getting and finding the job (or internship) you want

In last week’s class we discussed how to find and get the jobs and internships that we want. We focused primarily upon how to behave on an interview and how to use social networking and job websites to your advantage. I really enjoyed this class because everything I learned was very applicable to real life.

We received very useful advice about how to prepare for an interview. We were told to practice answering difficult potential interview questions with friends or family so that we would know what to say when the real interview came. Two of these questions were “how would you handle a situation in which a coworker was not pulling their weight on a group project?” and “what are you weaknesses?”. We also learned that there are certain difficult questions where it is nearly impossible to have the “right answer”, and that instead we should focus on how we arrive at our answer, since that is what the interviewer will be focusing on. We were also told to be prepared for questions like “tell me about yourself” and to give an answer that will both reiterate some of the important information on your resume (as the interviewer may not have read it) and to also add additional important information.

In this class we identified how to use social networking and job websites in order to find job openings and in order to acquire connections to companies we would like to work for. The first resource that we were told you use was http://www.linkedin.com/ .LinkedIn is a site that expands your existing network of job contacts by having you create a professional page and them becoming friends on the site with other professionals . In using the site you are informed about new job openings that may not be posted elsewhere and you have the chance to use your professional contacts who may know people from the company you are interested in to put in a good word for you and even help you secure an interview. You also have the benefit of having your resume posted online, giving more companies the chance to look it over, to see if they might be interested in you, which can result in them contacting you for an interview. Linkedin seems like an extremely useful resource.

You can also use Craigslist to find out about jobs that are not posted elsewhere. You can use the site http://www.meetup.com/ inorder to find job opportunities and expand your circle of professional contacts as well. Internships.com is an extremely useful resource for finding networking. Lastly, do not forget that you can use Marist’s site https://maristcsm.symplicity.com/students/index.php?signin_tab=0&js_disabled=0 in order to build networking connections.

I am very happy to have covered how to find and get jobs and internships in our most recent class. Before this lesson I really had no idea how to use social networking to get and find jobs, but I know understand it and will be sure to take advance of linkedin and other similar services in the future. Prior to this class I also would never have thought of using craigslist since I had previously thought it was unreliable and frankly… a bit creepy , but I know that it can be a great job finding resource. I will be sure to take advantage of all of these new found resources in order to find a job in social work (my desired field) once a near a bit closer to graduation.