Resumes
The internet is full of helpful guides to creating a resume, so there’s not much we can add here that isn’t posted anywhere else, but there are few key points that many seniors in the College of Engineering have found helpful. Those are listed here:
- Always write your resume from the perspective of a recruiter. Write what you think they to hear based on what they’re hiring for (without lying of course). A recruiter wants to be able to clearly see your objective, your GPA, and your experience in the first 10 seconds of scanning your resume. Because of this, you need to keep everything brief and organized. Use a single font, but use italics and bold words when you can, to help them stick out.
- Use power words whenever possible. Examples of power words are; oversaw, executed, formulated, initiated, and launched.
- Use the active tense (i.e. make it seem like it just happened in the past). It prevents wordiness and keeps your resume clear and concise. ALWAYS triple check tenses, switching comes off as sloppy.
- Don’t use periods since the statements you’re putting are probably not full sentences. By all means, use them if you have a full sentence though!
- Write in the first person. You are “direct messaging” your recruiter. That being said, you don’t need to say, “I led 30 students in an after-school activity,” you can say, “Led 30 students in an after-school activity.”
- Use the same formatting throughout, especially with the headings and dates. Have the CCO and your parents read it – they’ll help you find spelling and formatting errors.
How to Dress
There are two different outfits you need before IR week…you need a business casual outfit for the job fair and a business formal outfit for the interview. Trust me, it’ll be hot out. You don’t need to wear business formal to an outdoor job fair. Plus, recruiters will be in khakis. You’ll look more prepared if you look like you understand what business casual means. That being said, it’s always better to be overdressed than under-dressed. ALWAYS. Let’s just make sure you know what business casual means…
Business Casual – Wear a belt, a nice shirt, and a collared shirt, or a nice blouse and slacks. Make sure that your belt matches your shoes and that they aren’t scuffed.
Business Formal – Suit and Tie, or a blazer with slacks or a skirt. POLISHED shoes without scuff marks. Bring a nice leather padfolio. Invest in your future.
Elevator Pitches
Below is PSEF alumna, Molly Chamberlin’s (BS ChE, 2015), senior year elevator pitch. It’s important to say your name as clearly as possible while shaking the recruiter’s hand. Practice frequently saying, “Hello **reach out a hand to shake**, my name is [YOUR NAME] **VERY CLEARLY** and I’m a freshman/sophomore/junior/senior in [YOUR MAJOR] Engineering **pass over resume from on top of your padfolio**.” After that, you can pause or continue onto the rest of your speech. Many people generally would stop to see if a recruiter wants to say anything and then continue on to reference their resume to get the questions to start.
“Hello, my name is Molly Chamberlin and I’m a senior in Chemical Engineering graduating next May. As you can see on my resume, I have spent two summers with Kimberly Clark Corporation working in their global nonwovens division. The first term I worked in research and development and in the second term I got to follow the project into production as a process engineering intern. I’m very interested in talking with you about research and development or process engineering opportunities with your company.”
Handling Rejection
Oh sweet rejection! It happens to everyone. Probably 20-30 times more than a successful attempt at a job fair. “Oh I’m sorry, we aren’t accepting resumes at this time. Just apply online.” Well, then why are you here?… But really you’ll hear it all the time. There are a few things you can do when this happens…
- Ask them if they have any tips about how to get your resume in the right hands later.
- Ask them if you can leave a business card with them instead of a resume. There are laws preventing companies from taking your resume and not following up with you. That’s why many companies just want you to apply online, so it’s already in a system and no one needs to scan them in. There is no law with business cards. Better than that, since in college it’s still a little weird to have business cards, just ask for theirs. That way you can follow up with them if you never hear anything back from the online application.
- Follow through with them and ask if you can reference them on your online application.
- Just walk away if you’re getting bad vibes. Often “apply online” can mean “we really don’t want to tell anyone no anymore because it makes us feel bad and recruiters are people too…”
Even if they don’t want you, don’t take it too harshly. They aren’t just looking at your qualifications, they’re looking to see if your personality will fit in. The people that are interviewing you don’t want to give you a job you won’t enjoy. Just keep looking. Maybe you won’t find your job at IR, maybe a company in an even better location will find you on the CCO and fly you out for an interview! Maybe if you took that job you’d end up in the middle of nowhere after graduation and you need to be around people. Who is to say what is good and what is bad?
Preparing for the Interview
When preparing for the interview you need to do 3 things: research the company, prepare some stories that you can apply to their questions and prepare some questions for them for the end of the interview. Before going into an interview you should write in your padfolio 2 lines of research about the company, 5 STAR situations which you can refer to during their questions (to jog your memory), and at least 3 questions you can ask them about their internship or full-time programs. Don’t be afraid to use notes during an interview. It shows you prepared for it. There is nothing wrong with glancing down for a second, just don’t linger and read directly from your notes.
Research the Company –
Go on their website and get familiar with their products. Think of things they could ask you relating to their products. ConAgra might ask you why a popcorn kernel might not pop; Clorox might ask you how to make charcoal burn longer. Outside of their company website, look at their social media, see what they are having problems with, see if they’ve recently had a merger, see if they recently released a product. These can be great talking points during the time you ask questions (the end of the interview).
Prepare for Their Questions –
Just like for an engineering exam, many people spend hours and hours going over practice questions. All you really need though are 5 good stories that you can apply to many different questions. They say the best way to answer an interviewer’s questions is to use the STAR method.
S – give the Situation
T – explain the Task you were given
A – relay the Action that you took
R – explain the Results you achieved
Some interviewers will have the word STAR written at the top of their papers and just wait to fill in the columns as you answered their questions. Write STAR really big in your notes so you remember!
Here are 48 examples of questions you might receive (from glassdoor.com a great website that helps you prepare for job fairs):
- What are your strengths?
- What are your weaknesses?
- Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
- Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
Prepare Questions for Them –
Almost as important as the way you answer their questions are the questions you will have to ask them at the end of the interview. You might question why you have to do this, but they want to see if you’ve researched them and if you have the ability to drive the conversation. When you work for them, you’ll have to formulate a lot of your own questions in order to get your work done. Here are some questions you can ask…
- What kinds of projects will I get to work on if I get the internship?
- What has been your favorite project you’ve worked on?
- What qualities did the best intern you’ve ever had have?
- What is the next step in the process?
- Can I have a business card to contact you if I have any more questions later? *always, always, always* Keep every business card you get since freshman year in your padfolio.
Refer to the following links for more information about How to Address the Weakness Question, How to Give Original Answers to 7 Cliche Interview Questions, Ten Overused Phrases Interviewers Can’t Stand, and How to Define Your Strengths and Weaknesses.
Thank You Notes
It is essential that you send a thank-you note. It doesn’t need to be handwritten or mailed to them. The night after an interview, email every interviewer individually (many times an interview will have more than one person in them). An example can be seen below.
Dear **Interviewer’s name**,
Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come to Purdue and interview for **insert the position title**. From everything I learned about the position, I can really see myself excelling in the program. My experience with robotics in high school has really set me up to be successful in a program such as yours because of how often I got to work with people in industry, learn about new engineering applications, and shell out professional documents to judges. Please let me know if you need anything from me at all! I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME, MAJOR, EMAIL, AND CELL PHONE NUMBER]