Oh Westminster, the days of old. As I near my fourth year out of undergraduate study(What!), I have a few reflections on mistakes I made while looking for internships/jobs/and job shadows. Retrospectively, these things are a tad bit amusing, yet ghastly. The fact of the matter is with how competitive the job AND internship markets are, committing professional job faux paxs are not acceptable. Ever.
Three thoughts:
1- Send thank you notes/emails to your prospective boss. I'll never forget one time I interviewed for an AWESOME internship. I thought it went so well, I really connected with all the people I spoke to and thought the company was a great fit. Along I went on my merry way, completely forgetting to send a thank you to them. Well a few weeks later, I get an email from them asking if I was interested still because they never heard from me. YIKES. Miraculously enough, I still got the internship. Looking back though, I wouldn't have hired me for that!
2-Be on time for your interview! This one is a lame tip, but it needs to be said. If I got paid 5 cents for every time a I had an intern show up late for their interview, i'd have like 50 cents!! Seriously though, be there 10 minutes early.
3-When I was a former job, I was in charge of hiring and supervising interns. This ended up being a fabulous part of my job (yay Nora!). It was also fabulous because I got to read and see lots of resumes. I always looked forward to whatever little gem the mail would bring each day. College students, one little hint: Get a normal email address. I am not discriminating against creative emails (after all, I was s0cialight@hotmail.com for years. Another email address I had: dee8murry@hotmail.com -this was in reference to the days of Clueless and Alicia Silverstone). I do encourage an email involving your name though. Some of my favorite email addresses to date? glittergal@______.com, yousuck@_____.com, hot4u@_________.com, and ilovetequila@_____.com. Employers want to see a little professionalism!! Not envision you doing tequila shots in your cubicle.
Cheers!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Things to never do when looking for a job:
Posted by WeddObsessed at 10:39 AM
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4 comments:
what about luckybeef
or luckybethyg?
How could I forget luckybethyg????
Don't forget to dress appropriately. When I worked at the Eagle, I used to be amazed at what prospective interns/employees thought was appropriate interview attire. I'm talking jeans, flip flops, wrinkled khakis and shirts and worst of all, women who dressed more like they were going out for a night on the town than a job interview. It was so unprofessional.
Good post Jaime. I would also add professional writing in your correspondence with a potential employer. I am hiring new phonathon student workers right now and I am amazed at how informal they are- "hey if ur still hiring for the phonathon, I'm in. Here's my application. Peace." Seriously, some kid actually closed his letter with Peace.
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