May 2009 Archives

A blog about optimism?  Really?  Haven't you been reading the newspapers, the weekly magazines, the Web, or listening to the news, local and national?  Sure.  And it's all bad.  But remember, there is a bottom line to media outlets: they have to make money and right now the economy and its daily woes are big money makers.  What is printed and reported on the air has to appeal to a wide audience.  This includes sweeping generalizations that hardly deal with reality in your community.  Because students have been bombarded with so many negative messages they may be asking themselves, what's the point?  So with that in mind, let's engage in a little optimism.

Indianapolis enjoys some unique economic attributes that in certain times can be viewed as drawbacks and in other times, such as what is currently being experienced, can be advantageous to those searching for employment.  Indiana is not experiencing the same downturn as other metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, or other east coast urban areas.  The Indianapolis economy is largely made up of small to medium size firms who have managed to stay viable, despite the credit crunch, and even expand.  Consequently, there are jobs in Central Indiana.   Students, who are engaging in serious comprehensive job search strategies are finding success and in some cases dealing with multiple job offers from local firms.  I'm not just referring to accounting majors, but also management and marketing majors who are finding great success in Central Indiana by applying the most basic job search strategies.  Are they all dream jobs?  Not always.  But sometimes underemployment is a strategy to something better.

Let's take Suzie for instance (not her real name but a real recent graduate).  Suzie was "downsized " from a great internship with a Fortune 500 company and was able to leverage that experience with a local marketing firm for an excellent position with a better than average starting salary.  It can be done!  A job search like anything else requires persistence.  It also requires the ability to leverage the skill sets a candidate has gained in past experiences.  A sound tool box coupled with confidence in the candidates' academic credentials and hard and soft skills will make for a competitive interviewing process. 

Is it always that easy?  Of course not, but attitude, confidence, and optimism can go a long way to making a candidate the best fit for a position.  With the tool box set and the skill sets in place job seekers can leverage experiences, developed skills, and some optimism in order to secure a position.  It's what a candidate has to offer to the organization and people in it that will ultimately win the day.  Be confident in the idea of yourself.  Be optimistic!

I recently got the pleasure to work with 2 outstanding Kelley students, among others, planning the Kelley Career and Internship Fair.   What a great experience!  These 2 students planned most details about the career fair.  They communicated with employers, ordered tables for the event, handled the decorations and placement of the tables,  made presentations to students  in classrooms, marketed the event and assisted with the so many details it takes to put on a job fair-while being full time students.   They did an excellent job!  Over 225 students took advantage of the Kelley Career Fair, which was held on Tuesday, April 14^th.   It is so great to see students stepping up and taking control of what events happen on campus.  

You see, students have not bought in into the events that the Career Planning Office has planned in years past. We have held many "Meet the Recruiter" events and have had only 9 students show up.  It is quite a long event when you have more employers there than students.   Our office is looking to do many more events partnered with student groups.   I have seen how students can encourage other students to participate and attend their events.   This is also another experiential learning event.  Both students are marketing majors and they both got solid experience that they can list on their resumes.  They also got exposure to employers and both got interviews partly due to their planning of this event.  This is a win-win situation for students, employers and our office.  Students will get the experience of planning events along with the exposure to prospective employers.  We get the advantage of guaranteeing our employers that many students will be attending these events.  With Kelley student groups, we intend to plan many more events! 

Indiana companies hiring now:  ExactTarget, Fastenal, Dave & Buster's, FBI, Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane, WestPoint Financial