i­fied job appli­cants can be turned down because of their lack of pre­pared­ness for what the inter­view will entail. Here are some impor­tant steps that you can take so that you will be ade­quately pre­pared and feel con­fi­dent on the day of your interview!

Research the orga­ni­za­tion.  You should walk into an inter­view with some basic knowl­edge of what the orga­ni­za­tion does, how well it is doing, and its stand­ing within the indus­try. Look for inter­est­ing facts about the com­pany as well cur­rent news, recent press releases, and stock trends.  It will be ben­e­fi­cial for you to find out about the company’s newest prod­ucts, projects or ser­vices. I also rec­om­mend con­nect­ing with the com­pany via Face­book and Twit­ter. This is an easy way to find out how the orga­ni­za­tion is engag­ing with the pub­lic. After you do this, iden­tify two key facts you can bring up dur­ing the inter­view and at least two ques­tions you have for the com­pany. Make sure to write them down on a piece of paper that you can bring into the inter­view. Don’t try to mem­o­rize them (you may be ner­vous and for­get all the cool stuff you learned dur­ing your research).  Finally, you should know why you want to work for the orga­ni­za­tion you are inter­view­ing for. Many inter­views often start with the ques­tion “Why do you want to work here?” Take some time to syn­the­size all that you have learned about the com­pany. What inter­ests you the most? Cre­ate a two– liner that encap­su­lates how your skills, tal­ents, and expe­ri­ence will ulti­mately serve as a future asset to the organization. 

Be pre­pared to talk about your­self.  Employ­ers want to know about you–as a per­son! Take a few moments to jot down infor­ma­tion about your edu­ca­tion, work expe­ri­ence, and key strengths that really make you unique.  When talk­ing about your edu­ca­tion, high­light some of your aca­d­e­mic expe­ri­ences, men­tion mem­ber­ships, extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, and lead­er­ship roles you might have held. Talk about a topic that you are pas­sion­ate about. Show how your expe­ri­ence thus far has helped you grow this pas­sion.  Remem­ber to let your per­son­al­ity shine through!

Know how you fit in.  Employ­ers are look­ing for the best fit for their orga­ni­za­tions. Some of the ways that you can find out how your per­sonal qual­i­ties might align with that of the com­pany you are inter­view­ing for is by eval­u­at­ing the employer’s mis­sion state­ment.  Think of per­sonal qual­i­ties in your­self that match their com­pany val­ues. Make a list of three per­son­al­ity traits that you will be sure to high­light in the inter­view. Often­times, inter­view­ers ask inter­vie­wees how they will be an asset to the orga­ni­za­tion. If you already have a list, you’ll be one step ahead.

Match skills with job descrip­tion. Make sure to review the job descrip­tion for the posi­tion you are apply­ing for before you inter­view. Reflect on the desired knowl­edge, skills, and abil­i­ties that the employer is look­ing for you. Comb your resume and past expe­ri­ence for exam­ples that show how you are qual­i­fied for the posi­tion. An easy way to do this is by cre­at­ing a list of employer require­ments, fol­lowed by a “prove– it” state­ment that high­lights your unique sell­ing points for each employer require­ment. Make sure these exam­ples are spe­cific. Also, you might want to pre­pare sto­ries that show­case how you han­dled a unique sit­u­a­tion, prob­lem, or objec­tive. Be sure to include the actions you took to resolve this prob­lem and the results accom­plished. Accom­plish­ments should be quan­ti­fied when­ever pos­si­ble. Also, remem­ber to note any spe­cial recog­ni­tion or award you received because of your work!

Set up a mock inter­view.  The career coun­selors at Career Ser­vices are a great resource for you to prac­tice all of the above.  Our coun­selors will meet with you and con­duct a “mock” inter­view. After­wards, they will give you feed­back and advice on what steps you can take to sharpen your inter­view skills. Make sure you set up an appoint­ment with one of our coun­selors, if you haven’t already.

I hope you find this infor­ma­tion use­ful, Amina. Good luck with your upcom­ing interviews!

(The infor­ma­tion above con­tains excerpts from the Pre-Interview Work­sheet writ­ten by Eva Kubu.)

Question of the Week #3: How can I find an internship over the summer as a sophomore?

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“How can I find an intern­ship over the sum­mer as a sopho­more?“
– Nonny Okwe­l­ogu ‘15

Great ques­tion, Nonny! First of all, I want to let you know that it is not too late to find a sum­mer intern­ship as a sopho­more! Sopho­more year is an inter­est­ing time to be a stu­dent. This is the year when you are nar­row­ing down your major choices and find­ing out what you really want to focus on dur­ing your future here at Prince­ton. Don’t limit your­self, per se, but take this year to really explore the range of oppor­tu­ni­ties open to you as a sopho­more. You may find that many of your junior friends have already secured sum­mer intern­ships or are well on the path to secur­ing one. Don’t let that dis­cour­age you. Career Ser­vices has many resources that will help you find an intern­ship that fits you. Here are some resources here at Career Resources that you can uti­lize in your intern­ship search!

  • Attend the Sum­mer Intern­ship Fair/Nonprofit Fair on Feb­ru­ary 15, 2013, from 1–3 pm in the Frist Mul­ti­pur­pose room. There will be a host of com­pa­nies in atten­dance that are look­ing for eager future interns such as your­self. This will be a great time to net­work with pro­fes­sion­als and learn about oppor­tu­ni­ties that are avail­able to you. Not sure how to pre­pare for the fair? Click here for a link to our web­site that can help you pre­pare for the fair!
  • Cre­ate a pro­file on Tiger­Tracks and start search­ing for intern­ships there! Tiger­Tracks is Princeton’s online sys­tem with cur­rent post­ings of intern­ships, fel­low­ships, and full-time jobs. Alumni and employ­ers who are seek­ing can­di­dates from Prince­ton are encour­aged to post here.  In addi­tion to search­ing for post­ings, you can research employ­ers, upload and store appli­ca­tion doc­u­ments, apply for posi­tions, and sign up for on cam­pus inter­views.  I encour­age you to make the most of this tool!
  • Sign up for an account on UCAN, a shared online sys­tem just for intern­ships! Its post­ings are geo­graph­i­cally diverse and include oppor­tu­ni­ties that you may not be able to find on Tiger­Tracks. As some­one seek­ing an intern­ship, it is in your best inter­est to sign up today and start check­ing out the intern­ships being posted.
  • Check out the Find­ing an Intern­ship web­page on the Career Ser­vices’ web­site. This page lists all the steps that you can take to really pre­pare for find­ing an intern­ship. Some of the tips include:
    -  Iden­ti­fy­ing intern­ship pro­grams in a vari­ety of indus­tries
    -  Prepar­ing a cover let­ter and resume
    -  Talk­ing directly with employ­ers
    -  Reach­ing out to and con­nect­ing with alumni…. and much more!
  • Check out the resources by indus­try page of our web­site for spe­cific links within your area of inter­est.  There are dozens of indus­tries listed and hun­dreds of help­ful resources.
  • One of the most crit­i­cal things that you should do is make an appoint­ment with a career coun­selor as soon as pos­si­ble. They can help you plan an intern­ship search strat­egy that is spe­cific to your needs. If you have a spe­cific area of inter­est, try meet­ing with a career coun­selor who spe­cial­izes in that area. For exam­ple, Abbey Racelis is our arts and non­profit coun­selor, and can help you find out about oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able in these fields. Make sure you sched­ule an appoint­ment online or call our office dur­ing nor­mal busi­ness hours at 609–258-3325. Our coun­selors are here to help you no mat­ter what step of the process you are in.

Nonny, I hope you found this infor­ma­tion to be very use­ful. I wish you the best find­ing an intern­ship! I know you can do it!

Question of the Week # 2: After seniors graduate, what kind of access do they have to Career Services’ resources?

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“Once seniors grad­u­ate, how much access do we get to Career Ser­vices’ resources?”
- Diana Li ‘12

Great ques­tion, Diana! Have no fear, Career Ser­vices will still be here for you once you grad­u­ate. Career Ser­vices is here to help you as a new alum and even when you become an expe­ri­enced pro­fes­sional in the process of redefin­ing or chang­ing your career. In this blog post, I’ll iden­tify the key Career Ser­vices resources that will be avail­able to you as a new alum once you grad­u­ate in 2013.

  1. Career Ser­vices Appoint­ments.  You will still be able to make Career Ser­vices appoint­ments to meet with career coun­selors. You can either have an appoint­ment in per­son or make an appoint­ment to have a phone or Skype con­ver­sa­tion with a coun­selor. Coun­selors are able to help you at what­ever stage of your career.
  2. Another great resource that is still avail­able to alum is our great Pre– Law Advis­ing.  Our prelaw advi­sor is avail­able to help you with all your law school ques­tions and needs. You can make an appoint­ment to speak by phone or in the office.
  3. Access to Tiger Tracks Alumni Por­tal.  As an alum, you still have access to Tiger Tracks, our online job-posting portal–however, you will now have access to the “alumni por­tal.” In fair­ness to each grad­u­at­ing class, the stu­dent por­tal is avail­able only while you are an active stu­dent. This is why it is impor­tant to take advan­tage of the all of Career Ser­vices’ resources now, while you are still in school. After grad­u­a­tion, you will be allowed to access job post­ings that have been des­ig­nated for alumni.
  4. Alumni Careers Net­work.  All Prince­ton alum have access to the Alumni Careers Net­work. This is a great Inter­net data­base of alumni who vol­un­teered to offer career advice for stu­dents and fel­low alumni. It is actu­ally one of the most pop­u­lar resources used by stu­dents and alumni. There are over 4,600 alumni vol­un­teers world­wide. In an email intro­duc­tion, you should men­tion that you found their name on the ACN and ask if they would be avail­able to answer a few ques­tions you had about their indus­try, orga­ni­za­tion or role. Be sure to have spe­cific ques­tions and to thank them in advance for their time and consideration.
  5. Cre­den­tials Files. Career Ser­vices offers a file stor­ing ser­vice for your let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion and can send them out upon your request. This ser­vice is espe­cially con­ve­nient for those apply­ing to sev­eral schools with let­ters from mul­ti­ple rec­om­menders, or for those stu­dents and alumni who intend to apply in future years. Stu­dents and alumni who are inter­ested in apply­ing to any kind of grad­u­ate or pro­fes­sional school, as well as fel­low­ships, schol­ar­ships, and spe­cial nom­i­nated intern­ships should con­sider using this ser­vice. Please note,  The Cre­den­tials File Ser­vice is only for let­ters for grad­u­ate and pro­fes­sional schools—not employ­ers. Your file will be main­tained free of charge while you are a stu­dent at the Uni­ver­sity and for one year after graduation.
  6. Web­site. One of the great­est resources Career Ser­vices pro­vides is its fab­u­lous website—chuck full of help­ful advice and resources! Log on to  www.princeton.edu/career and explore the site. There is so much career– related advice and resources directly on the web­site that can help you answer any career ques­tion you have. You can access this site from any­where, which is why it is so great. In par­tic­u­lar, you should browse the career resources under “links by industry.”
  7. Career Ser­vices Events.  If you are ever in the Prince­ton area, you are always wel­come to come to any Career Ser­vices event or panel, includ­ing our annual career fairs.
  8. Alumni Part­ner­ing. One of the great­est things about being a Prince­ton alum is the oppor­tu­nity to give back to the Prince­ton com­mu­nity. Here are the ways that you can be involved with Career Ser­vices post grad­u­a­tion. Click here for more detailed information.
  • Join the Alumni Careers Net­work to vol­un­teer to help stu­dents and alumni with career advice and net­work­ing opportunities
  • Host a Princetern­ship. Want to take a Tiger under your pro­fes­sional wing? Princetern­ships are a great way to part­ner with cur­rent stu­dents and help them fig­ure out what career is right for them.
  • Speak on Career Pan­els & Attend Net­work­ing Recep­tions. We actively seek alum to come back to cam­pus and speak at our Career Ser­vices pan­els and net­work­ing events. Don’t for­get about us when you graduate!

Diana, I hope I have answered your ques­tion. As a fel­low senior, I think a lot of stu­dents might be won­der­ing what hap­pens after grad­u­a­tion. I would encour­age you (and all seniors) to set up an appoint­ment with a career coun­selor asap to review your job search strat­egy and make sure you are on track before we enter our final semes­ter here at Prince­ton (if you haven’t already done so!).