Introduction
My name is Ankit and I just finished my 1st year of the Smeal MBA program. I am a few weeks into my internship with NIKE, for which I am super excited and very thankful. The reason I am writing this blog is to help my classmates and the new incoming class to learn from my experiences, and to aid in their job search. Even if one person benefits from my blog, I will consider it to be a success.

My Story
I started looking for an internship right when our program started, and I got a final offer 10 days before the end of 1st year program.  So, there could not have been a more exhaustive search than what I went through this year.  From the first day I knew the concentration that I wanted to major in, and the field in which I wanted to work. I attended all the company information sessions that catered to my interest throughout the year.  At the beginning, it was difficult to gauge what the companies were really looking for. This is why I started interacting with the 2nd year students to get their insights and advice.  I applied to all the jobs related to my concentration that were posted on Symplicity, our on-line recruitment system. I received several interviews, but unfortunately I was unable to convert them into concrete offers.  As time passed by I realized that first, I needed to tap into the great career services resources we have here at Smeal.  Secondly, I needed to look beyond Symplicity for my internship search. Thus, I started making appointments with Mr. Mike Brown and Ms. Emily Giacomini, from the Career Services office.  I regularly practiced mock interviews and had my resume and cover letters reviewed.  This slowly helped me in polishing my interviewing skills, as over the time you start understanding the tricks of the recruiting process. I also began connecting with people outside of school, which helped me expand my job search, and I stayed in touch with my mentor. My classmates and I spent time interviewing one another, and I used their feedback to improve my interviewing skills.

The path was tough. I used to ask myself this question:  “What is the one thing that I am not doing for my job search?”  I knew that if the fundamentals are right and if I am doing everything correctly, then sooner or later things will work out. This gave me confidence, because I knew that I was doing everything I could do.

Finally, after several rounds of interviews and having walked on this never-ending path of job search, on April 11th, I received a call from NIKE. They notified me that they would like to hire me for their summer internship program. This was the first time in my life when I actually felt more relieved than happy. I got into one of the best companies in the world.  In a split second I recalled all of the efforts I had put in and the faces of all the people who helped.  Then I sat down for a second to digest the news.  I got up and I gave a tight bear hug to all my friends without whose support I wouldn’t have made it. But I think the most important and vital part of this blog is below.

My Advice and Key Takeaways
1.    When I came to the Smeal MBA program, I had offers from other school as well.  I wrongly assumed that if I was really good in behavioral interviews during the MBA admissions process, that I would yield similar result from recruiters and companies as well. That was not the case. Business schools and companies have different criteria and evaluation standards, even though the interview questions might be similar.  Please don’t stick to same skill level you were at while interviewing for MBA schools.  Once you are in, you need to raise your performance bar and enhance your interviewing skills.

2.    Reach out to career services as early as possible. Try mock interviews with them. Take their help in reviewing your cover letter and resume. They are immensely supportive and helpful.

3.    Please. Please.  Please.  Write down the answers and practice the questions provided by Mr. Mike Brown during the career immersion week. They were a set of 20 tough questions. I found them very helpful. Write down the answers and practice them.

4.    Follow the S.T.A.R format while answering interview questions.

5.    Get a hold of a couple of classmates and practice mock interviews with them regularly. Because you all are going through same cycle of interviews, you know the interviewing environment the best. Then take the feedback and work on it.

6.    Do extensive research on the company and show your genuine interest while you interview.

7.    Finally, I am thankful to Smeal. Smeal attracted a lot of companies. I was privileged to interview with many of them. This helped me go through various interviews, fail in them, and learn something from the experience that made me a better candidate for the next interview. Eventually, I reached a level where I was polished enough to get recruited. But if I didn’t have the cushion of going through numerous interviews, I wouldn’t have made it this far. I really appreciate the brand name of Smeal and the efforts of our career service team that helps to bring so many companies to our campus. This helps us to try our luck and skills across variety of companies and finally get into one that’s the right fit.

by Ankit Goswami, Class of 2013

BEFORE the Internship

Prepare
Once you start, you will need to hit the ground running. In a recent interview, 2nd year student Jorge Quezada shared something he learned through his internship last summer at Colgate-Palmolive:
“I had the contact information for my manager, but I didn’t take that proactive step to find out what my role was going to be and if there was anything that I could do to prepare for that role before I got there.  If I had it to do again, I definitely would do that before hand.”

DURING the Internship

Set goals for yourself and with your manager
Set S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measureable, actionable, reasonable, time-bound) goals for yourself in the internship and with your manager for your assigned projects. The former will ensure you achieve what you want for the summer and the latter will facilitate discussion to ensure you are on the same page as your supervisor and set to deliver expected results. 2nd year Andrew Hoffman worked at Mars Chocolate North America and shares, “During the internship itself we had milestones: the midway point to get interviews with stakeholders  . . . and then the final deliverable which was an hour presentation.”
On the personal side, Jorge says, “I set two goals for myself. The first goal was to do the very best job I could. I wanted to deliver a good product at the end of the summer. But on top of that, I also wanted to get to know Colgate very well. It was critical for me to know the culture and know I was going to be a good fit within that culture.” Seems like it worked out, since Jorge has accepted a FT offer at Colgate!

Learn the business
You may find yourself in a situation that is your first exposure to a particular business, so be resourceful and uncover ways to learn it, fast! Faced with learning organic chemistry to master chlorine production in her internship at PPG, 2nd year Claire Farrell used resources at hand:
“Instead of just Googling it . . .  I was very fortunate because my manager singled out a couple of engineers and scientists for me to meet with one-on-one to  learn the science behind how to make chlorine and then those were people I could call if I had a question.”

Build relationships early
Initiate! Reach out to alumni and others in your company who could act as mentors, role models or even peer resources to empower you in getting your projects done and learning about the firm.
Claire encourages the Class of 2013 to “leverage those Penn State relationships . . . email them and ask them if they can sit down with you for 30 minutes. They might be able to talk to you about the business a little bit, but they may also be able to recommend five names of people who would be good to talk to in the business. It will make your life so much easier!  . . . . Definitely try to get those relationships started right away.”
Andrew admits, “I took a little too long to establish connections with the various key stakeholders . . . everybody can do the detailed analytical work- you’re taught that on the job and it’s very specific, but it’s the relationships that really move your business forward.”
Also, invest in social relationships with other students as well as attending company events held for interns. The first will build your professional network and the second is part of the company’s plan to see how you fit in with their culture, so take advantage of the opportunity to build your reputation.

Volunteer    
One of the best ways to show you are engaged is to volunteer to assist a team member or notice what is needed and initiate a new project to get it done. Of course, these activities would be an addition to and not a replacement for your main tasks!
Jorge’s suggestion for new interns is “Not to focus [only] on their main project . . . This becomes even more important if that main project doesn’t show off your skills. If there are other projects you can get involved in that will show off your some of those other skills you have, it’s only going to be to your benefit.”
In conclusion, throw yourself whole-heartedly into your internship. Give it the best you’ve got and come back with stories to share!

by Emily Giacomini, MBA Career Services Associate Director

I believe the distinction is made between candidates who have best identified and communicated to employers, their “competitive advantage” and those who have not.

WIIFM (What’s In It For Me), as a hiring motivator, has never been more true than today.  Employers are bottom line driven.  Candidates, who best drive home the message that they can make measurable differences and affect the bottom line, clearly set themselves apart from their competition.

If employers have a WIIFM attitude, don’t fight it – address it!  What follows are six ways to appeal to an employer’s WIIFM mentality and give yourself a competitive advantage.

1.    Making Money
Have your accomplishments improved sales volume?  Have you introduced products to increase sales?  Have you earned your company incentive bonuses through on-time delivery of products?  Improved gross margins?

2.    Saving Money
Have you reduced purchasing costs?  Reduced operating expenses?  Trimmed budgets?  Identified or eliminated obsolete inventory?  Outsourced processes at lower costs while retaining quality?  Reduced on the job injuries?  Re-negotiated vendor contracts?  Lowered shipping, freight, delivery costs?

3.    Saving Time, Gaining Efficiencies
Have you reduced lead-time?  Production time?  Reporting time?  Have you reduced or eliminated overtime?  Have you performed the work of two?  Introduced systems to reduce look-up time?  Boosted capacity?  Re-engineered existing processes?  Consolidated redundant operations?  Reduced or eliminated paperwork?  Streamlined reporting?  Devised new processes?  Reduced administrative/clerical errors?

4.    Solving Problems
Have you trouble shot recurring product failures?  Eliminated downtime?  Scrap?  Have you made customer access easier?  Replaced outdated technology?  Made information more accessible for team members?  Have you reduced service calls?  Improved product reliability?  Improved product packaging?

5.    Being More Competitive, Gaining New Customers
Have you initiated programs to gain market share?  Devised strategies to gain first-time clients?  Tapped into overlooked markets?  Restructured pricing policies?  Renegotiated contracts?  Revamped marketing philosophy?  Improved company/product awareness?

6.    Retaining Customers
Have you initiated customer feedback initiatives?  Set up systems to track customer purchases?  Improved customer communication channels?  Set up site visits?  Improved customer access to your company Website.  Streamlined customer reorder process?

As you take stock of your accomplishments, ask yourself one more question?  What am I known for?

If it is solving problems, for example, that must become your mantra!  It must become your trademark!  Being a “problem solver” should be highlighted in every form of your job search communication — networking meetings, your resume, cover letters, personal introduction, voice mail messages.  Coupled with researching an employer’s needs, your “competitive advantage” should be woven into the fabric of every interview response.

Your Five Step Action Plan:
1.    Revisit your accomplishments and group them into the six competitive advantage factors
2.    Rethink the questions in the six factors; you will probably have new accomplishments to add.
3.    Rework your resume, adding your new accomplishments
4.    Revise your Personal Branding Message stressing your competitive advantage(s)
5.    Review your personal introduction.  Does it highlight your newly recognized competitive advantage?  Consider adding these phrases:  “During my career I’ve been known for (competitive advantage)”, or “I have a reputation for (competitive advantage)”  “Two or three accomplishments that demonstrate that (or these) are:”  “Contributions I’ve made that would best benefit your company are:”

Leave no doubt about what sets you apart from other candidates.  Leave no doubt about what the employer will gain by hiring you.

By Mike Brown, Director, MBA Career Services Smeal College of Business

Since networking is a process of building relationships, holiday networking is well timed to “plant the seeds of interest” in hiring managers.  The next few weeks will be an excellent time for you develop alliances and build relationships for the upcoming year.  Holiday time is also social event time.  Many class and family reunions are held.  There is no better time to meet, greet and present your “personal introduction.”

If, however, the networking possibilities aren’t incentive to maintain an active search campaign during the holidays, consider these 10 factors:

1.    Because many job seekers believe the myth that the holidays are slow hiring times, they don’t contact employers or send resumes.  Your résumé now gets greater attention, your visibility increases and you have less competition.

2.    A new fiscal and budget year begins for most companies in January.  By meeting with employers and forming relationships during December, you are in a prime position of consideration when the selection process begins.

3.    Business travel and corporate meetings taper off during December.  Recruiters and hiring managers are “home,” more accessible, have a greater tendency to answer their own phones, and are more willing to meet on an informal basis.

4.    Your persistence, fortitude and perseverance during December will impress hiring managers and recruiters.  You will be seen as a serious candidate.

5.    January is the most active month in employment hiring.  The seeds you plant in December could result in interviews and offers in January and February.

6.    And finally, back to networking.  Consider all the additional holiday events related to a spouse’s work and/or community activities, children’s school activities and religious congregation’s programs.  You will not see nearly the number of social events in January.

Enjoy the holidays.  Maintain a good balance between work search activities and family.  Take advantage of the relaxed mood, festive spirit, to put yourself in a favorable position for good things to happen in the upcoming year.

by Mike Brown, MBA Career Services Director

The purpose of a cover letter is to interest the reader in reading your resume and inviting you to an interview.  It should deliver a customized, personalized message to a prospective employer.  That message is: I am interested in position XYZ, and here’s why I am a qualified candidate.

A cover letter consists of three main paragraphs and should not be longer than one printed page.  It’s sounding easier already!

The first paragraph tells the reader how you heard of the open position or, why you are interested in that company, if there is no known opening.  Refer to the position by title and reference number, if you know it.  If you have been referred by someone who the employer knows, mention his/her name.  This first paragraph is not a lengthy one, but should convey purpose, interest and enthusiasm.

The next paragraph tells the reader why you are qualified for the job.  This is the “meat and potatoes” of a good cover letter.  Stress your accomplishments and achievements that are relevant to the job you want.  This paragraph must appeal to the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) of the potential employer.  If the job posting is looking for someone with excellent problem solving skills, this paragraph must include a statement that demonstrates that point.  From a format point of view, I recommend using bullet points to accentuate those relevant accomplishments.  If you are short on related experience, focus instead on key skills that will transfer from previous work experience to the position you want.

The final paragraph tells the prospective employer how and when you will follow up.  You will improve your success rate 50%, by following up within five days of the employer’s receipt of your cover letter and resume.  You must request action, an interview or meeting.  Express your confidence that you are the right fit for the position or company.

Avoid the four most costly errors in writing cover letters:
“To Whom It May Concern” — sounds like a complaint letter.
“Dear sir/madam” or worse “Dear sir” — avoid any reference to gender.
“Dear Human Resources Manager” — unless you want to work in Human Resources, they can only reject you, not hire you.
“I look forward to hearing from you” – you must be the one to take proactive follow-up action.

The key to a good cover letter is research.  Identify the person within the company with the ability to hire you and send your cover letter directly to that person.  Make certain the spelling of their name is correct.  Do not write a “one size fits all” cover letter to every company.

Now that you have the basics for writing a professional, attention-getting cover letter, think of the competitive advantage you give yourself over all those other candidates who “opt out” of including a cover letter with their resume.

by Mike Brown, MBA Career Services Director

An interview is actually about how you can help your future boss and future employer succeed. It’s about finding out what their requirements and hopes are and matching up your background and experience with what they need.

Overlooking these basic facts about the interview is all too easy. The following article will shed some light on how to make an interview not be about you but about your future employer.

Depending on which survey results you prescribe to, the success rate for finding a job online is between 8-20%. Those are not impressive numbers compared to networking, gaining inside referrals, and contacting hiring managers directly. However, job candidates do find jobs on the Internet, and if you are going to employ the technology, you must know how to maximize your success rate.

In the movie, The Graduate” the keyword was “plastics.” In online job search, the keyword is….well, “keywords.” Keywords are nouns and noun phrases that describe you professionally. They are nouns generally associated with an industry, profession or job function. If you are going to post your resume to job boards, company websites, keywords are critical to gaining visibility.

Today, many employers are employing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software or Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to screen, sort and rank candidate resumes.  In order to screen thousands of qualified candidates, an internal recruiter or hiring manager, using OCR or ATS software, will create search criteria, keywords to select resumes from hundreds to thousands of candidates in a company’s database.

Keywords are words we use in our day-to-day work and academic life but often take for granted. They are:

• Transferable skills: communication, leadership, planning, team building, mentoring, critical thinking, consulting, editing
• Job specific skills: financial analysis, internal audits, script writing, union relations, Sarbanes-Oxley, account management, risk assessment, GAAP
• Technical skills: SAP, systems architecture, programming, CAD/CAM
• Software: Excel, PowerPoint, Project Manager, Access, PhotoShop
• Job titles: VP Marketing, CFO, Director of Operations, Software Engineer
• Personal qualities: high-energy, visionary, results-oriented
• Education/degree: MBA, PhD, MS
• Certifications/licenses: CPA, MCSE, Series 7, RN, Series 65
• Quality programs: ISO 9000, TQM, Six Sigma, LEAN
• Industry jargon: Marcom, B2B, B2C, cradle-to-grave
• Languages: Spanish, German, Japanese, Mandarin

You already know many keywords through assessment tools and personality surveys. The best place, however, to find keywords is in job postings and position descriptions under the Qualifications or Requirements section. Look for descriptors in the job requisition that employers use to describe their ideal candidate. As long as they are truthful about you, create your own list. Open a new file in Word and call it Keywords. The list may contain 20 to 50 noun and noun phrases from the categories above.

You may say, “but my resume already contains many of these words.” Does it, however, contain enough to rank your resume high enough on an employer’s “hit list?” Of 20 keywords that a recruiter uses, he or she may only look at the candidate resumes that match 18 and more of the 20. We create a Skills Summary to ensure our resume exceeds a minimum threshold.

Every resume that you submit electronically, either to a major job board or an employer’s corporate website should, no MUST, contain a Skills Summary. Your Skills Summary is a customized collection of those noun and noun phrases that match the requirements for the position for which you are applying, from your saved keyword list mentioned earlier. You merely create a string of words separated by commas. Your Skills Summary may contain as many as 10 to 15 word and word phrases.

If you have previously submitted resumes without a Skills Summary, fear not! You now have a golden opportunity to revise, refresh or resubmit existing resumes by adding the Skills Summary. I wouldn’t be surprised if you begin to see interest almost immediately based on the new visibility that keywords have generated.

Give your resume a fresh start,

Mike

by Mike Brown, Director of MBA Career Services