Thanks for your patience, we will see you Wednesday.

Forget your belt!

Act bored!

Insult them!

While some of you may be guilty of these career fair faux pas, hopefully I will save someone the unfortunate experience of ruining their first impression with a company you actually want to work for! Good luck out there!

Hiring interns isn’t a new concept, but it is one that should be considered if a company isn’t already. Just because a student is still in school does not mean they are not bright, dedicated and talented. After all, these are the kids you will hire in a few years anyways. Here are some benefits of tapping into the resource of interns:

Help the Bottom Line without Hurting It
Interns are inexpensive. Many of them are willing to take unpaid positions just to gain valuable experience. Even if payment is required, it will be at a fraction of a full-time hire. If you hire the right intern, you will find that they can be a valuable asset to your company. They can contribute in meaningful and important ways…..or can just help with work that frees up your full-time employees for other tasks. Either way, they can be extremely helpful.

Built-in Hiring Portal
You always test drive a car before you buy it right? So why not test out an employee before you hire them? That is a great benefit of hiring an intern. If they do great work and fit in around the office they are a perfect candidate to hire once they graduate.

Keep-up with the Joneses
If your company has anything to do with a younger demographic, whether it be in the products that you sell or your advertising messages, it can be helpful to have a younger crowd right there in your office. Find out what they think is cool and it can help in your deliver to the public.

Paying it Forward
In most cases there has been someone in your life that has mentored you or given you a chance when you may not have deserved it. It is hard to gain experience when you have none. Internships are valuable for students to improve their resume and make them more attractive for their first full-time post grad job.

Of course you still have to hire the right interns, or it could be an equally negative experience but I encourage you to examine your company and see if there could be a need for an intern. You may find it to be a rewarding and profitable endeavor….if it is, and this entry sparked your thinking, let me know, and I can give you my address to sent my commission check!

No, I don’t have the ability to read peoples minds, but I have received some great feedback as I work with college recruiters on what they are looking for from potential candidates.

• Get Involved. Employers want self-motivated people.  They want their hires to be driven and pro-active in whatever arena they are in.  Right now, their candidates are in college, so they want to see them being active in that stage of their lives.  Don’t just go to class…if you are a business major, join your business or entrepreneur club, get involved in any conferences that your business division is putting together and get on the leadership team, do internships, write articles for the school paper, etc..  Show that you can do more then just go to class and get good grades (hopefully you are doing those things already!).

• Show Interest. Yes, they are recruiting you as a potential employee, but you should also be recruiting them by proving you could be a valuable asset to their team.  Show up to their career fair booth.  Keep in contact with them through social media (Zumeo, Twitter, Facebook, etc.).  Show them that you actually want to work there, and while doing that, prove to them that you are a qualified candidate.

• Don’t be Stupid. Recruiters have a facebook and twitter account too and most of them will check yours before you are interviewed.  Pictures of you playing beer pong aren’t exactly the extra-curricular activities they are looking for.  Neither are tweets about how you cheated on your econ test or can never wake up for your 10am classes and can’t imagine going to work at 8am everyday.  Like I said, just don’t be stupid.

You don’t have to be a mind reader, just follow some basic guidelines and be pro-active.  You need to set yourself apart from the crowd and present yourself in a positive light.  Every little bit helps.

1. Be Positive. Even if you are not working at your dream job just yet, don’t let your co-workers know that.  It doesn’t mean you have to show up to work everyday wearing the company’s co-ed softball team uniform and waving pom poms, but have a good attitude and be a friendly face on the job.
2. Be Adventurous. Don’t run around the office like a crazy person trying to hurdle everyone’s cubicle, but don’t sit back and let everyone else do all the work.  Get your hands dirty and be a self-starter.  Don’t be afraid to take on a new and challenging project.




3. Be a Team Player. No one likes a glory hog.  If you are working on a team and you accomplish a project together, give ample credit to your co-contributors.  Don’t throw yourself under the bus, but don’t be a jerk and take all the credit if you don’t deserve it.

Enjoy your break and head back to school refreshed and focused on the task at hand, but remember, try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.

Current Flyer:

New “IDEA”:

After I wrote this first paragraph I realized I set out to write about interviewing, not public speaking…. However, I think interviewing holds many of the same fears that giving a speech does.  It may not be in front of a large group, but you are still expected to be impressive with your rhetoric.

As many college students are preparing for job interviews in the coming weeks and months, I would like to share a few thoughts that can hopefully help in the process.

• Be Prepared, But Don’t Over-think It. You could have 5 interviews and potentially be hit with 5 completely different sets of questions.  Companies are getting more creative in their interviewing.  If you just stand in front of a mirror and practice your response for “What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses” and other generic questions, you may be up you-know-what-creek without a good answer.  Your interviewer doesn’t want to hear your sound bite of a pre-rehearsed question, they want to know the real you.  Study up on some current events, be prepared to discuss books you may be reading or hobbies you are involved in.

• Do Your Homework. Find out about the company that you are interviewing with.  It seems so basic, but you would be shocked at how many interviewees don’t have a clue about their interviewer.  It doesn’t make a good impression when they ask you if you have any questions for them and you ask how many single girls work there or what kind of coffee they have in the break room.  Prepare some meaningful questions that let them know you actually care about working for them, not just earning a paycheck.

• Stay Sharp. As I mentioned earlier, companies are getting creative with their questions.  It is becoming fairly common to see questions designed to see how quickly you can recover from a tough or completely random query.  Most companies are looking for smart, creative people that have solid problem-solving skills, not just someone who tosses out answers like “I think my biggest weakness is that I care too much about my job and work too hard.”  At that point your recruiter is holding back the vomit while drawing a huge red X on your resume.  Be original and be creative.  Sometimes it’s not about what you say but how you say it.  They might ask you questions that don’t really have a good answer, they just want to see how you process it and get out of a jam.  Be ready for anything.

• Practice. Find a friend or ask your career center for help in asking you some tough questions that will get you prepared for your interview.  You wouldn’t just stroll onto the field, court or stage without first getting familiar with the task at hand.  Why not do that for an interview?  If you are serious about your career and finding a killer job, your interview is a key point to landing it.

It is hard to predict what kind of environment you will face in an interview.  There are many techniques for conducting an interview and you cant possibly anticipate every question, but if you are cognizant of the possibilities and prepared to be challenged and think outside the box when giving your answers, you’ll be much better off.

I love watching the show “Survivor.”  One of my favorite things on the show is when a certain group of castaways pull off a major upset to completely blindside another survivor and vote them off.  It is always classic to watch the person as the dude reads the votes and the person had no clue they were even a target.  Don’t be that guy.  Don’t get caught off guard by the recruiter asking you “how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop.”