Contents:
          -Tips, Tricks, and Tools
          -Featured Resume Talking Points
          -Answer to a Common Interview Question

Tip, Tricks, and Tools
Yesterday I was having lunch with some very good friends of mine, Tom and Trey.  Both are fraternity brothers of mine, and we all work at the same company together.  Trey is a summer intern, and Tom is a 15 year vet.  Naturally the conversation hit on what Trey would be doing for the company, what his impressions were, and where he would potentially want to go in the company were he to get a full time job. 

Long story short, there are a few takeaways from that conversation that are very worth sharing with you:

What to do if you don’t have enough work in your internship.This scenario calls, as Tom puts it, for “coaching up” to your manager to get a quality assignment for the rest of the summer.  This means you should have a few ideas in mind to suggest to your manager that would be good things for you to work on.  These should be projects that would be challenging for you, and are also brief enough so that you can complete it (or at least your part of it) before the end of your summer—you don’t want to have to report that you weren’t able to finish your project! 

To find these projects, ask the people in your office for ways you can contribute (or lead) various projects that are going on.  However, you want to be careful that you still are completing your primary assignment!

After you have a good idea of another project or two that would be a good fit for you, it’s time to have that conversation with your manager.  Let them know of the excellent progress you are making on your current project, and that you anticipate it being completed by a certain date.  Let them know that you’ve been thinking ahead to what you will do afterwards, and ask them if they have anything in mind.  If they do, listen and see if it’s something you’d be interested in.  If not, tactfully suggest some of the ideas you have come up with and see what they say.  You may be pleasantly surprised!

What you should be doing outside of your normal role in the company.
Something else we discussed with Trey was the unbelievable power of the words “I’m an intern.”  You may not think those words mean much, but as an intern, Trey can go up to any one of our Corporate VP’s and say “I’m an intern, would you be able to have lunch with me some time?” or “Would you be able to have lunch with a group of us interns?” (And keep in mind, we’re a Fortune 50 company – Corporate VP’s are extremely difficult to get time with).

The unbelievable thing is 95% of the time, they will make the time to see interns!  One of the most important things for companies now is recruitment and retention of their employees, interns included.  This is why they will make it a priority to spend time with you when you ask.  Try it!

One other suggestion – when you do this, have some prepared questions to ask, could be on leadership, the direction of the company, whatever you want.  The point is that if he or she asks “what would you like to discuss?” you’ll be prepared to answer it well.

Featured Resume Talking Points
One of my fraternity brothers, Doug, is a recruiter for GM.  He likes to do what a lot of us would call “nit-picking,” meaning that he intentionally combs resumes for every single small error you could possibly make, and then he includes this “assessment” in his recommendations for who should get an interview or not.  He’s not shy about it either; he is almost proud of the fact that he does it.

So let me save you from the pain of handing your resume to Doug and having it get demolished before you’ve even set foot into the interview room.  Take a look at your resume for the following things:
            -Grammar (verb tenses, do your sentences make sense, etc)
            -Punctuation (does each bullet point have a period after it or not?)
            -Formatting
                        -Line spacing
                        -Indents
                        -Is your resume visually appealing?
                        -Font sizes
                        -Use of italics and bolding
            -Word capitalization consistency
            -Abbreviations

After you take a look for these things personally, hand your resume to the most detail-oriented person you know, and ask them to look it over.  Tell them to be critical of every last dot, line, or detail on your resume, and to look for all of the things listed above, plus anything else they can think of.  Offer to give them the same run-down on their resume.  Don’t be insulted with what they come up with; their constructive criticism will be invaluable to you when you submit your resume the next time!

Answer to a Common Interview Question
This month, let’s look at another important interview question that’s popular with recruiters: “Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?”

This question is a difficult one because it is one that drives at the intangibles, and is somewhat designed to raise red-flags.  When I say red-flags, if a recruiter asks you this question, they are wondering whether you see yourself with that company in the long term or not, and maybe a peek at your goals with the company. 

Now, there are several ways to botch your answer, let’s get those out of the way first.  Here are a few no-no’s:

            “I want to start my own business in the next year,” or

            “After 2 years, I plan on going back to get an advanced degree, and then pursuing that.”

The main reasons are pretty obvious – it shows that the company you are talking to is just a stepping stone to bigger and better things.  It shows that you have no long-term commitment to them, and/or don’t see them as a “chosen” piece to your future.

What’s the right way to answer it?  By doing the opposite of what we just talked about above: demonstrate your commitment to the company, show that you have thought out your goals with that company, and show how you plan on giving back to the company.  Such an answer looks a little like this:

            “In five or ten years, I want to be leveraging the things I’ve learned along the way to ensure that I am still an effective and productive part of the team.  There are several departments within your company that I’m interested in, so if the chances come up, I want to try to gain additional experience by moving within the company.  In terms of job roles, based on my past experience of success with my (technical / leadership) skills, I could see myself as a (technical expert / manager).”

You can see that this way suggests that you still see yourself as a contributing member to that company, with aspirations towards a technical career path or a leadership path.  It starts by saying that you want to learn to start, not just jump in as a manager!  It also shows that you’ve considered the other departments within their company, indicating that the company is a good long-term fit (you should have done this as part of your homework!). 

Just remember the bottom line: Keep it positive, and keep the company in your 5 to 10 year picture!

Good luck this summer!

Happy (Job) Hunting!

Thanks again for your interest in College-Career-Builder.com


E-Mail: coachbob@college-career-builder.com