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Dating your Career Search

Posted in Nuts and Bolts Advice

–Mark Osnowitz ’12

When you think about it, dating and finding a job are rather similar. Let’s say your friend tells you about his female friend he thinks you would like. First thing you do is go on Facebook and check her out. At the same time, you may have a tab open on your computer for glassdoor.com. Your other buddy talks about a job he is interviewing for and that he thinks you should apply as well. When you are done creeping on the girl, you tab over to Glass Door and look up the company he is interviewing with.

In both cases you are doing a cursory search before you invest more time in the process, either having your friend introduce you to the girl or applying on the company’s website. So those same tactics that help you to find your dream date should help you get the job you want.

1) Do your homework. Since completely blind dates were all but ruined by Google, by the same token you should not apply to a job you know nothing about. The internet is your friend. Check out the company’s home page, websites like glassdoor.com and look at the company profile on LinkedIn.

2) Dress the part. Many Wabash men undergo somewhat of a metamorphosis from Wednesday to Thursday. Suddenly, the bearded faces and sweat pants are replaced with clean shaven men and jeans, perhaps even topped off with something called cologne. In the same manner, when you get the interview you need to dress professionally. Know the industry you are applying to! Even if the company dresses more casually day to day, they will most likely expect a suit and tie for the interview. If you need to borrow a suit or have questions, stop by Career Services.

3) Have something to talk about. There are many guides out there on how to ace interviews with employers, but the fastest way to derail your interview is to not have any questions for them at the end. Taking it back to dating, think how it would go if you only talked about yourself the entire time and showed no interest in learning about the other person. And just how you should ask about the stuff that isn’t posted on Facebook, you should ask employers questions you can’t get answers to on their website.

4) Follow up. Here is where my analogy starts to break a bit. There is no three day rule with employers. Some people still advocate for the hand written letter, but in today’s world they may already make the decision by the time they receive it. The day of the interview send a nice follow up email. Our guidebook actually has a section on follow up letters.

5) Play the field. I would never recommend leading multiple girls on at a time. You may end up like this Hardees commercial. Breaking the analogy again, you need to play the field with your job search process. Employers expect that you will be applying for multiple jobs. If for some reason they ask, you should be honest. Just like you should be when you’re dating! By the same token, when you accept a job, your search is over and you should let all of your other potential employers know. If you end things cordially you may even stay friends, I mean, have a valuable future contact.

So there it is. Five ways in which your dating and job search are similar and the way to do them right. If there is any interest, I may do a follow up entry on how dating and networking are similar, but that is for another day!

 


Filming on Vocation: Dean Gary Phillips

Posted in Filming on Vocation

In the Filming on Vocation series, members of our Wabash campus community offer their insights and advice in an interview with Career Services. We focus on their work, their professional development, and on their general advice for Wabash men. We post the interview, a synopsis, and a transcript with highlights.

Synopsis: Dean Phillips shares from his wealth of experience in higher education and more. (Did you know that he once owned a restaurant?) Watch the interview and check out our highlights to learn more about the role of Dean of the College, the skills and values necessary to promote education at Wabash, and advice for the student still searching for what to do.

http://youtu.be/8HN6zbGW2W8

Excerpts:

Gary Phillips: My responsibility as dean is to oversee, manage, help plan, help implement, and guide the academic side of the house, the curriculum, the faculty work, that leads to student classroom experience and out of classroom experience.

GP: At Wabash, the Deans office is where many of these tasks that would be found in a different institutional setting under someone who would be working one level above me and beneath the president would be found.

GP: The task of being a Dean is really grounded in what you believe to be the mission of an institution. And the institutional purpose, we know what the mission of Wabash is. That’s what grounds everything, and it is what grounds me.

GP: I owned and ran a restaurant for three and a half years. When you flip burgers and make pizza, you have to figure out how to work with people…that experience of trying to balance the budget, have fifty five employees and make an institutional difference in the life of the community is an important factor.

GP: If I can enable my colleges to see the work that their work is better, then that’s another measure of my success.

GP: Can you help them ask the right questions? It is important to have answers, but it is even more important to have the right questions. The measure of success of somebody in my role, is can I marshal among my colleges, student, faculty and staff, the capacity to think carefully about complex issues, running an institution and living in an institution is a complex thing, not simple, and can I help articulate those questions and help those around me articulate their own questions to find a way forward.

GP: To teach in a classroom is a sober and important job. It is a life commitment, not just a way to draw to paycheck in my view.

GP: The Wabash student, who is thinking about a job in a college, or in a classroom. You start right with the most practical thing. Take a class, work with a professor, do an immersion experience, do an internship, engage an alumnus, talk with a parent. Do something concrete, practical and real that moves you from your normal zone of comfort, to a place where you are compelled to, think of, engage with and contemplate something that you hadn’t before.

James Jeffries: Lets close with maybe a big inspiration for you, do you have a particular book or a film, a model person that exemplifies a lot of the virtues you have been talking about?

GP: Yeah and its Neo in the Matrix. Why the Matrix? The Matrix is emblematic of all the things I have been talking about, that is, you got to figure out what the question is…it is the articulation of those deep driving questions that bring you to want to do something with your life that you may spend some time desiring to not have to worry about, because its not always fun to have to worry and to think. Thinking can be hard, so why would you want to do that? Well, because everything counts, and there is a lot hanging in the balance.

GP: You have to commit yourself on a day by day basis to something that is larger than yourself.

 


Inside the Mind of the Interviewee

Posted in Interviewing, Nuts and Bolts Advice, Whimsy

By Spencer Peters ’14

Whew. Breathe in, out, in, out.  This leather feels weird on the fabric of my suit; it’s making me sweat. No. Could the sweat be showing through?

I’m wearing a nice grey suit with a white undershirt and a red tie.  I’m set. I look good.  An hour ago I slowly dressed myself in front of my bathroom mirror; choosing to tie my tie in a full double Windsor.  Was this right? Should I have gone with an Oriental knot, a half Windsor? A bow tie? Do I come across as whimsical, professional, carefree?

I’m racking my brain as I sit on the unfamiliar leather couch.  My suit pulls at the shoulders when I lean down to adjust my resume in my planner on the dark wooden table. I read the words over again and again. “John Abernathy” I say in a hushed voice as I read the bolded words in the center of the page.

I look across the room; the secretary sits with her black rimmed glasses peering down at her skilled hands that glide across the keyboard, incessantly typing.   She just types and types, oblivious to the fear coursing through my every vein.  I begin my mental tirade on her unforgiving posture and attitude when I’m summoned back to the room by the sound of her voice.

“Mr. Griffin will see you now.”

“Thank you so much,” automatically reverberates from my mouth.

She hits me with a flashing smile and I wonder if it’s a sarcastic, ‘dead man walking’ smile or one of genuine hope.  Before I can begin sorting them out in my head I grab my planner and for the first time notice how sweaty my hands are.  No. I only hope that they can dry on my twenty foot walk to the front of the desk of my possible future employer.

I find the oiled wood handle of the boss’s door, and turn very gently to stay steady.

The man rises and reaches out his hand.  I greet him with a strong dry handshake while I introduce myself.  Yes, 1 for 1 on the day with handshakes.

“So tell me about yourself John.”

Wow. I’ve been preparing for this question.  It’s the simplest one and most common too! I got this.

“Well I guess to start, my name is John Abernathy, I grew up in a very small town and graduated from an even smaller high school.  I’m currently enrolled at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN, majoring in chemistry and psychology.  I devote a lot of time to my studies and my fraternity.  I also play on the football team at Wabash College.  And now I’m here seeking a job with you.”

By the smile on his face as I finish, I can tell I’ve done my job of scratching the surface of who I am.  I’ve done the job required of the question.  I sit a little straighter in my chair and shift as to readjust in its uncomfortable seat.  I grab my provided water and sip a couple of ounces until he begins in on his next question.

“So John, what makes you the best candidate for this job.  I can see from your resume that you’ve done a lot in your three years in college.”

My three years in college. I’m a current junior.  How do I wrap those up into a coherent answer?  I started drinking in college and have had my share of beers and drunken stories? But why am I thinking about that. Focus. I’ve had significant playing time as safety on the football team, but he doesn’t care about that; he’s looking at my leadership positions.  This is mine to blow, so don’t.

“Well Mr. Griffin. In my three years I’ve had multiple leadership positions, from vice president in my fraternity to president of College Mentors for Kids, and Captain of the football team; I’ve had to supervise and put people on the same page to work efficiently.  If I can corral first grade boys fresh out of school, college athletes pushed to the brink, or fraternity guys who can’t agree on anything, I believe that I can be part of a team that wants to work together toward a common goal.  I would love being given the chance to try.”

Shaky performance but I think I stuck the landing. Now an image of Nastia Lukin runs through my head of her landing from the balance beam.

More questions like this trickle by over the course of an hour.  I pause to form my responses, sip water to calm my nerves, and constantly keep a straight back and professional posture, even if my back is on fire.

The last question comes up.

“What is your biggest strength?”

I stroke my ego in my head a bit. I can outrun anyone in my school at the 40.  I date the cutest girls out of anyone in the fraternity.  Also, I’m a beast when it comes to Call of Duty.  But that’s not what he’s after.  What is my biggest strength that would spoon feed this guy.

“Well, throughout my life, I’ve always been a very good problem solver.  And I don’t mean that in a traditional sense necessarily.  If a problem gets put in front of me, regardless of its content and difficulty, I can solve it; usually by unconventional and innovative ways.  But there has never been a work related problem that I haven’t been able to solve if I have time.  For example, I once was given two days to make a pamphlet for a networking event, complete with contact information and background on the organization.  I did this and it was a hit within the office.”

“Well that’s all I have for you John.  We’ll contact you with our decision next week.  Thank you for your time.”

“Thank you for the opportunity Mr. Griffin.  I’m looking forward to hearing from you.”

I walk out of the office with my head held high. I feel as if I could have done more to strengthen his opinion of me.  However, now it’s my turn to flash the secretary a smile and let her decide what it means.  I hug my planner to my side, button my coat, and walk into the elevator and press the ground floor button.  Smiling.

 


RESUMES: A LABOR OF LOVE?

Posted in Nuts and Bolts Advice

Resumes can go wrong in lots of ways. Generally, writers can misunderstand the purpose and context for the resume or they can lack the craft, the nitty-gritty details of formatting a resume and expressing themselves effectively. But there is a worse problem—at least it feels worse. Even some of the most diligent workers will procrastinate on this dread piece of writing. Once completed, job obtained, we happily eject the resume from our lives like an offending piece of trash. The hope is to never to think about it again. Call this the problem of motivation. The prospect of getting a job motivates us a little to put care into the resume. (Well, some jobs and some people.) But those who treat resume-writing as a labor of love are either inspired by an angel or a demon. Either way, they are mad.

This conception of resume-writing isn’t so much mistaken as it is incomplete. Resumes certainly have a temporary primary purpose—to get you an interview for a job. But there are at least three other values to motivate you to give the resume the attention it requires.

  1. Self-understanding—Yes, this sounds hokey. But writing the resume provides a great opportunity and a challenge to really understand and adequately express what your experience so far amounts to. If you mine your experience effectively for details and genuine accomplishments, you can see how valuable and employable you really are. It also helps isolate shortcomings, which can help steer your goals for further professional development.
  2. A tool for communication—The process of concisely expressing your experience helps hone your communication skills far beyond the written resume. You will need to be able to talk comfortably about yourself and what you do in many different contexts in work and life, and the place to develop the words to do this on the resume. Both the content and the skills for writing the content will transfer in unpredictable ways to other parts of your life, so do the job right on the resume so you don’t have to fret about the rest.
  3. A secondary purpose—Beyond getting you the interview, the resume-format is useful for a lot of other purposes. It’s a more versatile piece of writing than you might think. One great tactic is to write a forward-looking resume to express your goals for a new job. What do you want your resume to look like in a year or five years? Write that resume with all the attention and detail you can, then start checking off the boxes. You can also use the resume-format to assess your personal, rather than professional, profile—use it for personal, and not just professional, self-development.

These might just seem like parlor tricks for combating the ennui of facing the resume. But try them out, and you might just find yourself, not exactly enjoying, but at least valuing the work you put into it. With abundant motivation, you’re much more likely to get all the nitty-gritty parts right. And, by the way, that will help you get a job.

 


Internships: Don’t get lost in the black hole

Posted in Internships

Guest-blogger Nathan Parcells, CMO and Founder of InternMatch, shares some advice on navigating this internship season.

How to apply to online internships and avoid getting lost in the Black Hole

“A black hole is a region of space-time from which it is impossible to escape.”

-Stephen Hawkins

Black holes in space consist of collapsed stars where neither sound nor light can escape.  In the job world, the term black hole is used, for when applicants send countless resumes to employers and hear nothing in response.

Few things are more frustrating than spending hours crafting and customizing an internship application, only to submit it, and hear nothing back. This problem exists for a number of reasons but the fact is that fewer than 5% of employers follow-up with every applicant they receive and even fewer communicate the real reasons about why they made the choice they did.

While it might seem easy to blame companies for not doing a better job of responding, the reality is that most HR managers receive hundreds of applications every week and are over worked reviewing them – so it’s up to you to stand out. By understanding a bit more about how the online application process works, you can figure out how to navigate this abyss and make sure you emerge on the other side with your ideal internship.

Where do all the resumes go?

As you can probably guess, applications for internships rarely follow the same path.  Some employers ask you to apply directly to their email inbox. Others ask for you to apply using a job website like Taleo or InternMatch so that they can save the applications in a database online and share them with other employees in the office.

Depending on the size of the employer and how they are accepting applications you need to think up the best strategy to make sure you don’t get overlooked when it comes to decision time. For example, if you’re given a contact name or email address, do some research on the individual and customize your application materials to them personally in addition to the role for which you are applying.

Building a better rocket ship.

The other important skill to develop when applying to internships online is to learn how to make your application stand out.

Here are 5 tips to help:

1.) Follow-Up!

The biggest piece of advice we can recommend to avoid getting ignored is to follow-up consistently with an employer after you submit an app. This is an art not a science, but most students are way too hesitant to follow-up with employers even if just to ask what their time frame is on responding or to remind them that you have applied and are excited to get the internship.  For best practices see our guide on how to follow-up with employers.

2.) Remove all typos from your resume.

Another reason you may not hear back from employers is because they tossed out your resume at first sight. Even if you have one typo on your resume, it shows an employer a lack of professionalism and attention to detail. In fact almost 50% of employers stop reading a resume if they see just one typo! So double check your resume with a resume template and guide for extra help.

3.) Be unique.

As an employer who has hired many students I can safely say, my job is a lot easier when a particular student breaks the mold by standing out. Don’t just spam employers with a standard cover letter, take the extra hour to write something. If the employer has a twitter account tweet at them about how excited you are. If they are coming to your school for a career fair, go and introduce yourself to the recruiting staff and start building a relationship. Your hard work will pay off when it comes to decision time.

4.) Don’t use scammy websites to apply for positions!

Top job boards like your Career Center website, Indeed, or InternMatch work hard to make sure every position that is online is up to date and is a high quality position.  If you are finding positions by doing a Google search or on Craigslist, you can find some great opportunities but as a rule of thumb the further you go from trusted sites the more likely you are to be applying to a position that has either already closed or doesn’t exist altogether.

5.) Don’t get discouraged.

Last but not least don’t get discouraged. A lot of employers are getting overwhelmed with applications in the current down economy, so even if you are over qualified for a position you simply might not hear back. If you keep at it and keep improving your application skills such as following-up, being unique, and using top job boards, you are going to start getting interviews and eventually find a position you’re excited about.

 


MISTAKEN MISTAKES IN THE INTERVIEW

Posted in Nuts and Bolts Advice

A favorite interview question among hiring managers asks you to tell your serious mistakes and expose your weaknesses. “Tell me about a time you made a costly mistake?” or “What is your biggest weakness?” (Check out some variations: questions 14, 17 and 18 here). These questions provide a great opportunity to demonstrate your ability to mature from your experience, take responsibility, lead, work with honesty and integrity, and communicate well about uncomfortable subjects. But not all mistakes are created equal. Here is how to deal with the difficult “mistake” question.

In general, you need to think up a mistake you  made, express it concisely, and talk about what you did to correct the mistake and the overall lesson you learned. The best response then mentions a similar example showing that you did not make the same mistake twice. But what mistake should you choose to talk about? This is the more difficult part.

The mistakes we make

Suppose you plan a key event for your club—a dinner with a major speaker. You plan for fifty guests and only fifteen show up, with the resulting great embarrassment and waste of money. Now how you frame this mistake can vary, and the honesty of your interpretation can vary too. If the event has been well-attended for ten previous years, and there was little reason to think this year would be any different, then it is an excused mistake. Don’t use excused mistakes as your example, because they are too weak. No hirer cares to hear how something bad happened in something in which you were involved, but that, really, you weren’t to blame. Unfortunately, one tendency of interviewees is to try to rationalize all their “mistakes” into this category.

Suppose instead you failed to discover a competing event posted two weeks earlier. Here you are more culpable for the mistake. If you knew about the competing event, but other obligations made you too preoccupied to deal with it effectively, then again you have a mistake to explain. These are the kinds of mistakes to talk about. Hiring managers do not want to hear you rationalize all your mistakes, evade responsibility, or point out your pernicious flaws. They want to hear how an otherwise competent worker took responsibility for a genuine mistake and matured in the process. Sometimes the mistake can even be enormous, so long as you dealt with it in an impressive way. Tell them about those times, and hirers get a great glimpse into your prospects as a capable and productive worker in their organization. On the other hand, if you present an enormous mistake poorly or expose an incorrigible character flaw–this is too strong. You want to be Goldilocks and present the mistake that is just right.

A good mistake

One manager told me the answer he would give to a “mistake” question. He has a position in public relations where the communications he and his office issue must be clear, accurate, and exceptionally well-written. Every piece of writing may be scrutinized carefully by its recipient, and any error reflects poorly on his organization. (Hint: he’s in politics.) Early in his career, he drafted a letter for public release and handed it off to his superior, who pointed out a typo and told him to be more careful. One week later, he did it again—another typo. He was reprimanded. Another week went by, and he turned in yet another flawed document. This time, his boss had a serious talk with him: a boss’s time is too valuable to spend on proofreading his work for typos. But more importantly, there was a lack of sensitivity to the importance of his work, to the gravity and seriousness with which any error reflects on his organization if it gets into public view.

The realization that his work had this importance led to a refined sensibility. It was something he should have already known—an unexcused failure to understand his job—yet he needed to make this mistake several times before learning the lesson. But the goodwill of his boss gave him the chance to learn, and he has been extremely successful since then. This is a mistake worth talking about, and one hirers would admire you for discussing.

–James Jeffries


Filming on Vocation Series: President White

Posted in Filming on Vocation

In the Filming on Vocation series, members of our Wabash campus community offer their insights and advice in an interview with Career Services. We focus on their work, their professional development, and on their general advice for Wabash men. We post the interview, a synopsis, and a transcript with highlights.

Synopsis:

We sat down with Patrick White to discuss his work as campus president. Hear his take on the work, on the values and skills necessary for the job, and how you can grow personally and professionally by being confident and remaining open to opportunities as they present themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvJz_391k0&feature=youtu.be

Transcript with Highlights:

James Jeffries: President White, thank you very much for meeting with Career Services.

President White: My pleasure.

James Jeffries: You have a particularly interesting job, and of course a very high profile job that we see in front of us all the time. But we don’t see everything that goes on behind the scenes; we don’t see what it took to get to your position. We don’t see the kinds of things that frustrate you sometimes, or really bring you alive to the position.  So we would like to talk to you a little bit about those kinds of things, and also what advice you really have for students who are looking into their futures. So first off could you just describe your work as a president, and what do you see as your major responsibilities.

President White: Well the interesting thing is that, why should I be laughing when I get asked that question in part because a president, particularly the president of a small college, covers an entire spectrum of activities. If you’re president of a large university you’re pretty much the head of a corporate structure, like a large company. At a small college you’re connected to students, you’re connected to faculty; you’re connected to alumni. Most people think it’s about raising money that it’s about a fundraising job. My friends who are not in the business say well Pat you must be raising money all the time.” That’s an important part of it; you have to be out there raising money and friends. But a lot of it is really running the college, with a collaboration of my direct reports, the deans and the CFO, and everybody else at the institution. So there are a lot of questions and problems and issues that come right to the president at a small college like Wabash. And that’s both a delight and would drive some people crazy.

James Jeffries: Okay so, of course you made the transition from being a professor of English, right? Into these administrative roles, and eventually into this presidency. What was the biggest surprise?

President White: I think the biggest surprise was how much you don’t have control over. One of the beautiful things about being a professor is essentially in your class you have a lot of control. I mean, students obviously shape that class, but in a large degree as a professor you have control over what happens that particular day. You set up the syllabus. In my job there is less control. One of the reasons I got into the administrative side of things, was at the same time was at the same time; you had an opportunity to influence an entire institution, or have some effect on an entire institution. And that’s very exciting, but it’s very different. It’s a question of scale. One is very focused, student centered, the other is the entire institution. Whether you’re a dean or a college president.

James Jeffries: So if you were to key in on three or four of the most vital skills for your work, what would they be and how did you go about developing them?

President White: That’s a good question. I think you have to have patience; you have to have an ability to imagine the other. That’s essentially a rhetorical position, you have to think, what is the audience going to think about? What questions people are going to have? That’s very very important. So patience, the ability to imagine. Imagine not only an audience, but also imagine solutions to the problems. And then to gain the collaboration of other people. So there is a collaborative skill that is very important in being in either being a president or a dean. Because there is very little, that one can do alone in those positions, you have to, especially small colleges; there are not a lot of resources, and you have to find people who will be able to collaborate with you and share your vision, and share your excitement. So the fourth thing I would say that you have to be able to inspire people to get excited. Not only about what you want to do, that’s kind of a good cheerleading aspect that I think all presidents should be good at, but they have to be excited about what they are doing so that they feel that their work is valuable. It’s very important.

James Jeffries: So opening this up a little bit, of course you come in contact with a lot of students who are going in all kinds of different directions. What do you say to the student who hasn’t figured it out yet? Who doesn’t know what they want to do.

President White: Be patient and recognize that they may have figured out what they want to do, they just haven’t figured out how they are going to get paid for it. And I think that is something that they should not sell themselves short about, we have a number of students as you know, at Wabash who are majoring in what they are passionate about, interested in, and the job will come, the position will come. But they have to begin to think about themselves as marketing, the skills, the passions and the habit of thought and inspiration for their thought that they have. They also have to recognize that a lot of people, they think that everybody can do what they can do. That’s not the case. Many of our students at Wabash have passions and energies and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, to quote the Superman of the 1950’s. And I think that they have to begin recognize that and they see that when they are all out in the market place, as I think you know.

James Jeffries: Okay, well let’s close with some influences, what would you point to as an influential person to look at, a model, a great book, great movie, something that you think students could get a lot from.

President White: I think for me it’s simply to be awake to the possibilities that they see around you. And don’t say oh I could never do that. Say I could do that position, I could do that work. I say to students all the time they might be president one day, if not here then somewhere else. I mean the first person who told me Pat you’d make a great dean I said are you out of your mind? Who would want to do that? When they said Pat why don’t you apply for the presidency at Wabash I said are you crazy. I’m not going to be able to that work. I think don’t sell yourself short. And I would simply say look at the movies and the books and continue to imagine yourself in the roles that inspire you.


Why Plastics?

Posted in Uncategorized

What’s in a name?

I can imagine furrowed brows in response to a career services blog named after those pliable polymers that make up so many of our daily objects. A blog called plastics is in need of some explanation. But actually the word plastic has a much older signification. It once referred to an art form alongside painting and architecture, one of sculpting figures from pliable materials. To engage in plasticke was to bring form and purpose to something natively full of possibility.

As an emblem for what we offer at Wabash College Career Services, plastics is as apt as any. We are, after all, a part of a liberal arts institution, and we are guided by the same mission to help sculpt young men who think, lead, act, and live as free gentlemen. We help Wabash men imagine, construct, and enact the plans that bring their education and aspiration into contact with the world outside of Wabash, with their futures.

Why So Worried?

So I can’t resist another reference. In the 1967 film The Graduate, we see a young college graduate intensely worried about his future.  Just watch this. Then go watch the film.

If “plastics” wasn’t the word Ben wanted to hear, this doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right word for him. Ben gets the point that, ultimately, his life is what he makes of it and what he carves out from his possibilities. This is in part why he is so worried about his future. But what he seems to miss is the importance of building relationships that help him along the way.

Career Services is not a silver bullet—there is no silver bullet—but at a small liberal arts college, we are a potent touchstone for students and alumni who want to make the most of themselves by building a relationship with us.

This blog will run the gamut of career services. It spans from the art of seeing possibilities and making plans to that part of an art which is a science—writing a resume, polishing a cover letter, finding funding for an internship, and on and on. At once practical and educational, Plastics is here to help you make your future.

–James Jeffries

 

 


Keeping Busy at Career Services

Posted in Uncategorized
Bobby Wade ’11 – Even with Wabash’s students scattered to the four winds, I’ve stayed busy at Career Services working on summer projects and planning events for the coming year. The Wabash College Community Fair has been one my main focuses so far, and will continue to be throughout July and August. The office is abuzz as this year’s Fair promises to be the largest one yet. Businesses participating include Dapper Dudes and Athens Nutrition & Smoothies. To prepare, Brady Young ’12 and I have been exploring the Crawfordsville community, contacting as many local businesses as possible and encouraging them to participate. We have mostly been met with enthusiasm for the event, and excitement to participate.  The Fair is slated for August 31, and I look forward to it with high expectations.
 
The next project on my summer agenda is revamping the website with a series of videos designed to help students become more familiar with Career Services and to offer them tips from alumni on every aspect of their career/internship search. Brady and I have already started interviewing both current Wabash staff and alums. In the coming weeks, a video compilation of our interviews with Tom Runge ’71, Greg Jania ’93, Joe Martin ’06, Boyce Evans ’08, and Richard Woods will be posted to the Career Services website. We are very grateful for the experiences and advice these men shared with us on how to excel in an interview and how to successfully utilize the alumni network. In the next month, I will be travelling to Chicago and Indianapolis to meet with Wabash alums and hear about their experiences in searching for internships and full time jobs after graduation. Expect to see a video featuring those interviews posted by August.
 
Another one of my summer priorities has been to update the suit room, located in one of the upstairs rooms at the Arnold House. Heather Hines, Career Services Administrative Assistant, Brady, and I spent the better part of three days sorting through the suits, shirts, and ties.  Finally, we organized everything into color and size order and uploaded each item onto a check-out software that will allow us to better track our inventory.   The suit room looks better than ever with fresh items ready to be checked out. If you have an interview, an internship, or need to look sharp for any occasion, stop by and check out the SuitYourself room.  
 
It has been a blast so far, and I look forward to what the rest of the summer brings. Be sure to check back to see the video interviews I’ll be posting in the coming weeks!
 

Chicago Trip 2010

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Brady Young ’12 – I have been given the opportunity to intern for Career Services this summer on the Wabash campus. Working here this summer has given me some incredible opportunities, one of which was our recent trip to Chicago. Late last month, we traveled up to Chicago to meet with alumni, go to an alumni event and a Chicago Cubs game. It was a great opportunity because my fellow intern Bobby Wade and I interviewed a few alumni for a video we are putting together as one of our summer projects as well as network with many alumni at the Chicago Cubs game event.
 
To start off our trip, Scott Crawford, Bobby Wade and myself had lunch with Derrick Yoder ’11 and Brian Mantel ‘93, who Derrick is interning for, and had a chance to see what they are both doing this summer and how the internship was going. After finding out everything is going smoothly we moved on to WP Global Partners where we met with Greg Jania ’93 and his Wabash intern, Jackson Ding ’11. We had the opportunity to interview Greg and talk with Jackson about what he does for his internship and we were lucky enough to get a tour of the office. Their offices are located 41 floors high and Greg has windows for his wall so we got to see an amazing view out over the town of Chicago. 
 
Following that interview and meeting we then checked into our hotel and had a few hours of free time before we had to head into town for dinner. Derrick and I are both preparing for another football season and since the hotel gave us a free pass to a Bally fitness center around the corner, we took full advantage and got a nice workout in before dinner.
 
For dinner we met with Tom Runge, Boyce Evans ‘08, Joe Martin ‘06, and Jackson Ding ’11 at Weber Grill. Before we went into dinner Bobby and I had a chance to interview Boyce and Joe and were able to get a lot of helpful information for out video.  After dinner Joe, Scott, Boyce, Bobby, and I went across the street to a nice bar to watch the rest of Game 7 of the NBA Finals that had been on. Did not quite end how we wanted it but it was a good game and it was a nice opportunity to sit down with these two young grads and talk about the Chicago lifestyle and how they liked it and to just hear good old Wabash stories. After we left there Derrick, Bobby, Boyce and I went out and had a nice night Chicago style.
 
The next morning I had totally forgotten about the time change and had intended on waking up and watching the USA World Cup match. Lucky for me, I only missed the first half. I was able to catch the second half and enjoy a nice comeback back the US and end the game in a 2-2- tie. 
 
After the soccer game we walked a little over a mile to Moe’s Cantina where the Chicago Cubs alumni event was taking place. There were a number of alumni and families that showed up for this event. It was great to see the kind of Wabash support that goes on in Chicago, and with the game on a Friday afternoon, I was amazed by the number of people who attended.  After about an hour and a half of talking with various alumni, we walked over to the Cubs game. I have been to a couple of Cubs games before when they played the Twins, (because my family is huge Twins fans so we tried to see them as much as we could), but it had been a good number of years since I had been at Wrigley Field. It has not changed a bit and is still an amazing baseball park. I was able to sit with and talk to Matt Schulz ‘06 for a good part of the afternoon and later talked with Brandon Weddell ’06. It was great to get to talk to younger guys again and hear what they have gone through and stories that they have about their Wabash days and now their days in Chicago. We decided to leave the game after the 8th inning since the Cubs were getting spanked and we still had to walk back to the hotel and head home. We thought it was a good idea but it soon turned out to be an awesome decision.
 
That mile or so we walked to the park we had to walk back and at this point the rain that we thought might come during the game was looking more and more like it was about to happen. And sure enough it came on lightly at first but then pounded us, the entire walk back. I’m pretty sure you could tell we were from out of town because no one else was walking on the streets unless they had an umbrella. Everyone was standing under an overhead or in a building waiting it out but we did not really want to wait it out so we just started running. By the time we got back to the hotel we were obviously drenched from head to toe but thankfully we hadn’t packed our stuff away yet so we could change and not be soaking wet on the ride home.  Scott decided not to and was still soaked by the time we returned to Crawfordsville a good 4 hours later.
 
This is one trip that I am grateful to be an intern at Wabash because I got to see how alumni help each other out and networked with several alums who gave some great advice and it’s always nice to hear the Wabash stories they have, never gets old. Bobby and I will be returning to Chicago soon to interview more alumni for our project.