Career Services
COMPASS
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Career Services |
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Summer 2006 |
Volume 3, Number 3 |
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Greetings! You are receiving this as a result of your registration with Career and Counseling Services at West Texas A&M University. You came into our office and purchased a "career portfolio" enabling you to post your résumé in our database, interview on-campus and have interactive access to our jobs database. We want to ensure that you take full advantage of the many services our office provides. Read through this newsletter to get a glimpse of upcoming activities and events as well as day-to-day services available to you as a WTAMU student. Contact our office if we can assist you in ANY way in your job search or on a career-related matter. Good luck! Career &
Counseling Services WTAMU Graduate Update
My job title is Corporate Engineer for Western Container Corporation. Western Container makes all the bottles for Coca-Cola products in the western half of the United States and Canada. My duties include: standardizing plant procedures, finding and implementing continual improvement solutions, and managing capital projects. How did you find this job? This job found me, thanks to a posting of my resume on eRecruiting. I was quite sure I was going to work for Toyota in some capacity. Many of the positions I interviewed for were two-year training programs that required relocation every four to six months. This would have been very hard on my family. This position at Western Container promises much more stability. I would have never found it on my own. How is your job going so far? I really enjoy it. I never would have guessed how much work goes into making a plastic bottle. It is a very different type of engineering job than I thought I would get after graduation. It focuses on project management with an engineer’s perspective rather than calculation and design. It has allowed me to travel about a week out of the month. In July, I will travel to France, Germany, and Italy to meet with manufactures of the equipment we use. All in all, it is a very rewarding challenge. What services did you use at Career & Counseling services? I used every service I could and credit any success I have seen to these services. I took part in resume workshops and had my resume posted on eRecruiting. I participated in a co-op with Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance, California. My co-op was a great learning experience and a huge boost to my resume. Every interview I had since mentioned their interest in me due to my co-op experience. Is there anything you would have done differently at WT? I wish I could have followed through with some of my ideas for student activities in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Some got off the ground, and others just stayed ideas because I did not delegate responsibility. Do you have any advice for other students? Many students choose WTAMU because of small class sizes and opportunities to interact with professors. Take advantage of these opportunities by offering help with research or other ongoing projects. Such activities often lead to resume building material. Starting salary can be negotiated! It is often possible to improve a salary offer. True, many employers have little or no flexibility in starting salaries. Nonetheless, when done in an appropriate manner, one can usually ask for a higher salary without the risk of losing the offer altogether. Starting salary is only one factor to consider in weighing a job offer. Consider the work environment, opportunities for advancement, and others. Salaries vary by field, job, geographic location, and by organization. Comparable jobs at similar organizations in the same city can vary greatly in rate of pay. Salary negotiation is more art than science. Salary offers are based on your qualifications, supply and demand of candidates, financial health of an organization, and other largely imprecise factors. Salary questions may arise at various points during the employment process. Demonstrate to employers that you have researched salaries for your field. Be prepared to address salary issues during interviews and in a written application, as well as at the time of a job offer. Salary negotiation is a business transaction. Don't take it personally, and don't make it personal. Employers don't care about your student loans, credit card balance, the new muffler your car badly needs, or other financial obligations. To learn more about salary negotiations go to the following page on Career Services’ web site. Salary Negotiations
Office Romance, Is It
Worth the Risk? Office romances are common and inevitable in today’s world. Since we spend much of our day at the office, little time remains to venture off in search of true love. But love in the work place can be risky. You must be smart with your decision to seek out companionship with a coworker. Before you peruse the cubicles for your soul mate, consider the pros and cons of office romance. Dating someone within your office can have its advantages over dating someone that you met in a bar. Dating a coworker allows you the opportunity to get to know the person beyond physical characteristics. You can assess dependability, personality, and whether or not the person displays the characteristics that you find attractive in a dating partner. Working long hours at the office will become more enjoyable, and you won’t have to wonder what the other is doing at such times. However, there can be a down side that may have an adverse effect on your career. When coworkers find out about your romance, there could be talk of the two of you at the water cooler. Your budding office relationship could lead to tension, jealousy, and gossip within the company. Suppose the relationship does not last. You will still have to face your ex, perhaps even work closely together. If the breakup does not go well, it could cost you your job or force you to relocate within the company. There are some ways to help safeguard your career from the effects of office dating disasters. A good place to start is to find out if your company has a policy prohibiting dating within the company. If such a policy is in place, you may face the prospect of finding a new job in order to begin this relationship. Be selective when choosing a dating partner from your office. Remember, you have the advantage of assessing this person before pursuing a relationship. Use this advantage wisely! Once you begin your office fling, have a discussion as early as possible about how you will handle office rumors, displaying affection around the office, and how you will handle a breakup should it occur. Steer clear of dating your direct boss or subordinate. This could lead to tension or loss of motivation within the department or even a sexual harassment lawsuit. Finding your true love during a board meeting can save time with the busy lives we live today. However, be cognizant that your romantic decision may also be a career decision. Is it worth the risk? Information gathered from : "Office romances can be risky, rewarding" Your Resume as a Marketing Tool What should you do if your resume is not producing the results you’d like? When you send out your current resume and you are not getting calls for interviews, what is the problem? While there are a number of possible answers to these questions, one common (and easy to remedy) reason is that you may not be targeting your resume to the company and/or opportunity. Employers today want to know what you can do to help their organization. They need you to tell them – point-blank – the skills, abilities and experiences you bring to the table which will be beneficial to them. To effectively accomplish this task, you must research the opportunity and/or the company and discover what they seek. This is very easy if you are applying for a position where there is a detailed job description readily available. It is harder if the job announcement is short or vague and even tougher when you simply target a company without knowing what opportunities exist. However, taking the time to research the company’s needs and culture will allow you to ‘hit the target’ every time! Think about advertising which comes to your mailbox. If it speaks to a need you have (i.e., food coupons you open at dinner time) you are most likely to act. If it doesn’t address a need you have or anticipate having (i.e., a single guy getting information about a baby furniture sale) you will typically toss the advertisement without another thought. Employers are no different. Recruiters and hiring managers will respond at a much greater rate if you personalize your content to his/her needs. Our resume workshop contains some helpful worksheets to assist you with developing an effective, targeted resume. In addition, information abounds on the internet – such as this article from Monster.com – to guide you through this process and give some concrete examples. Take advantage of all the resources available and hit a bull’s-eye EVERY TIME you send out a targeted resume! The experience and skills
employees gain at McDonald's restaurants can take them places: from hourly
crew to restaurant management... to middle management... to careers
beyond, in just about any field of work anywhere. McDonald's has received
numerous awards for their commitment to providing positive opportunities
and leading-edge training: Learn more about career opportunities with McDonald’s at www.mcdonalds.com/usa/work.html Entry Level Job Seeker, Google Thyself
MILWAUKEE, WI--June 13, 2006--Have you Googled yourself lately? The results may be surprising and might even pose a risk for job seekers--especially if the information found casts a negative light on the candidate. There is a growing trend in the number of employers who are Googling (i.e. Internet keyword searching, typically through Google) candidates to research for additional information. "I like to take a look and see what information is out there about the candidates," said Nic Romero, Talent Acquisition Specialist for North Star Resource Group. "If they have recognition through sports or the community, that's great information that adds credibility to the candidate." However, while the searches are often used to learn about accomplishments not listed within the limited space of a resume, name searching does not select for positive versus negative results. In searching for candidate achievements, other--potentially embarrassing--pages may come up. Brian Krueger, President of CollegeGrad.com points out other savvy research techniques. "One of the favorite tricks of employers is to take the resume page of a candidate (such as www.freesite.com/janeqpublic/resume.html - not a real site) and backtrack it to the person's primary page (www.freesite.com/janeqpublic/ in this case). "Even if the resume page is 'clean,' the primary page may be filled with all sorts of other tidbits about the person that they may be quite embarrassed about if their future employer was reviewing." In the very public world of the Internet, millions of college students and other web-savvy young adults also maintain creative personal web pages within Internet social networking communities, such as Facebook and MySpace. Users create personal profiles that are sometimes questionable, and that often include photographs, videos, or blogs (short for web-logs) on dating experiences, politics or musings on what really bugs them about their parents, roommates, professors or even their employers. Job seekers beware, notes Krueger. "While there is still more hype than reality around employers using these sites to research potential hires, it is a growing trend. More and more employers are going deep into the Internet to dig for more information about potential candidates." Some career center experts stress that employers would be walking a fine ethical line if they used Internet social networking sites, or other Internet searching techniques as part of their screening process. But the majority remind students that the Internet blurs the line between what is public and what is private. "My recommendation to new entry level job seekers is that they start by cleaning up any personal Web sites they control, then Googling their own information which may be located on other sites," said Krueger. "If information (and--yikes!--photos) about that all night party are posted on someone else's site, usually a polite request for removal will suffice." CollegeGrad.com is currently running a poll on their home page about changing Facebook and MySpace content due to job search. And a large number of college students and recent grads are starting to take notice of their public Internet image. About
CollegeGrad.com:
Being on the receiving end of workplace abuse can leave the recipient suffering from both physical and mental health problems, such as lack of sleep, poor concentration, and/or anxiety. This can lead to poor job performance which can contribute to poor productivity in the department and in the company. How do you know if you are experiencing workplace abuse? Are you being criticized, belittled, or blamed for the errors of others? How can this situation be handled? Confront the office bully and establish your boundaries. Make it clear that you will not tolerate abuse. Give concrete examples of the bullying behavior, and explain how you felt during those times. Next, provide examples of workable behaviors. Workplace bullies may not realize how others are affected by their behavior. They may also lack understanding and skills in the areas of workplace communication and constructive criticism What if confrontation doesn’t work?
Options may include reporting the issue to the human resources department,
or bringing it to the attention of the bully’s boss. Some organizations
have specific procedures for complaints and if so these should be
followed. It may be difficult to take action and report the abuse since
you will probably continue to work with the bully after the matter is
brought to the attention of others. No matter how you choose to
handle the situation, workplace abuse is a difficult issue. Keep in
mind that the abuse is not your fault and it does not have to be
tolerated. What Are You Doing This Summer? Have some free time this summer? Interested in a way to road test a career, develop skills, network, and have fun in the process? Consider volunteering. WHY VOLUNTEER? Volunteering can open a world of opportunities and possibilities. Job leads, career confirmation, and increased chances of employment can all come through volunteer assignments--not to mention the awesome satisfaction of actually making a positive difference in the world. Other benefits include: * learning new skills (or developing the ones you
already have) Why not use some of your free time (or make some time) to help others and yourself this summer? FINDING VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES Opportunities abound. Trust us, you don’t have to look hard to find organizations thrilled to have your help. Here are some good places to start looking:
DOCUMENT YOUR EXPERIENCE Keep an excellent record of all your volunteer activities--date, agency, hours spent, supervisor’s name and contact information, etc. Also, write down skills you learned or developed : communication skills, budgeting, event management, record-keeping, etc. If you don’t write it down, you’ll forget it. Lastly, make sure you have easy access to this information. It comes in handy when you’re updating a résumé or preparing for an interview. Have fun and make the most of your summer! Career Services Calendar of Events
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