Making the Most of Your Internship

Happy last day of June! Summer is almost half over (sad, I know), but this is a great time to start thinking about how to make the most of your summer internship or job you have. By now, you understand your job responsibilities, know how to work the copier and what to wear every day, but have you thought about how to make the most of this work experience? Here are 5 sure fire ways to ensure this:

1. Treat every day like it’s your first day on the job: It’s easy to become complacent once you feel comfortable in your work environment, but keep in mind that you are in a temporary position and you want to make a positive impression every day. Do this by asking good questions, but also by working independently. Volunteer for an extra project. Make sure you arrive to work on time every day. Be polite and respectful to everyone in the office (and everyone else you come in contact with) and avoid office gossip. Review the company policies, especially about Internet and cell phone usage while at work.

2. Meet as many new people as you can: By now, you probably know the names of everyone in your department or area, but take advantage of every opportunity to meet new people and build your network. When you meet new people, ask them if you can meet with them for 15-20 minutes either in the office or over coffee so you can ask questions about their role, their career history, and what advice they have for you as someone who is trying to get their foot in the door. Also, don’t forget to connect with them on LinkedIn. Not on LinkedIn yet? Check out LinkedIn’s short new videos especially for students about how to use LinkedIn: http://learn.linkedin.com/students/step-1/

3. Attend the company bbq or any event sponsored by the company: It might seem intimidating, but this is a great opportunity to meet with people who work in other departments in a casual and relaxed setting. We have even heard of interns who have talked to the CEO of a company (who was wearing shorts and flips flops no less!). Unsure of what to say? Use your 60-second commercial (where you have been, where you are and where you are going, i.e. your career goal).

4. Update your job search materials: It’s always a good idea to update your resume as soon as possible so you don’t forget anything, but also to get ready for on-campus recruiting that starts in September. Also, use your resources! Ask your supervisor to take a look at your resume and provide feedback. Think about who you will ask to serve as professional reference. Who can speak positively about your work style and work ethic? Think of your processional references as your cheerleaders. Once you decide who the best person is, make sure you ask that person to be a professional reference for you.

5. Send a thank you note: After your internship is completed (or while you are still there), make sure you express your thanks to everyone who has helped you. This can be a short email or a nice handwritten note.

Don't hesitate to contact our office with any questions. Good luck!

Sun! Fun!! Networking!?!

Bet you didn’t know that the guy standing next to you at the Black Eyed Peas concert works at that really great company you’re dying to intern at, did you? Summer networking opportunities present themselves when you least expect it—you need to be able to spot opps and take advantage.

But we all want to have fun during the summer and networking sounds, well… pretty boring, right? WRONG! Networking can be FUN (especially in summer) and here are some tips to make networking summer-worthy.

1. Make your parents happy and go to that neighborhood BBQ

Free food – good; being outside on a fabulous summer day – good; meeting new people who have established careers – good! When you get invited to go somewhere with your parents and their friends, think about how you can make it fun. I usually try to make a game out of networking (because it is not something I naturally like to do—oops, was I supposed to admit that?!). How many new people can I meet? How many people can I get connected to from the people I meet? Can I learn 5 new things about career fields? The possibilities are endless!

2. Pay attention to what is going on around you

Ever get so focused on one thing that you are completely oblivious to everything else going on around you? It happens to everyone from time to time, but you might miss a great opportunity if you don’t look around. Be willing to explore this summer; join a summer kickball league to meet new people, go somewhere you have never been and pay attention to the people you see, set up an informational interview with someone in a career field you might be interested in, but never thought of before (maybe the career field you learned about at that BBQ?). How aware do you think you are? Test your awareness hereà www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

3. Be ready to talk to people

If I said, “So, tell me a little about yourself,” would you have a response? Since this is going to be your summer of networking, you need to figure out how to tell someone about yourself in a brief, but effective way. Perhaps you might say something like this: “My name is Jane Smith and I am a junior at Marquette University studying Writing Intensive English. I have been really excited about my major lately because I just finished an internship this past spring in a publishing setting and I loved the fast-pace and working with different people. I am hoping to continue gaining experience with professional writing this fall and am looking for opportunities to pursue.” You never know when you can make a connection with someone—all you need to do is tell them what you hope to do.

4. Stay in touch!

After meeting all of these great people this summer, you will need to maintain your relationships. Stay connected through LinkedIn, e-mail short notes with helpful articles or other information to share, and let your contacts know what is going on with you. You must maintain your relationships or all of your hard work (and summer fun) will be for nothing.

Need more help with Networking? Come see us—we are open all summer (even for phone appointments!). To make an appointment, call 414.288.7423.

Getting to the Gateway

Whereas locating MU Career Manager is not that difficult on our new website, finding the Career Gateway section on the page can be a bit more challenging. The same resources (Golden Eagle Search, GoinGlobal, Vault, ReferenceUSA) are still available, and in this post we will detail how to access them.

For students:

On the homepage, there is the login box that you use for MU Career Manager. On the top of that box is a tab, which is titled "Resource Login". If you click on this tab, you will be directed to the old login screen for the Career Gateway. This page then requires you to enter your emarq information. Once you have completed those steps, you are fully able to access all the resources in that section of the website.

For alumni:

Because alumni do not have active emarq information (if you still do from your time as a student, simply use that and follow the instructions above), this process requires you follow a few different steps. First, click on the "Alumni" section on the left toolbar. On the alumni mainpage, you will see a link to the Alumni gateway about halfway down the page. If you click that link, you will be prompted to enter a username and password. This information can be received from our office. You will need to contact us at 414-288-7144 to obtain a login. Following that, you will be in the system and have all the access you previously held as a student.

Finding MU Career Manager

As mentioned in the last posting, our website has gone through a major overhaul. As with any new design, it can be tricky to identify where some resources that you commonly use are now located. Today's focus will be on MU Career Manager, our Marquette specific job database.

Students and alumni that are looking for MU Career Manager need to go no farther than our home page to access the login for the system. On the right side of the page you will see a yellow box with "MU Career Manager Student Login" inside of it. All you have to do is enter your username and password into those fields and you are in the database. It's really that simple.

Employers that are looking to login to MU Career Manager only require one extra step along the way. At the top of the yellow box, there are three tabs. One is for employer login. Any employer can simply click that, and then fill in the fields as noted above to enter the system.

We hope that this new login system for MU Career Manager will help to make the process easier for each of you, as it eliminates screens that you have to view in order to login to the site.

A New Look CSC

Those astute CSC fans out there may have noticed that a couple weeks ago our website got updated. Actually, updated may not be quite accurate; it was completely overhauled. The Career Services Center webpage is now much more user friendly, while still offering you all the resources that existed with the old site.

The big question that always comes with any new website is "where did _______ go?" Over the next couple weeks, we'll be detailing all that information here on the blog to help you identify where the key resources are now located.

For example, on the right side of the homepage, you will find a calendar of our upcoming events. Now, given that it is currently summer, this section looks a bit scarce. As the next semester approaches though, you'll see the dates and locations of events on the front page, broken up by type as well.

Coming up tomorrow: MU Career Manager