Today I met with a career coach in the business school. Ever since I have been actively working in my internship I have enjoyed the special events process more and more. The other day I was thinking that maybe this was leading me down a career organizing corporate fundraising/special events for a nonprofit or park service organization. Or working for a corporation that helps out nonprofits, such as Kohl's and Petco. I would love to combine my experience and my degree to serve the public in this way.
The meeting was extremely helpful. We completely vetted my resume and worked on beefing up the descriptions of what it was I had done in my internship and previous work experience. We talked about goals I had for the future, and different ways to market myself. She gave me several examples of different nonprofits that look for new graduates to start out in their company and move up to working full time. She gave me dates of several career fairs to start attending in the spring if I decided to go the corporate route.
We also talked about how to interview. She pointed out that I often got caught up in the details and process of what I accomplished. For example I went into great detail about the Sponsorship Funding Program and the different ways I helped orchestrate it, but I never mentioned why I did it or how it made me feel. She explained that this was great I could explain the process, but also might make me come off as robotic if I wasn't able to explain how the project made me feel. I had no idea I was even doing this! I have so much to say about everything I have been involved in and could on for hours about it, but I was so nervous in an interview I completely forgot to mention them. I took other notes on how to improve my interview style. They still make me nervous, but I am confident I will be better at them in the future.
I attended one career fair last semester with the goal of looking for an internship and seeing the different organizations and companies that were out there. I was extremely nervous beforehand, but the event was actually a lot of fun. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and I walked away feeling better prepared to face the real world. The whole process of applying and interviewing is still daunting, but I am looking forward to what is out there for me after graduation.
Hi Alexandra,
ReplyDeleteYour career advisor made such a great point! I don't think I've necessarily described why I did something or how it made me feel during an interview either. I've always focused more on what the task entailed, how I accomplished it, and what the end results were. I guess it is a good idea to add points that are a little more personal just so you don't come off as being robotic. I think this is an excellent tip that I will keep in mind the next time I am interviewing!
Alexandra,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate on your experience with interviewing. I tend to talk a lot about my accomplishments as well without any reference to "why" it was important to me or "how" it made me feel. It is something that has been brought to my attention before, but kinda forgot about until I read it in your post. I find the interview process extremely scary, but then I think more about focusing on expressing who I am vs what the "right" answer should be. Good job though. We will all get through this together!!
Alex, your post was so relatable and interesting! I totally understand how scary and nervous interviewing is, and it is easy to kind of get caught-up about your accomplishments, though I've found that the best (and most successful) advice I've gotten for interviews is to make it as if your having a regular conversation with someone. Obviously more professional than a standard conversation but thinking like this really calms my nerves and lets the interview flow more naturally with this mentally. Either way, I'm sure career services helped you tons!
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