Creating a Job Hunt and Career Building Strategy

Job readiness and career coaching sessions for current students and alumni are common in many colleges and universities across America. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend one of these events at the University of Utah Career & Professional Development Center recently. 

The day was divided into morning breakout sessions and afternoon networking. The three morning sessions offered participants choices of two different topics to explore every hour. For me, in all cases, choosing between which of the two to attend proved to be quite a challenge as all of the sessions were varied and all intriguing (to see the entire listing of sessions, scroll to the bottom of the post to see the day’s agenda). In this post, I will share highlights of the seminars I attended, hoping some of the lessons I learned can help you in your job search whether you are a recent graduate, new to the job market, or a seasoned professional. 

Session 1: Robot Resume Review: Writing Resumes for Applicant Tracking Systems 
For the first breakout session, we could choose between learning about Application Tracking Systems (ATS, here after) or Networking and Small Talk. Since I recently attended the Center’s session on small talk (see this post), I opted for learning about the complex world of ATS. I was more than satisfied with this session as it truly lived up to and surpassed the description on the seminar brochure (view the brochure at the end of this post). If you’re interested in the top three interesting tips I learned in this session, click here. 

Session 2: Navigating the U.S. Job Search 
I opted to choose this session due to my passion and interest in working with international students and expats with their career guidance. I was really looking forward to learning something new, and I did! While looking back, it seems quite simple. However, sometimes the simple things are often the most difficult ones to think of and apply. 

In this session, we learned how to counter objections prospective employers may have about employing international students and visa issues. To read more about this tip along with a helpful approach to starting this discussion, click here. 

Session 3: Negotiate for What You’re Worth 
Ann House, Director, from the University of Utah Personal Money Management Center co-facilitated this session with Career Coach, Francine Mahak from the Career & Professional Development Center . I found it utterly fascinating that the university has this department, which is separate and distinct from the Financial Aid Office. Ann shared a thick workbook with us on negotiation strategies and presented many helpful and practical tips. 

Sessions 4 & 5: Lunch Panel & Networking 
From 12-2, participants enjoyed learning from each other. From 12-1, participants ate lunch while a panel of recruiters fielded questions from the audience. From 1-2 and beyond, we interacted in a round robin of networking. I found this networking activity enlightening and fun. The audience was broken up into four groups. Each group had one of the recruiters from the panel. Each group was allowed to interact with a selected panelist for 15 minutes, then at the end of each 15 minute block, the group members would move on to a different panelist, sitting with him or her and ask questions. In many ways, I enjoyed this round robin much more than I thought I would and much more than the panel discussion the previous hour, as we got to talk to more people and learn about what bought people from various career levels to this conference. 

Overall, this was a well-planned and very informative day. I can’t say that at any point I was bored, sleepy or disinterested. The day’s pace was perfect and kept me interested all day long. I hope this was true for the rest of the attendees as well. 

Thank you again to the team at the University of Utah Career and Professional Development Center for letting me attend this amazing event! For prospective, current and past students, do not hesitate on accessing the center for your career development needs. They are awesome, resourceful, and ready to help! 

Read more about what I learned at this conference: 
3 Tips to beat the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) 
How to Counter Objections for Employment as an International Student in the U.S. 
Salary Negotiation Tips 

How To Land A Job When in College

University Career Centers are offering a wide range of innovative programs to help students land their first job or internship. Being in India the last 6 years, I have read about these inspiring programs from abroad. Finally, recently, I was able to attend one of these events on the University of Utah Campus hosted by the Career and Professional Development Center.  

Networking Sucks: But You Don’t Have To! 
Building the confidence of students to get out, make small talk and introduce themselves to employers at job fairs was the focus and main goal of this two hour session. And, it was executed brilliantly. 

The food section! I forgot to mention- hummus!!

Coming from a background of corporate training, I was impressed by the instructional design of the program- everything from the information sharing to small talk interaction to mock employer meetings was amazing. But, more than that, since it was a college event, the free food, which is a staple of such events was integrated in a way that was natural to the professional meet and greet scenario. Pizza was not part of the menu, but more ‘grown up’ foods such as antipasti, quinoa salad, wraps and mocktails. They even set up the mocktail section like a bar where students could order their mocktail, and the staff made it fresh with fruits, juices and sodas. While I feel the mocktails were a hit, I feel the college students were not yet ready for the grown-up foods because I feel they were barely touched. But, this is a good context building experience for them to understand what kind of foods would be served at professional networking sessions. And, it’s rarely pizza!   

Making Small Talk   
The room was set up with several tables with topics like “Football and Soccer,” “Game of Thrones” and a few others I can’t remember. I actually ended up sitting at the “Football and Soccer” table in hopes of challenging myself to talk about a topic I knew nothing about (knowing how difficult this is for most of the people I have worked with in the past, I can relate). It turned out that the few other international students and domestic students who decided to sit here at this table also had no clue about [American] football, though some did know about [international football] soccer. Though we briefly talked about that, we talked about a range of other related topics. I feel the Game of Thrones table had a lively conversation about the actual topic, though I did not visit that table. 

Myths of Networking   
After 30 minutes of small talk, the facilitators shared information with us on the myths of networking and tips to introduce ourselves to potential employers. This section was lecture heavy, but short, sweet and to the point.   

Some of they myths discussed include: 

• The purpose of networking is to get a job
• Networking only takes place in professional settings
• People who network are extroverts
• Networking is awkward and unnatural 

While most of us in the audience agreed that networking felt unnatural, when we started to think of it more as a conversation, some of us eased up.  

I would like to add a myth that may have been discussed, but maybe not directly: Networking is not always a one time event.  

In my experience, since networking is nothing but creating, building and nurturing relationships over a period of time, networking with anyone can be looked at as being on a continuum. Just like some friendships, they can go on steady for many years or, in other cases, go on for a time, go on a break, and start back up sometime in the future. I guess this comes more from experience, networking over a long period of time (a few decades, in my case).   

Initiating Conversation with Recruiters 

The facilitators shared a script on how to introduce ourselves to recruiters at job fairs. While they said, this is a helpful guide, they did stress not to stick strictly to the script, but to practice and personalize it to one’s conversational style and situation. This all comes with a lot of practice, of course. So, in this part of the session, the facilitators had the participants download the career fair app that listed the employers for upcoming career fairs on campus to research a few employers. The six tables that were used for small talk topics were converted into ‘employer tables.’ Students crafted their introductions and practiced them with student volunteers who role played the employer. I felt the student volunteers that I had the pleasure to interact with were very insightful and skilled in these interactions and gave some good tips and advice to the students practicing the mock recruiter interactions.  

I attended this event as a community partner/volunteer. It was really fun and enlightening to interact with such ambitious students. I hope to get more chances to participate in such programs in the near future. May all the students who had the chance to participate in this event have much success!   

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How You Can Learn about Admissions into US Universities

Are you living outside of the U.S.? Do you want to apply to college in the United States? There are some simple ways you can learn about the admissions procedures at schools of your interest without contacting an agent. 

In the American education system, American students do not use an agent. It is considered completely acceptable and respectful to research information on one's own and directly get in touch with the concerned person at the college.

Let's see how to do this. 

Step 1: Search for websites on admissions for the school, program, or level

(Click on any of the links below to see a sample Google search using information from SUNY Buffalo for these search terms.)

If you know the name of the college you want to go to, but not your major, you can use these search terms:

• Name of college + international student admissions
• Name of college + international undergraduate admissions
• Name of college + graduate school admissions

If you know the name of the college AND your major:

• Name of college, your preferred program of study(subject/major), + international student admissions

If you know the name of the college and the name of the school: 

• Name of college, school of study, admissions
• Name of school of study + international student admissions

Step 2: Find the contact page or email ID Find the contact name and email ID on the page you are directed to. Try to review the information to your best understanding before contacting the concerned person. 

Keep in mind depending on the size of the school or the search you do, you may be contacting the admissions representative for the entire college, a person in the academic department, a person who works in the international student office, or another college staff. Look for their name and title to know who you are reaching out. 

If you do a search and are wondering about how to contact the concerned person and what to say, get in touch with me. I will guide you if you come to me after doing some research! Contact me by leaving a comment to this blog, or leaving a message on the Facebook page. 

Tutoring International Students in the U.S.A.

Students from all over the world aspire to study in the U.S. The video below was a training program given at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to student tutors on best practices when tutoring international students.

A brief outline of the discussion points include:

1. International Students Need to Learn US Academic and College Culture 
   International students could be transitioning from a foreign high school to an American university or from a overseas undergraduate college to an American college (to earn a master's degree). 
2. Class Participation Differences
   Many international students are not encouraged to interact with the teacher in their home countries.
3. Keeping in touch with the teacher/professor. 
4. International students may not keep their teachers up to date with what they are doing, if they are absent or if they need help.
5. Citations & Academic Integrity
   In some countries, students are required to regurgitate what the teacher says from class or from the book on the test. It’s not accepted to use citations or speak from their own experience or in their own words.
6. Language Barriers
   Many students are learning in the US in their second, third, fourth or fifth language.
7. Tips for tutoring international students
   Build a relationship by starting from scratch – asking where they are from, etc.
   Adapt your English to be understood easier (See more tips here.)
   Define words for them they may not know
   Avoid idioms and be careful with humor Use concrete examples, use pictures 

Learn more about the Virginia Commonwealth University's Global Education Office.

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