Recently in JR Category

I'm tremendously excited about a new course I have designed and will be co-teaching this Spring along with Sherry Zike from the Career Placement Office - X300: Online Career Planning for Non-Business Majors.  While Kelley offers X320 for business majors, there are students across campus with limited options for exploring career planning and career management within a structured course.  X300 was designed to help fill this void.

The class is taught entirely online over the first 8 weeks and is a 2 credit hour course.  It's going to be interesting (the class is all about you, after all), very informative with copious amounts of feedback, and the assignments are engaging and fun (really!). 

Please check out the short (4 min) online presentation below by clicking on the image and spread the word to all of your non-business major friends and classmates across campus! 

Of course there are.  In fact, as I write this blog, we have just wrapped up a day where three of our interview rooms were full and all of the employers intend to extend offers to Kelley students, which is clearly encouraging news - even if it meant that we kept running out of coffee the day after a late Colts game.  

This is not to say the immediate job forecast isn't without its stormy patches.   The economic turmoil has hit fields such as investment banking particularly hard (see Credit Suisse announcement) and the threat of a prolonged slowdown has many employers pulling back on new hires across the board - recent college grads included (see For '09 Grads or PDF).  

If this sounds like it means more work for you as a job seeker, it does.  There are jobs, but gone are the days when a job search consisted of a visit to KelleyCareers and broadcasting your resume on Monster andCareerBuilder (two of the most frustrating online job boards for recent college grads).  The relatively strong job market for recent grads over the past few years has given some students the impression that companies and jobs will always seek them out, instead of the other way around.  Now that we are likely entering an economic slowdown, job seekers need to be more proactive than ever and the knowledge and application of effective job search skills and strategies is essential.

And that's the ultimate silver lining: If you are looking for a job in a bad economy, you have to learn how to tap into the hidden job market, identify new / interesting / growing companies, explore alternative career fields, and learn to sell yourself.  Once you develop an effective job search repertoire, you'll have a set of skills you can rely on for the rest of your career.  If you do it now, you are set for life.

Now that I'm back to blogging on a regular basis, I'll be sure to share some tips and tricks, but please do yourself a favor and visit the Career Placement Office if you have any questions or concerns.  Don't panic and don't let the barrage of negative news stop you from going after the job or career you want.  What works for one student won't necessarily work for another and we can help you set up a plan that caters to your strengths and your interests. 

In the meantime, I encourage you to listen to this Wall Street Journal podcast featuring an interview with Trudy Steinfeld, Director of Career Services for NYU.  She gives a candid assessment of the job market and passes on some timely advice.

I wonder how I can get on the Wall Street Journal's speed dial?

Guest post courtesy of Angie Meyer - Associate Director, CPO and our resident Accounting Recruiting Guru

Accounting and Accounting/Finance students need to be ready earlier than most other students, as the vast majority of recruiting activity for accounting positions takes place during the first part of the Fall semester.  The Accounting Fall Recruiting season officially starts on Sept. 10th with the Accounting "Meet the Recruiter" event, which will be held in the new Campus Center from 4-6pm.   All Accounting students who graduate in December 2008, May 2009 or August 2009 should plan on attending this event and participating in the Fall recruiting season.  Any student seeking an accounting internship during the Spring and/or Summer 2009 semesters should be ready to participate. 

Accounting "Meet the Recruiter" is a mini job fair.  Approximately 25-30 employers (accounting firms and corporations) attend this event in order pre-identify students to interview for their positions.  The employers come on campus to begin interviewing students starting September 22.  Many times, an employer will decide whether to interview a candidate based on whether they met them at the "Meet the Recruiter" event. 

Most accounting firms require a 3.0 minimum GPA to apply to their companies - if you are below that GPA, you should definitely attend this event because you will have the opportunity to sell yourself to employers face-to-face instead of on paper, where you may be overlooked if your GPA is not listed or falls below the minimum).    Employers have contacted us and asked us to add students with GPAs less than 3.0 to their schedules because they met with and were impressed with them at the "Meet the Recruiter" event and the student made an impression.  While there is no guarantee that you will be selected for an interview, your odds will be increased if you attend and make a favorable - and professional - impression.  What do you have to lose?  Visit our office for job fair tips on how to best begin conversations with employers at this event and other job fairs. 

Still not convinced?  Below is an email I just received from a student who just got a job with a large public accounting firm in Indianapolis despite a less than stellar GPA.  When I get stories like these, I am reminded why I gave up a high paying job in recruiting (a university is rarely the place to go if you want the big bucks) to come here and help students. 

Angie,

I recently graduated (May 2008) with a double major in accounting and finance.  I did not participate in the fall recruiting season because I had some things already in the works but they ended up not working out, so after graduation I needed to find a job.  It was hit and miss because many firms were not hiring at the time.  There were a few interviews here and there, but it was very frustrating because it seemed like I was the only person in a hurry.  I'd submit a resume, then 2 weeks later get a call or email showing interest, then maybe 2 more weeks before an actual interview would take place.  It was then that I set up a meeting with the KSB Career Placement Office (CPO), just to talk about my situation.  Up to this point, I had focused on using contacts I'd obtained through networking, but I was almost to the point where I was going to start submitting my resume in bulk to various job postings.  During my meeting with Angie Meyer, she stressed that I continue to be persistent with the firms where I had something in the works because networking usually provides the best opportunities.

I didn't graduate with the best GPA in the world, it was under 3.0, and for most large accounting firms you are disqualified right away.  Sure, these firms want the best of the best, which is a big reason for this requirement, yet you have to remember that they receive hundreds of resumes and they have to have some criteria in place to bring that number down to a workable level.  To make my long story short, I was granted an interview with a large accounting firm here in Indianapolis through the use of contacts from networking.  I enjoy interviews and don't feel much pressure because I don't try and candy-coat anything and am always open and honest.  However, I felt that I could have performed better in this particular interview.  Afterwards, I was pretty hard on myself, thinking that this was the biggest interview of my life and I didn't put forth my best effort.  I felt like Scott Sharp, who once qualified on the pole for the Indy 500 and crashed in Turn 1 on the first lap.  Well, after a few more talks with the firm and submitting some requested writing samples, I was offered the job.  I was stunned, couldn't believe it.  This was a job at a firm where I didn't even think getting an interview would be possible!

So, bottom line, I hope others can take three things from this:

1) In most cases, the interview probably didn't go as bad as you thought, firms understand the pressure you are under.  Do not be too hard on yourself.

2) All of the things our CPO stresses throughout your education --- believe them.  They stress almost at nausea to use the contacts you have - family, friends, previous employers, etc .- as networking can provide opportunities that normally might not be possible. 

3) Don't discount yourself just because you might not be at the top of your class. GPA is important, no doubt - if mine was higher the struggles to find a job might not have been there.  But realize it is just a number and you graduated (or will graduate) from a top business school, and that is something in itself that will open a number of doors.

The most rewarding part of my job is hearing success stories, especially when they are hard-earned.  Early this week I received an email from a former student detailing his own job search - which involved a career change - and offered some practical advice to current Kelley students.  I asked him if I could share it with you. I think you'll be as impressed as I was. Here it is:

Dear JR,

About two years ago I came and made an appointment with you to discuss career options for my extremely unusual situation.  I don't expect you to remember this meeting, as it was only about 45 minutes and we only met on one occasion.  However, I wanted to update you and let you know my personal experience so you may share with anyone who has "unusual" circumstances such as mine.

I was a returning adult student (I am 33) in the Kelley School of Business.
I had just returned to college full-time after working in retail management for 13 years.  The odd thing about my situation was that I was not returning to study management - I was doing a complete 180 degree turn in my career and studying Computer Information Systems (with absolutely no real-world experience in the field).  The reason I had come to you was to discuss what you thought I could do to get myself ready for the job search process (I came to you about a year before my expected graduation of December 2007).  In a nutshell, from that 45 minute talk, I deduced I would need to do a LOT of legwork on my end to get a job - the implication was the field I was looking to enter was not very "cookie cutter" and I would need to develop some specific skills to market in order to succeed . . .   You prepared me for the cold fact that my career path was going to require a lot of legwork on my part.

With your advice in tow, I talked to professors and business professionals to try to determine what sort of IT positions my management experience would benefit.  One specific example, during a project with Pratt Corporation, I took an opportunity to pull the Vice President of IT aside and get his opinion on my skills and the sort of position he thought I would be suited for.  I also scoured the internet to try to find common denominators among IT jobs on skills that I could attempt to hone.  This information led me to begin self-studying for a project management certification (which I received in November 2007).  In addition, I began to do a lot of work on my own developing small/useful programs in Visual Basic.net that I could put into a portfolio to show potential employers (as an example, I created an eBay sales invoicing program I used to track my sales in an Access database and generate invoices).

I graduated "with distinction" from Kelley in December 2007 and began the job-hunt full force.  My personal goal was to have a job by the middle/end of February.  I had numerous phone interviews but the thing that was getting in the way was I had zero experience in the IT field.  I worked with two separate placement firms - both of which were telling me I was only suited for a level I technical support position (answering phones).

While working with the placement firms . . . both were telling me to kind of sit back and let them do the searching - not a good idea.  Frustration was mounting because I knew that if I could just get into a company for a face-to-face interview I could convince them I was the person for ANY job.  I soon abandoned the placement firms and resumed the search on my own.  I re-worked my resume (because obviously something wasn't drawing interest) and plastered it everywhere.

I also sent off copies to all major companies in the area.  Then it happened....

One day I received a call to interview as a Technical Assistant for Frank DeLisle and Associates (a contractor at Eli Lilly who found my resume on Kelley Careers).  When the job was described to me I was interested, but not to the point I was overly excited.  I met with the owner, Frank, and he was impressed with me.  I showed him my portfolio of programs and explained in depth my computing knowledge and project management abilities.  After that long interview (at Starbucks near IUPUI) I was called back a few days later.  He told me he wanted to bring me into Eli Lilly for half a day of interviews - but not as a technical assistant - as a Data Systems Analyst!

I cannot begin to explain how excited I was - this is job I went back to school for.  Shortly after, I went through a series of four interviews at Lilly with various levels of management and was hired on as a Data Systems Analyst making [a very competitive salary].

My story is one that many good things can be learned from:

1)  Drastic career changes are possible and can have excellent outcomes.  I was making $38,000 after 13 years in retail - after getting my degree I just started my new job in March making [significantly more].

2)  I probably studied harder on learning the job market and what I needed to do to bolster my resume than I did in any college course.  I recommend spending a LOT of time looking at job postings for your projected career well before you start looking for a job.  This way you can see what skills are commonly requested in your field and do your best to gain those skills or learn as much as you can about them.  A lot of IT jobs want project management skills - so I got a certification in project management.
      
3)  You don't have to know a specific skill they need - but show you can learn it!  My job requires SAS programming experience.  I have ZERO experience but did a lot of research on it.  In the interviews I explained that I knew what it was, had viewed sample code, and would have no problem applying standard programming concepts to the language.  I also explained that I realized how easy it is to learn a language - what is harder is learning how to properly program...which is what I was taught at IUPUI.

4)  Know who is interviewing you!  I was being interviewed by the head of the Epidemiology department.  I had NO IDEA what this was so I researched it.  Sure enough, one of the first questions he asked me was what I knew about Epidemiology.  I was able to blow him away with my knowledge of epidemiology because I prepared ahead of time.

5)  Interview yourself over and over!  I used to interview myself all the time in the car - asking myself questions I thought could be asked.  I was amazed at how many times I caught myself saying things that would definitely not help in an interview.  By hearing it out loud it gave me that opportunity to learn how to answer commonly asked questions without shooting myself in the foot.  "What are your weaknesses?"  I definitely learned how to answer this question in a very positive way that helped my interview.

I am sure you hear stories like this all the time.  However, I am extremely proud of how my situation turned out and wanted to share with someone at the school that helped make it all possible.  Thank you for reading this...and I hope knowing of my experience may be able to help you with someone else in the future in a similar situation.

It can be hard to line up guest speakers for evening classes during the summer and it's hard to blame anyone for turning down an invitation.  After all, how can you fault anyone who would rather take full advantage of evenings when it's light and warm (when it's not pouring rain, of course) until almost 10pm, especially after a full day's work?  Well, using my mighty powers of persuasion (and some much appreciated help from Molly Chavers at IndyHub and Jill Margetts at Young Professional of Central Indiana), the CPO managed to bring in an A+ lineup of professionals for a 3-week series of Thursday evening panels that concluded last Thursday.  Students in X320 - Career Planning heard from three panels, each offering a distinct range of voices and advice regarding the job search, careers, professional development, and every other topic students had questions on.  I wish I could provide you a succint list of takeaways from the discussions, but I have learned after a few years in the field that each student comes away from these panels with a different perspective, depending on their attitude and individual situation coming in.  Instead of giving you a summary, I'll instead invite you to join us for a future panel discussion (dates will be posted on the CPO website). 

Check out the Summer 1 lineups: 

Recruiter Panel - Thursday,  May 22 (6:00 - 7:30 pm)
Rocki Howard - Allison Transmission
Cathleen Litz - That's Good HR
Bob Zurface - LM Henderson & Company

Professional Panel - Thursday, May 29 (6:00 - 7:30 pm)
Alex Fritz - Blue and Co.
Laura Henderson - Baker Hill
Jennifer Kirchhofer - ExactTarget
Brad Litz - The Litz Group
David Nie - Ice Miller
Jamie Ratner - Morgan Stanley

MBA Panel - Thursday, June 5 (6:00 - 7:30 pm)
Faraz Abbasi - Centerfield Capital Partners
David Ernst - Vertellus Specialties
Troy Hedge - BioCrossroads

I actually recorded the first 2 panels with the intention of posting them on the Kelley website, but after hearing how openly and honestly our panelists discussed their own lives, it's easy to see how they might not want everything they shared to be broadcast to the entire world.  However, based on the positive feedback from students and the panelists, we are hoping to make this panel series a regular fixture in all of our X320 classes.  Again, all students and alumni are welcome to attend, whether enrolled in a particular section of X320 or not.

Also, if you have anyone you'd like to recommend for future panels, please let me know as we will be sending out invitations for Fall and Spring in the coming weeks.  I will be blogging about community involvement and professional development in the coming weeks as well, but I would encourage you to check out IndyHub and Young Professionals of Central Indiana in the meantime.  They are both excellent organizations committed to providing networking, social, and professional development opportunities for all young professionals across the city - and you don't have to wait until you finish your degree to start getting involved.

My friends and family always drive me crazy right about now.  The sun (at least today) is finally out, graduation was on Sunday, and everyone keeps telling my how lucky I am to have the summer off. 

The only thing is - I don't have the summer off.

Believe it or not, summer is my busiest time of the year.  It's quieter, for sure, with fewer students on-campus, but this is when I have the opportunity to dig in and get everything ready for the upcoming academic year.  I'm an idea guy, so during the year I'm constantly coming up with new ideas for increasing student involvement with the CPO, innovative programming, employer development strategies, etc.  The summer is my time to bring the best of these ideas to fruition.  Just off the top of my head, I've got a new class to plan for the Fall (which I'll write about later), a whole new set of online interactive resources to evaluate, and a strategic plan for the Kelley Honors Program to develop.

At that same time, this means that my schedule is incredibly flexible, as I am in the office just about every day.  Summer is a great time to begin (or to continue) a career conversation.  Most Kelley Indianapolis students are taking at least one summer course, which means you are likely to be on-campus - why not come in and talk about your career when you are taking one or two courses rather than 12-18 credit hours in the Fall or Spring?  I'm happy to meet with you in the Fall when you have a 15 minute window somewhere between classes and work, but I'd prefer to have a little more time to get to know you as an individual. 

So take advantage of my open schedule (and the availability of the entire CPO staff) by stopping by this summer.  We have formal walk-in hours 5 days a week throughout the summer (9:00-11:00am and 2:00-4:00pm), though there is almost always someone available for an immediate conversation whenever you have time to pop in.  If you are only here for evening classes and would like to meet after 5pm, just send us an email and we can make arrangements for an evening meeting at your convenience. 

And I won't take it personally if you'd prefer to meet with Tim, Sherry or Angie - I'll even link you to their contact information.

Well, sort of. 

I would be four years too late if I thought I would be on the cutting edge by writing a blog about the popularity of the iPod, but everyone once in a while it still surprises me how ubiquitous those telltale white earphones really are.  I was in full procrastination mode on Sunday afternoon as I sat down at mo'joe Coffeehouse to write my own term paper for a Master's course, so I concluded that an unofficial count of the percentage of people at mo'joe listening to their iPod was of the utmost importance.  The results: 70% - 14 of 20 - had those white earphones in, and another 4 were listening to some kind of portable music device.  My naked ears were certainly in the minority.

Aside from a brief respite from my paper - for which I could still use a little inspiration - my little research project was of particular interest because I am currently planning two career planning courses as an instructor and I'm very interested in incorporating multimedia into the curriculum.  My first idea was to give students the option of listening to select chapters from the audiobook of What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson for the weekly reading reflections.  If you have ever listened to an audiobook, you know that the reader makes all the difference in the world, so I hopped onto the iTunes music store to listen to a sample - and the book, which is an entertaining read - is read by the author who is so totally, unbelievably, surprisingly dull that I knew I had to at least explore a Plan B.  So I digitally dug around in the podcast section of the music store and stumbled upon an entire collection of career-related podcasts hidden in the business section.  Who knew?

Many of the podcasts are entertaining and some are genuinely thought provoking - and it is worth your time to explore - but I think it is fair to warn you that just because someone recorded a podcast and put it on iTunes does validate their advice.  Everyone thinks they have unlocked the secret to the job search or teach you everything you need to know about a career real estate investing through a 10-step program.  Be sure to take it all with a grain of salt.  So, while no one can complain about surfing through the iTunes music store at work, I've had to listen to parts of hundreds of podcast to find even a few to include as part of my upcoming courses. 

Just for fun, I do think you might be interested in seeing a quick overview of what iTunes has included in their Top Downloads:

#1) The Project Management Podcast, including Episode 92: Ten Things You Can Learn About Project Management From Britney Spears

#3) Climbing the Ladder by BusinessWeek, with a focus on navigating the workplace

#25) Strategy and the Fat Smoker, and odd title for sure, but a podcast series covering careers and whole lot more. Read by the engaging British author, David Maister

#26) The Cubicle Escape Podcast, which explores the process of starting a small business

#29) MBA Working Girl Podcast, which combines b-school school with real-world business practice for women and men

We all define the term career differently, so you might find the sixth rated (labeled explicit) podcast an interesting inclusion in careers section.  And did I mention that these are all free?

I'm a self-confessed business news junkie.  It started in my undergrad days at Notre Dame when a group of friends and I used to print out archived copies of the Chicago Sun-Times crosswords puzzles to keep us occupied in some of our - shall we say, less exciting - courses.  After a semester we had exhausted the entire archive and, fortuitously, that's when they started offering the Wall Street Journal free of charge throughout the business building.  Back in my day - which wasn't even that long ago - the only way to read the news in class was by reading the paper itself.  It was an acquired skill, but after a couple of embarrassing moments, I quickly learned how to silently flip through pages in the back of the classroom - mind you, there was no Facebook and you would never be allowed to prop open a laptop during class.

While none of my professors - and certainly not yours - would have been too happy to find a student reading the paper in class - even if it was the WSJ - knowing what was going in the business world was essential in landing my first job as a financial analyst.  The first two questions I was ever asked were, "What impact will the terrorists attacks (9/11 was less than a month prior to my interview) on the economy?" and "If you were the President, how would you respond?"  It was my decisive response to this final question, not necessarily the answer itself, that I later learned landed me the job.

If you are business major, you've got to be aware of what's making headlines in the business world.  The truth is that what's going on in the business world is just as interesting - in my opinion, even more so - than anything in the world of television and entertainment.  Just look at the recent and ongoing story of the Bear Stearns collapse.  It's a fascinating story on multiple levels.  You have:

• An 85-year old pillar of Wall Street essentially wiped out over the course of a week. 
• The government (your government) pledging $30B (yes, that is a B) of your money to secure risky loans. 
• JPMorgan Chase buying a stock that was valued at $34 on March 14 and as high as $159 over the past 52 weeks for $2 (now $10) a share.  
• Several individual investors losing hundreds of millions of dollars 
• Widely divergent opinions among analysts and the public, from "They saved the financial markets from collapse" to "We should have let them go bankrupt.  Those greedy b******s got what they deserved." 

What happens on Wall Street in not confined to Wall Street.  The impact of the mortgage crisis and its ever-expanding fall out will hit just about every business, large or small.  Many will be hurt, some will benefit, and the more you know, the better you can position yourself as the candidate (or current employee) who can recognize opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis, anyone?) and help an organization navigate the changing economy.  And you are likely to be entertained.