Career Advice

Recruitment season is in full swing, and it’s likely that you’ve received a flurry of emails over the past few months listing all the events and employer visits hosted by your university’s career center. But what happens when the employer you’ve dreamed about working for doesn’t appear at any of these career center events? Since many top-tier companies only visit a select set of campuses, it’s easy to feel like those jobs are completely out of reach. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have a shot. It just requires being proactive! Make your dream job a reality by using one or all of these methods to get your foot in the door at your ideal employer.

During the second semester of my sophomore year, I felt a little lost. I had some computer science skills from class, but most students don’t typically land internships until their junior and senior years. This uncertainty led me to explore an internship abroad program facilitated by a company called Sage Corps. Through them, I was able to interview with a travel tech startup called Zumata in Singapore, and I ended up working there for eight weeks. During that time, I worked to update their software suite to better serve their customers’ needs through AI chatbot and API development. I was also able to observe the work of three other American interns on the business team who worked to improve Zumata’s marketing, including a website overhaul.

This past summer, I spent my time at the corner of happy and healthy. On my first day at Walgreens as a Community Management Intern, I had no idea the knowledge and experiences that awaited me. I expected to learn about business matters like sales and inventory, but I ended up taking away more than just knowledge of the job. What it really came down to was the community and the company experience.

Receiving your first job offer can be intimidating, exciting, and overwhelming all at once. When you get that phone call from the hiring manager, you might feel tempted to accept the job offer on the spot. But there’s more to it than that. There are several things to finalize with the company first, from pay to benefits to start date. You might also wonder if you should even accept the offer in the first place. Follow these steps for navigating your first job offer in order to maximize your chances of being happy with the decision you make.

One of the fastest ways to learn is to apply your theoretical skills in a real-world setting. This past summer, I did exactly that when I interned at Ethan Stowell Restaurants in the finance department.

Every college student has fallen prey to procrastination at some point. But some things – like your job search – shouldn’t be put off. Even if you don’t feel ready to start applying to jobs, you shouldn’t wait until you start to feel the pressure of approaching graduation to begin your search.

When it comes to landing that first job, the most powerful method a candidate can use is networking. In fact, some research has found that up to 85% of all jobs are filled through networking, as opposed to job postings and other recruitment channels. While in-person networking events such as those hosted at colleges or companies are popular, online networking through LinkedIn is an ideal way to connect with professionals who you otherwise might not have the chance to meet. However, a lot of students are unsure of how to actually use LinkedIn filters to find the right professionals at companies, and how to reach out properly to a “cold contact.” To help bring your networking skills to the next level, here are some top tips for utilizing LinkedIn to connect with professionals you have never met before.

This past summer, I interned at 23andMe in Mountain View, California as a Communications & Data Analytics Intern. 23andMe is a direct-to-consumer personal genomics and biotechnology company that uses a customer’s spit sample to provide them with 125+ personalized reports about their ancestry, health, traits, and more. I split my time mostly between doing communications and content work and a few data collection and analysis projects. I wrote media pitches, helped answer questions from reporters, created internal and external blog posts, and contributed to communications materials for the release of various trait reports. On the data side, I tracked their media presence and metrics such as amplifications, sales, and potential customers to draw insights about the impact of different articles.

Let’s face it: Applying to jobs is stressful, and it can seem like a never-ending process — which means applying to jobs can seem like an actual full-time job in itself.