Posted by scdc on May 16, 2012 under JOB SEARCH | 
The world of search firms and headhunters can seem extremely mysterious. In certain fields (e.g., finance, law) they can be critical to gaining access to elusive positions at elite firms especially as you mature in your career. Here are some key issues to keep in mind when trying to navigate the sea of search firms:
- Ask around. Finding a great headhunter really makes the difference when you are searching for niche positions. Talk to the people around you in those kinds of coveted roles and ask them if they have ever used a headhunter or can recommend one. The best way to evaluate a headhunter is by their placements. It will show you who their relationships tend to be with and who they place.
- Know yourself. Be able to clearly articulate and sell who you are professionally (special skills, accomplishments, value that you can add) and what you are looking for and where (i.e., a general profile–not a specific company). A headhunter is NOT a career counselor. They are not going to take time to figure out where you are a fit. You need to be able to present that to them. Remember when they meet you they are thinking about where you might be a fit in what they have available and how you’ll present yourself to their client. So, don’t get too personal or comfortable even if they are — be congenial, but keep it professional.
- Look for specialized firms. Don’t go with a general placement firm. You want a firm that has significant relationships with people in your field of interest.
- Watch out for scams. Never pay for services or tests. The employer typically compensates the firm. You are NOT to do that.
- You can have more than one. You can use more than one headhunter, but don’t spread yourself too thin. You want to make sure you have enough time to attend interviews and respond to inquiries.
- Keep the relationship going. Typically headhunters that have successfully placed you or who you have a good relationship with will continue to contact you throughout the years. Maintain the contact as you never know when you will be looking again.
- Handle all interviews with decorum. These are the relationships that have been developed with the headhunter. If you act inappropriately, it’s likely to get back to them and that most likely will be the end of your relationship with the headhunter. On the other side of that, if someone acts inappropriately with you make sure that you immediately report the incident to the headhunter.
- Keep in contact with your headhunter. While in your search, you may hit a lull and not hear from them. Reach out at that point and make a meeting to discuss what’s going on. Don’t stalk them either. No one like that. It reeks of desperation.
Hopefully, that will get you started. Check out the great article in CFO Magazine for more tips on working with search firms and headhunters.
Posted by scdc on May 9, 2012 under GENERAL, JOB SEARCH |
If you are getting the sense that you may get a pink slip soon, here are some things to start doing immediately:
- Make a financial plan. Consider the realities of what will happen. Will you have enough money to support your lifestyle? How much emergency savings do you have? How long will it last? Will you need to consider applying for unemployment benefits? When you figure out what you will need when you don’t have this check coming in every week, then create a plan about how to support yourself during a period of unemployment. Most financial experts suggest not to raid your retirement account to support yourself during these periods.
- Start your search at least part-time. Dedicate at least 15 hours a week to do the necessary job search tasks to obtain a new position. Make sure that you are doing these tasks outside of your designated work time. You don’t want to give your employer cause to fire you — this can effect you ability to get unemployment if you need it.
- Make sure that you are giving everything to your current job. If you are being “excessed” due to funds, you want to be able to leave with a good reference in hand and perhaps if you can show your value, you may be kept.
- Get to Networking Events. Start making networking part of your social activities.
- Keep a Positive Attitude. As a much as possible, try to see this as an opportunity to take inventory and consider better options for your career. In addition, you are more likely to be helped and support in your transition if you have a positive attitude. You are likely to have negative feelings — find a career counselor to share those thoughts with and help you process the potential loss of your job.
Posted by scdc on May 4, 2012 under GENERAL |
Given that we are at the end of the semester and finals time is upon us. We thought that we would give you a career-related final exam.
Here we go!
CAREER FINAL EXAM
1. Have you updated your resume with your Spring internship on it?
2. Have you asked for a reference letter from your current supervisor?
3. Does your LinkedIn account have at least 50 contacts that you personally know?
4. Can you are articulate what your career plans are if someone asks?
5. Do you have a sense of what is missing on your resume and how to fill it with experiences from your next internship or job?
6. Are you enjoying and excelling at your internships and courses? Do you feel like your career choice is a fit for you?
7. Are you participating in extracurricular activities that are rounding out your academic and internship experiences?
8. Do you feel like you have a mentor?
9. Will you update your STARRSearch account after you receive your grades for the semester?
10. If you have gotten a job or internship, have you stopped by the SCDC to tell us so that we can celebrate your accomplishment?
ANSWERS:
1. Yes. Toward the end of your internship, make sure that you have updated it with your current internship on it. It’s also a great time to ask your supervisor for feedback on your resume if you have a good relationship with him or her.
2. Yes. Even if you don’t need the reference right now, it’s good to have it on hand. It is especially useful when you may need him or her to provide a reference a few months or years from now. You can simply send them a copy of the reference letter to refresh his/her memory.
3. Yes. LinkedIn is a key way to manage your contacts. You need to have a substantial amount of meaningful contacts to really make it work for you so add fellow interns, supervisors, classmates, individuals that you meet at networking events.
4. Yes. You should be able to tell someone exactly what your career plans are if they ask because this is the only way a person can consider ways to help you. If you don’t know, make an appointment with a career counselor ASAP.
5. Yes. You should have a clear idea of the skills and experiences that are needed to get you to where you want to be in the future and should know what’s missing and what your plan is to fill it. If this sounds like a foreign concept to you, make an appointment to see a career counselor to discuss this issue.
6. Yes. If this is not the case, don’t just continue thinking it will get better. Discuss this with someone — a mentor, supervisor, career counselor. You don’t want to feel this way for the next 10, 20 years.
7. Yes. Having a full college experience is necessary to succeed and be employable after graduation. This means good grades, solid and relevant internships and leadership experiences. Being a significant part of your college community speaks to the way you will be at your company as a employee.
8. Yes. A mentor is a critical to help smooth out the pathway for your success. There are many programs at Baruch that make this easier (check our website for some of those programs), but you can also build a relationship with a supervisor that can eventually become a mentor/mentee experience.
9. Yes. Updating your STARRSearch is important to getting access to relevant opportunities. If you don’t do this, you’ll never know what you are missing.
10. Yes. We love to celebrate your achievements!
SCORING:
5 or Less – You have gotten started, but lets get you a little further along. See a career counselor immediately and get a partner to help you get on track.
6 to 7 – You are on the right career track and on your way to success. Work on the missing items and it’ll be smooth sailing.
8 to 10 – Excellent job! You are really making your career a priority.
Posted by scdc on April 24, 2012 under GENERAL, JOB SEARCH |
It sometimes seems as if even before the ink is dry on your college acceptance letter, people start to ask ‘what you are going to do after you graduate.’ While the question can raise anxiety no matter when it is asked, especially if you are not clear about your plan, it can get very intense as you near graduation. However, as I often note in my posts, the intensity of feelings that are evoked can be mitigated if you are prepared. Here are some ways to address the question that may make you feel better.
- Give a general answer (e.g., finance) and then divert the follow-up questions by asking him or her a question about his/her own career. If you have a sense of a direction, but no clear job title–you may want to offer the field and then try to stop further questioning by asking them about themselves.
- Don’t give a direct response, but instead ask them how they came to choose their own career. As you can see from these first two suggestions, many people like to talk about themselves and this is often a way to get the heat off of you and to hear about someone else’s process, which can be helpful to your own decision-making.
- Talk about an interesting internship, volunteer or club experience. It doesn’t necessarily give a direct answer, but does show that you do have interests and are not just going through the motions.
- If you are interested in graduate school, share that. Though usually if you are planning a graduate school, you do have a pretty clear plan.
Try to remember that most people, who ask this question are genuinely interested and are not trying to make you feel insecure or anxious although that may be the result. Sometimes, your family and friends are anxious or concerned for you and are looking for you to quell their own anxiety with a plan. However, if you have those anxious feelings, use them to get support and find potential paths for you. Don’t run away and hide through avoidance. See a career counselor as soon as you can to help guide you through the process. It’s much easier with a partner invested in finding a career that will be a fit for the whole you.
Posted by scdc on April 13, 2012 under CAREER FAIRS, JOB SEARCH |
Two big fairs are coming up for Baruch students, the Undergraduate Spring Career Day and the CUNY Big Apple Job and Internship Fair. If you haven’t started preparing yet, now is the time to get to it. Here are the resources that you should be tapped in to so that you can make the most of these upcoming opportunities.
- Get connected. Follow the hashtag #cunyjobfair for tweets on the Big Apple Fair and follow @BaruchSCDC for the Spring Career Day. Join the SCDC Facebook group.
- Get your materials reviewed. At the SCDC, you can have them reviewed by a counselor by making an appointment, by attending walk-in hours from 3-5 Tu-Th, or Resume Rush on April 17th. Do it early in case it requires it more work than you think.
- Attend prep workshops. See StarrSearch for the upcoming workshops to prepare for the Fair. Review the Career Fair video for student insider tips.
- Read through JobMaven posts. Search through the Career Fair category.
Do your homework and prepare for the fairs so that you can make the most of these useful opportunities. It takes a skilled job seeker, who uses his or her resources, to convert an opportunity into an actual job.
Posted by scdc on April 5, 2012 under RESUMES |
Now that you have an exhaustive list of your job responsibilities and have prioritized them by the value added to an organization, you have the task of crafting bullet points that stand out to your next employer. This is usually the hardest task and the one people dread the most.
To develop eye-catching statements about your achievements, responsibilities and value added, here are some hints to elevate the language of your resume.
- Review an established colleague’s resume. It can be a student who is a year or two ahead of you or a supervisor or mentor. It will help you to target key jargon to highlight and help you to establish what needs to be prioritized on your resume.
- Have a grasp of power verbs. You should be using a wealth of vocabulary and not reusing words. The power verbs should also represent the key skill sets in your field. For example, if you are in information technology, you should have skills in critical and analytical thinking, detail orientation, and proficiency with key technologies and your resume should use language that points to this. Optimal Resume is a great place to get started.
- Keep your bullets clean and crisp. This means that every word should need to be there. This is not a time for flowery language and long verbose statements. This takes multiple revisions. You need to work to clean up statements and make sure your communicating your point with just what is needed.
Working on developing your bullet points is crucial to having a stand out resume. It takes time, practice and a dedication to consistently improving the quality of your resume.
Posted by scdc on March 29, 2012 under RESUMES |
As you go through your work (or internship) day, it can be hard to think about what it is that you actually do. As a result, many students have difficulty effectively capturing their skills, duties, and the value that he or she adds(ed) to the organization in a resume. Whether you are currently looking for a job/internship or not, updating your resume is important to do so that your resume is always fresh and ready to be sent to anyone. You never know when you might need it — your resume always needs to represent you at any moment.
Take some time now and sit down with a pen and paper and jot down the following:
- List all your tasks for your previous day of work. List everything from when you walked in the door to when you left for the day.
- Consider the rest of the week. Is there anything that was not captured on this list that you did during the week? Add this to the list.
- Think about special events, high volume periods, unique times where your task list may expand. Add them to the list.
- Is your list complete? If not, add what’s missing. When it’s complete, rank order the items by value added to the organization. The highest impact items should be ranked first.
In the next blog, we’ll look at taking these items and creating the bulleted list for your resume.
Posted by scdc on March 22, 2012 under JOB SEARCH, NETWORKING |
Networking needs to always be part of your professional life–even and especially when you are not looking for a job. The sad thing is that most people wait until they need a network to start networking seriously. Networks work most effectively when the individuals know you and your work and can make a well-considered connection or recommendation.
It can be hard to get motivated to start attending events and they can feel daunting. Here are a couple things to keep in mind so that you don’t even think twice about making to that next important networking event.
- People go to networking events to meet other people. You shouldn’t be concerned about being spurned or turned away. Networking events are places where most people there want to meet you.
- Most people will want to chat you up and not hear a pitch. Many people get caught up with the idea that their pitch has to be perfect before going to a networking event. The usual engagement is a conversation where you get to know each other.
- People go to network with people at all levels. Some people are worried that they don’t have enough experience to network. Even experienced professional go to network with entry-level, mid-level, and advanced professionals. People who attend these events are often interested in all the possibilities of networking — mentoring, making connections, etc.
So, be social, get out there, start meeting people and adding to your professional community.
Posted by scdc on March 15, 2012 under NETWORKING |
Networking events can be very daunting especially when you are looking out at a sea of unknown faces. There are a couple of simple tips to follow to make sure that you stand out at this event and potential networking contacts remember you. Here are a couple fool-proof tips:
- Dress for Success – Make sure that what you are wearing does not say things about you that you wouldn’t say about yourself. When you are networking, your attire should say “professional, mature, responsible.” Dress for the job and not the event. So, no matter where the event is remember that this is a professional opportunity.
- Smile – Look to connect with others with an open posture and a face that says “I’m engaging and interested in talking with new people.”
- Listen – When you meet people, make sure that you remember their name. One easy way to do that is to say it 3 times — naturally in conversation. Incorporate what the other person is saying into your comments, ask questions, introduce them to other people that you know.
- Be Casual – Talk to others in a conversational way – don’t regurgitate a pitch or ask the same questions or give the same responses. Engage with each person in a relaxed organic way even if that means that you don’t get everything from your pitch out to them. Perhaps, you will next time.
- Stay Positive – Interact with others in an upbeat and positive manner. If you find yourself getting irritable or tired, it may be time to leave the event. People like to be around others that have a positive aura around them. Make sure it’s authentic though.
If you want to be memorable at a networking, a couple alterations to your way of engaging may make all the difference.
Posted by scdc on March 7, 2012 under JOB SEARCH, MENTORING, NETWORKING |
We often don’t consider references until a potential employer requests them. However, if you want a solid reference from a supervisor, mentor or colleague, you need to be thinking about it way before then. Here are some tips regarding references that will lead to a greater likelihood of getting a reference that appropriately supports your candidacy for your dream job:
1. Don’t think that previous employers can’t give you a poor recommendation. A lot of job seekers believe that a prior employer can only tell a potential future employer that they worked there and your dates of employment–but that’s not accurate. As much as possible, it’s important not to leave a previous employer on bad terms. If you know the reference will not be positive, but you need to use it — consider reaching out to the previous boss and letting them know how you’ve learned from the previous situation and get a sense of what they may say to a future employer about you. You may need to consider giving the future employer a “heads up” about the reference with some context. Make sure your other references are stellar.
2. Always ask ahead of time. A reference should never get a call from an employer and be surprised by it. Once you are in the job search, ask references at this time and update them regularly as to who may be contacting them and perhaps even things that you would like them to highlight about your skills set, work ethic, etc.
3. Don’t ask a person to be your reference that you haven’t spoken to in years. This says a great deal about your inability to maintain contacts and build your network. Stay in regular contact with your potential references.
4. Give your reference any information that may help him/her give the best reference. This can include your resume, cover letter for the position or perhaps a summary of issues that you would like him/her to highlight. You need to discuss with your reference what they might need.
5. Always send a sincere thank you note to your references. Don’t take your references for granted because there’s a good likelihood he/she might not be there for you next time if you do.
Value your references and treat them with respect and this will benefit you tremendously in your job search process.
The world of search firms and headhunters can seem extremely mysterious. In certain fields (e.g., finance, law) they can be critical to gaining access to elusive positions at elite firms especially as you mature in your career. Here are some key issues to keep in mind when trying to navigate the sea of search firms:
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