After the career fair: Next steps

 

Imagine it’s the day of the career fair, and you took all of the initial steps to make attending worthwhile. You researched companies, planned out which ones you wanted to speak with, perfected your resume and elevator pitch and chose an appropriate outfit to wear. At the career fair you spoke to several companies you were interested in and all went well. You feel as though you’ve done everything possible to sell yourself and connect with the employers, yet there is still something left to be done.

The last step after a career fair (and often the most important) is to follow up with recruiters. Too often people forget to contact employers afterward, so if you do, you’ll have an advantage over others who do not. Here are several ways to make following-up a success.

When you get home from the fair, or early the next day, organize the company flyers, brochures, business cards and other information you may have collected. It’s a good idea to make files for some of the companies you’re particularly interested in so that you can find information quickly in the event that you get an interview. After sorting the miscellaneous information you picked up, focus on the people you really networked with. Create a list and decide which companies you’re most eager to contact again. Ideally, you want to reach out to those companies first. However, you should get all your follow-ups done within a few days of the career fair. The quicker you follow up, the better.

Once you’ve prioritized who to contact, there are two main ways to follow-up. Some professionals recommend calling the recruiter as soon as possible after the fair and leaving a message to thank them for their time. A more traditional method is to write a thank-you letter and mail it to the address on the recruiter’s business card. In the letter, be sure to first thank the recruiter for his/her time. Next, pick up on something memorable from the conversation you had and ask if you can have an opportunity to talk more with him/her about it. Your goal is to get another meeting in person, as career fairs tend to be overwhelming and chaotic. It’s a good idea to tell them you will call them in the next week or two, and don’t forget to actually call.

If you didn’t have a particularly salient conversation with a recruiter but are still interested in their company, following up is a great way to say anything you forgot to initially. This is a good opportunity to mention skills you have or classes you’ve taken that you feel would contribute to the company’s success. It is often most important to follow up with these companies as they may not remember you well. The extra effort will show you’re serious and persistent, and may be just what they’re looking for in an applicant.

As you’re debating writing thank-you letters or making follow-up calls, remember that recruiters have just met many eager students and may be overwhelmed by resumes. You have already invested a lot of time and energy into finding a job or internship, and wouldn’t want it to go to waste because you don’t feel like following up. Still not sure what a thank-you note should look like? Here are some websites to check out for more tips:

http://www.worktree.com/tb/MB_thanklet.cfm

http://www.mcc.commnet.edu/students/career/pdf/ThankYouLetterSamples.pdf

http://careernetwork.msu.edu/finding-an-internship/resumes-letters-1/thank-you/sample-thank-you

Tips for PR Links Success

With PR Links coming up this Friday, it is important to think about what you can do before the event and what you can be conscious of at the event to ensure a great experience. Here are our top tips for success at the 2012 PR Links Career Fair.

BEFORE THE EVENT

1. Do your research. Our blog is updated frequently with the companies that have RSVP’d for PR Links. Check out the websites of the companies you are interested in and learn about their cultures, practices and clients.

2. Prepare your “elevator speech.” Create a 30-second pitch about yourself that serves as both an introduction and a brief summary of your experience/skills. To do this, be sure to think about your strengths and, from a recruiter’s perspective, what points they might like to hear about you.

3. Create a plan. Make sure you know which companies you want to speak with the most so you can try to visit them first. Think about questions you might be asked and how you would answer them.

4. Know what you are looking for in an internship/full-time position. Internships and jobs are not all the same. It is important to think about what qualities you are looking for in a company and in a position. Do you want to write a lot? Do you want to pitch to the media? Do you want to plan events? Know what you are looking for and ask the representatives you talk to if their internship or job can offer you that experience.

AT THE EVENT

5. Look professional. A business suit is an important investment for the public relations student, and they can be purchased within any price range. Avoid wearing shoes that are uncomfortable or difficult to walk in, and be sure you are not revealing too much.

6. Be prepared with the proper materials. Have plenty of resumes (printed on resume paper) on hand and business cards if you have them. A portfolio is a nice way to organize these, and can also store any brochures or informational packets you pick up at the event.

7. Avoid clumping together in groups of students. Networking can be intimidating, but you won’t make connections if you do not talk with the company representatives. Grouping together is a natural tendency, so be conscious that you are making the most of your time at the career fair.

8. Do NOT just stand in line! At career fairs, it is common for major companies to have long lines of students waiting to speak with them. If a big company you are interested in talking to has a long line, visit some other companies with shorter lines while you wait for the big company’s line to go down. You just might be surprised at the opportunities you might find.

9. Be genuine. Remember that the professionals are there because they WANT to talk to you. Think of the event less as looking for a job, and more as building connections with companies in the industry you are studying. And remember, a smile can never hurt!

We hope you’ve started to prepare for the 2012 PR Links Career Fair taking place this Friday, February 17 at 2-4pm. We’re looking forward to a great turnout from both the recruiters and students. If you would like any information or have any questions before the event, don’t hesitate to contact us. Reach out to us here on our blog, email us at msuprlinks@gmail.com, or tweet at us at @MSUPRLinks! We look forward to seeing you there!

Guest post from MSU PRSSA alum Julia Wendzinski

We’re thrilled that MSU PRSSA alum Julia Wendzinski took time out of her busy schedule to write a guest post for us! Julia graduated from MSU in 2011 and was the 2010-11 PRSSA Chapter President. She currently works at P&G in Cincinnati as an external relations assistant manager. Her primary responsibilities include managing P&G’s presence at blogger conferences such as BlogHer, and leading employee engagement for the London 2012 Olympic Games. She’s happy to chat with anyone that has questions! Email her at Wendzinski.j@pg.com.

Little fish in a new pond – adjusting to life in a new city

Two days before I graduated from MSU last May I managed to land my dream job with the world’s largest consumer packages goods company, Procter  & Gamble. How I managed scoring this job is a story in an of itself – let’s just say never turn down an opportunity to talk with a professional in the field you’re interested in. If you’re not familiar with P&G, just go take a look in your bathroom or kitchen – see any Crest, CoverGirl, Old Spice, Pantene, Febreze, Swiffer, Tide, Bounty, Duracell or Charmin products? We make those (and dozens of other brands you may have around the house).

Landing this job however meant moving to a new city (Cincinnati) where I knew no one, hours away from family and friends. Making such a huge transition from student to full-time salaried employee, in a new city and knowing no one was a huge transition for me, but absolutely worth it. Here’s some advice I have for what to expect when moving for a job.

Not all companies provide a stipend for moving

I was fortunate enough to have my moving costs covered as a part of signing with P&G, but it’s not always the case. As much as you may love the idea of working in LA or NYC, figure out if you’re able to afford to move there on your own. Between travel, apartment security deposits and getting furniture and appliances, you could go broke before you have the chance to make a buck.

Use PRSSA to meet new people!

The first thing I did when I found out I was moving to Cincinnati was reach out to all of my PRSSA friends that I had met at conferences to see if they knew anyone in the area that I could meet up with. I figured I could start meeting people that I knew had at least one interest in common with me – PR! I made a few connections before I even moved and now some of the people I hang out with the most are the friends of my PRSSA friends.

Get involved

While I was in school I really didn’t make much time to do anything other than PRSSA as an extracurricular. Now that I’m in a new city, I am looking into different volunteer organizations that I think I will be passionate about. I’m hoping this will be a great way to meet new people and help contribute to my new community.

My final advice when deciding to move to a new city for a job is to make sure you think you’ll be happy not only with your job, but with where you’ll be living. After all, life is about work and play, so you want to make sure you enjoy where you’re living when you’re out of the office!

Your Experience in Page Protectors: Putting Together a Professional Portfolio

Searching for an internship or career, crafting your resume, researching companies and preparing for interviews often overshadow the importance of putting together a professional portfolio. Portfolios provide prospective employers with a glimpse of your work and classroom experiences and are recommended in an interview.

Check out our list of PR portfolio tips, whether you’re just starting to put one together or looking to fine-tune your collection of experiences.

Why should you create a portfolio?

• To market yourself to employers in an organized and honest way.
• To demonstrate your professional development.
• To stand out when applying for scholarships, bonuses or grants.

Gathering material:

• Keep everything! – You’re better off saving everything and deciding what to include later.
• Consider time constraints. Most employers only spend 15 minutes viewing a portfolio (usually in an interview), so emphasize quality rather than quantity.

What to include:

• Writing samples – press releases, media advisories, and other articles produced through internships, volunteer experiences and class.
• Brochures, newsletters, or Website content that illustrates publishing and technical skills.
• Resume.
• Evidence of professional affiliations and certifications.
• Letters of references.
• Event planning experience – checklists, planning materials and evidence of promotion.

Presentation:

• Showcase your work in an artist portfolio, leather-bound book or three-ring binder. Professionals usually understand that students may not be able to afford the highest-quality portfolio. Binders work just fine, as long as they are well-organized and neat.
• Protect your samples with plastic sheet protectors.
• Label your portfolio with your name, address and phone number.
• Ensure you have a variety of work to display an adequate array of your skills and talents.
• Proofread! Keep your portfolio free of typos – a glimpse of poor grammar could cost you the job.
• Organize your samples by job, project or type of work (e.g. press releases, Web content and graphic design samples).
• Avoid bright colors, fancy fonts and clip art. Portfolios are not scrapbooks.
• For ease of reading, organize your work with tabs or a table of contents.
• Utilize classwork samples if necessary, but make sure to present them with a professional and relevant angle.
• Keep samples in their original form as often as possible to help the reviewer comprehend the purpose of the document.

What about electronic portfolios?

• When creating a hard-copy portfolio, keep each sample in an electronic form as well. This way, you can conveniently email a sample or two if requested by an employer.
• Convert these electronic samples to PDF files for easy transfer.
• Provide links to your blog, Twitter and other social media sites of your published articles and Web content.
• If you’re the computer-savvy type, you might be interested in creating a complete digital portfolio with published work, writing samples, transcripts, resume and cover letters, links to your social media sites, etc.

Remember, it’s never too late to start crafting a portfolio. Keep it neat, relevant, varied and well-organized. Best of luck in preparing a portfolio for your 2012 PR Links experience! If you have any questions about what to bring to the 2012 PR Links Career Fair or how to build your portfolio, email us at msuprlinks@gmail.com. 

Guest post from MSU PRSSA alum Emily Tschirhart

PR Links is thrilled that MSU and PRSSA alum Emily Tschirhart wrote a guest post for our blog! Emily currently works at the HL Group in New York as executive assistant to the founding partner. Read about her past and current positions, and her advice for PR students.

 

Why you should go to PR Links and get involved in PRSSA:

When I first decided to become an ADV/PR student, networking was not a forte of mine. I hated the idea of talking to strangers, and I wasn’t confident enough in myself to think people would actually like talking to me. Unfortunately, there’s no cure for disliking networking other than… networking. Slowly but surely, I started to love talking to new people and finding out what they were all about – and I don’t think I would have been able to overcome this if it weren’t for my involvement in PRSSA. I started as a junior on the PR Links committee, and became an Eboard member the following year. As an Eboard member my responsibilities included launching and managing the first PRSSA mentor program, planning and organizing PR Links, sending out an Alumni Newsletter, interviewing alumni for each article of the student newsletter, and of course – weekly meetings! PRSSA was where I first learned that I had the capacity to be a leader, and where I discovered that I could accomplish anything I wanted to (cheesy, but true!).

Moving to New York:

I always wanted to live in NYC, so this summer I decided to move here without any job prospects, a very small number of connections and nowhere to live (don’t worry I had a friend to stay with!). 

The first thing I did when I moved to the city was reach out to MSU alums on LinkedIn. I sent them LinkedIn messages explaining that I was new to the city and looking for advice on making the transition from MI to the city, job searching tips, and apartment hunting secrets! I always tried to set up in-person meetings with those that got back to me – I was able to tour Google and Ogilvy in NYC because of it! I also asked people like Paul Jaques (from CAS) and John Hill (now at LinkedIn) to introduce me to alums that worked at companies I admired. They were incredibly helpful and I recommend working with advisers in some capacity while you’re on the job/internship hunt.

As a recent alum trying to build my NYC network, one of the first things I learned was that Spartans will do anything to help fellow Spartans. I went to a lot of MSU alumni events in New York where I made some new friends and connections. At one of these events I was introduced to someone who was active in the alumni chapter and knew that a fashion PR agency she used to work for was hiring. She sent my resume to them and two weeks later I had the job! 

My suggestions: 

Make the right kind of connections. Contrary to what you’ve been told, getting a job is not about who you know. Rather, it is about who knows you. What’s the difference? The hard truth is, though you may have shaken a PR executive’s hand on a firm tour, or a speaker at a PRSSA meeting gave you their business card, if you didn’t make an impression on them, they won’t remember you. Instead of trying to meet as many PR professionals as possible, like at PR Links, build quality conversations and make a memory with them! Do research on the companies that are attending the career fair and figure out what you want to talk to them about. Ask them about their clients and how they approach particular challenges. Find out what it is you want to do and figure out how to make that happen through the people you meet. 

Something that will make you stand out AFTER the career fair is building an online portfolio. Make it as interactive as possible: include pictures, links to placed articles, attach documents of campaigns you’ve worked on, and videos – if you have any. I know that my online portfolio is one of the reasons why my current boss wanted to interview me, so make sure you add bits of your personality and individuality! Some commonly used sites are weebly.com, wordpress.com, about.me, etc. Another tip is to add Google Analytics to keep track of your page visits.

Whether you’re trying to get your first internship or looking for a job, it is not for the faint of heart! You have to be dedicated and have realistic expectations. Just keep your goals in sight and do your best to not get discouraged.

With all that being said – if you ever have any questions or just need some advice/someone to talk to, I’m happy to help (emily.tschirhart@gmail.com)! Like I said, Spartans will do anything for Spartans  

How I Landed My First Internship – A PR Links Success Story

Let’s be real. Career fairs are scary, especially if it’s your first time. You stress about perfecting your resume, finding the right clothes to wear, practicing your handshake and developing your elevator speech. When the day finally arrives and you enter the room filled with potential employers and fellow students, you psyche yourself out by wondering if you’re more qualified than anyone else for a particular internship or job.

That was me at the 2011 PR Links Career Fair. As a junior with no internships or career fair experience under my belt, nervous was an understatement as I walked into the Union. As I shook hands with professionals and fellow PR students at the networking event before the career fair, I realized that I needed to take a deep breath and just be myself, as cliché as that sounds. I figured that if I didn’t land an internship that day, at least I made some new connections and knew what to expect for next year. However, I grew more confident with each company that I spoke with and at the end of the day, I had a great experience.

While doing my “homework” for PR Links, I discovered that there were 8-10 companies that I wanted to talk with about a summer internship. I made the decision to speak with two representatives first that I had a mutual connection with and this seemed to calm my nerves. As I was feeling more confident, I decided to speak with the remaining company on my list which had the longest line. As I approached the last table I remember feeling intimidated. I’m not sure if it was because they had two representatives instead of one or that I had seen so many other students – my “competition” – speak with them before I had the chance to, but I was suddenly nervous again.

At the end of the conversation I remember feeling like it went okay but definitely could have gone better. Little did I know that within the next few days I would receive an email requesting that I come in for an interview. I was so excited, and a little shocked to be honest! I was nervous again for the interview but I told myself that they picked me to be there and that says a lot. I was more at ease than I had been at the career fair and more confident, and I think that showed. The interview seemed more like a conversation that flowed naturally. I remember walking out of the office feeling great, but when nearly a month went by with no response, I began to get discouraged. I had been myself, I could recite my resume with my eyes closed, and I even sent the hand-written thank-you card. Where did I go wrong?

Almost a month went by before I heard back from this company. By then, I had already interviewed with another company that I met at PR Links and figured they had gone with someone else, someone better. It turns out, the company was still interested in me and wanted more from me. They asked for writing samples (always send as a PDF I learned!) and for me to explain my social media experience. I didn’t feel like I had that much experience with social media outside of personal use, but instead of lying to make it seem like I did, I was honest. I was offered the position for a summer internship and I’ve been there ever since! What I learned about networking and being professional, and the opportunity I had to interview for internships I owe to my experience at PR Links. I found great success at my first career fair, and I hope that you do too!

So, what are my tips for preparing for and attending a career fair you ask? They’re pretty simple and they go as follows:

• Breathe. This is quite possibly the most important tip I could offer.
• Do your homework! You’ve heard this before but it’s very true. I remember companies asking me to tell them what I knew about them and their work. You’ll definitely make it to the “no” pile by sitting there saying, “uhhh.”  
• Even if you don’t think the company or position is for you, always ask for a business card. PR is the business of relationships, and you never know when you’ll have to reach out to a connection for advice, a question, or even a favor.
•  Be confident about your skills without being cocky. When someone asks you to tell them about yourself and talk about your past experience, don’t be shy! When you’re proud and excited about the work you’ve done that’ll shine through to a potential employer. Just be careful not to brag – no one likes that.
• Don’t be intimidated by the representatives. They didn’t come to the career fair to scare you. I actually met a couple of representatives that were at their first career fair too, and I used that as an ice breaker!
• Be sure to follow up with the representatives that you spoke with within a few days of the career fair. Hand-written notes are always more personal than emails, but make sure you include something specific in the note from your conversation to make it more memorable!

Searching for an internship or a job these days is stressful enough. Just remember that career fairs are here to help with the process. We will be positing articles on our social media and blog leading up to the 2012 PR Links Career Fair on February 17^th that you can use as a resource in preparation for the career fair. If there are specific topics that you would like to see addressed or you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at msuprlinks@gmail.com! 

Using LinkedIn As a Networking Resource

Have you ‘Googled’ yourself recently? As cliché as it sounds, you might want to. What are the first couple links that show up? For most LinkedIn users one of them is their personalized profile. This in itself could make LinkedIn a powerful tool in the employment search. Still, a lot of students have been slow to jump on the LinkedIn train.

LinkedIn resembles an online extended resume that gives users the option to elaborate more than would be possible on a regular resume. This means users can add multiple positions and extended descriptions that might not fit on a typical one-page resume. Where a normal resume is limiting, the online resume allows users the opportunity to link publications and join online groups. The extended flexibility that the online profile offers makes it a valuable resource to those users with years of experience.

LinkedIn becomes a social resource when it comes to its news feed and weekly email updates of LinkedIn connections. Users can update their connections when they leave or receive a new employment opportunity, learn a new skill, or even contribute to an online publication. Here users can keep up-to-date with their professional connections.

LinkedIn also allows users to ask for references or provide them to others. Unlike normal references, they can be tailored and positioned underneath specific positions and are visible to all connections. This makes the site a valuable networking tool to keep in touch with previous employers and peers.

The site continues to add features and applications for users to add to their online profiles. It will only become more helpful when additional professionals and companies create profiles and enhance the user experience.

 

Weigh in:  Do you have a LinkedIn success story? Share it in the comments section below!