Shhh…this resource is so good, you might not want to give it away. Of course, your efforts would be in vain, since this exclusive website is free for all Princeton students, faculty, and staff. Nevertheless, there’s a certain element of mystery as you traverse Vault, the Gringotts of job and internship search engines. So when I stumbled on Vault at the bottom of Career Services’ website, I was intrigued. I clicked on the link, set up a password, and found myself in one of the job search’s best-kept secrets.
Here are some of the perks:
The Guides: Vault’s website contains an eye-watering 80+ career guides on industries, employers, international opportunities, interviews/resumes, and other career topics. I thought I’d never find information on careers in music writing, my rather narrow field of choice. Did they ever have what I was looking for! From the creative side to the business side, possible interview questions, the inside scoop (will I really be fetching coffee?), pay rates, and job descriptions in the field. Also, check out Vault’s Guide to Top Internships, co-written by senior education editor and Princeton alumna Carolyn Wise.
The Search Engines: You can search by company, industry, profession, or filtering through job or internship databases. I decided to search professions and typed in “lawyer.” Vault came back with a list of “uppers” and “downers” as well as personality “matches” and “misses.” Among the uppers were “high salaries” and “Large-firm perks such as firm retreats and free meals.” Sounds pretty nice. The downers told the other side: “long hours, high stress level, and high level of dissatisfaction.” Hmm…maybe I’ll keep looking.
Blog and Career Advice: From their Career Advice page to their blogs, Vault has information from every step of the way: the job search, on the job, career advancement, etc. The videos and blogs offer a nice, accessible alternative for students. Since signing up for Vault’s emails I now welcome the arrival of my weekly email with articles on topics like unpaid internships (very useful), cover letter mistakes (very useful), and office romance (not at all useful for me, but very interesting nonetheless!). I also read an article warning against using the exclamation point! …there I go again.
Other Inside Scoop: Do you want to what it’s like to work for a specific employer? Have you ever wondered how much you’ll make with your prospective job/company? Shhh…this is the secret part. Vault has a section all about Salaries and Reviews. I won’t tell you the reviews and rates that I looked up—check it out for yourself!