Today I had a phone interview (a reallyyyy important interview) and much to my surprise, it really wasn’t too bad (at least I think hope so). I did what was suggested by an earlier post here on this blog. I woke up early, took a shower, got dressed and made breakfast. Now, I know this may not seem like a big deal, but since this was a phone interview, I could have easily just crawled out of bed in my pajamas and answered the phone. The fact is, this basic preparation cleared my head from the night before when I was all out of sorts, gathering my notes and stressing about the interview.

I remember my last phone interview and it was disastrous. I had a class at Temple Ambler and was in the passenger’s seat of my friend’s car driving from the main campus. Error #1: I did not designate the best time with the interviewer. The phone rings and I am nervous. I only had my resume with me in the car and nothing else. Error #2: I did not compile a list of notes and questions before the interview. I remember seeing my friend’s face as he was driving. Although he was respectfully quiet, he just being present for my interview just made me more nervous as well as distracted. Error #3: I was not alone during my interview. Also, being in a moving car with the changing scenery and all, does not help a person focus. I don’t really remember the entire interview, but I do remember a string of long pauses and uhh’s and ummms on my end. Error #4: Please don’t uh or um. If you need more time to think and make a clear, intelligent answer, politely ask the interviewer for a moment to gather your thoughts.

I’m pretty sure there were more errors in that interview that I am forgetting. Live and learn… I’m glad I went through a horrible interview before the interview today for a great internship. Great is an understatement.

My phone rang shortly after I ended today’s phone interview and it was another potential employer. I’m scheduled to meet with her in person next week.

We shall see how that goes…

Still no summer internship…

In the midst of job hunting, I realized that I had to make myself productive in the meantime. So I’ve recently developed and started my own music news and audio blog (beatcakesblog.com). This project was inspired by my entrepreneurship class with Dr. Patrick Maggitti (excellent professor. take him if you can!). I started this blog in March and I’m happy to say that I’m getting great feedback and web traffic. I’m getting tremendous buzz around it by networking at events and such. I’m not sure what the future may hold with the blog in terms of monetizing it, but I can honestly say that it’s preparing me for working in the music industry in a way, by forcing me to keep up with the pulse of the industry. I’m also in the process of developing a clothing site with my friend called beatcakesstore.com (If you remember my introduction post, I mentioned hosting/DJing a radio show here at Temple called Beatcakes. It’s just a name I came up with, so I decided to extend it as a brand). So yeah, things are going okay so far.

The title of this blog is “Opportunity Knocks,” but you have to make your own opportunities sometimes.

VISIT: The Innovation and Entreprenuership Institute at the Fox School

In my previous post I discussed preparation and balance. Now let’s get to it: you’re thinking that you’ve prepared enough, but you can’t find the “right” opportunity.

It’s May and I have yet to nail a summer internship. Am I freaking out? Yeah, you can say that.

Just a tad.

Anyways, can I just say how grueling job hunting and interviewing is? I can assume if you’re reading this that you’ve done one or both of these things.

So first you have a resume. A cover letter. Awesome. You know what you want to do. You know exactly what your strengths and weaknesses are. Now what? NOWWWW WHAT!?!? (sorry for excessiveness)

Thanks to Fox, we’re not limited to company job sites, Craigslist, Monstertrak, Hotjobs, etc. We have Foxnet (http://foxschool.erecruiting.com) where there’s plenty of new internships available everyday. It’s definitely a great resource.
And there’s always connections. I’m sure everyone knows that old adage, “It’s not what you know, but it’s who you know.” Well, I don’t know if I totally agree with that statement, because it’s obvious that what you know counts. But don’t lose sight of your connections. Never burn bridges especially with previous employers, professors, and classmates. You’ll be surprised how well connected these people are and how open they would be to help you succeed. It’s almost certain that you’ll find an employer recommendation and/or job opportunity from someone in your network. Thank goodness for Facebook and Linkedin that makes building and maintaining your social network even easier. I cringe when I hear of someone not having any sort of online social networking tool. It’s like you’re closing yourself off to a whole world of opportunity if you do that! (But I’m not judging, honest) Nowadays, face to face interaction is nice, but it’s all about accessibility when you need to contact someone, and online sources/email seem to be the most efficient way sometimes.

Anyways, I’m still in the process of applying to everywhere that I can (my own qualifications considered). I just hope I’m not limiting myself in any way. I’ve been set on interning in a specific industry and now that my graduation is approaching in January 09, it’s important that I nail the “right” internship this summer.
I think I’ll leave with a question that is perplexing me right now to my fellow bloggers here on the CSPD blog and our readers:

When is it okay to compromise your job/internship goals during your search for something that may or may not be what you wanted or what you can see yourself helping you obtain that dream job in the future?

Let’s make this discussion interactive, people! So go on, leave a message in the comment section. =)

Hello everyone! First of all, I sincerely apologize for my lack of posts lately.

Finals are just about here and the stress level is about to hit an all time high for the semester. Anywho, with the all the school work, extracurriculars, and such, it got be thinking… the ultimate college exam is actually just one question: how does any student master this art of balance? And I’m not just talking about school and work. It’s difficult to find a balance with:
1) what you think you can do and what you really can do
2) what you want to do and what you should do
3) what you know you can do and what others know (or think) you can do
I’ve struggled with balancing in the past, especially when interning during the fall semester my junior year. I had the perfect class schedule for an internship; I was free Tuesdays and Thursdays. I thought, okay, I can finally intern during the school year. My mother has always been set against me interning during the school year for the fact that she did not want me to be overworked, overstressed, and lose focus in school. I sought out an opportunity to intern in New York, but this would mean I would have to commute twice a week. I had talk to friends who had commuted and they advised me that I could handled it. So of course, I listened to them and not my mom.

Proving that I could handle such a thing was more of my goal. Admittedly, pride got in my way.

The fact is, I couldn’t balance everything. I was always exhausted and was always in “catch up” mode in my classes. The lesson learned here is obvious; listen to your mom! To be fair, you cannot always foresee what you can or cannot handle. In that stage in my college career, I was too caught up in interning right away and getting as much experience possible, that my studies suffered.
I cannot tell you how much respect I have for those who work, intern, are involved in their organizations, and are kicking butt in school. Kudos. If you know how to balance, great. But if you’re not sure, calm down. Your focus should be on school anyways.

You’re opportunity will come. School is just preparation for something bigger…

Sometimes you’ll find me quoting things I hear on Oprah lol… so here I go: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” I say, prepare prepare prepare. Study hard, but continue to find that right balance. Think of school and the rest of your life experiences as practice exams. With life experiences, contrary to popular belief, failure is always an option. But you have slow down to realize the lessons learned. The opportunities will come as soon as you can answer that question and master the art of balance.

Good luck on your exams everyone.

NEXT UP: Thinking that you’ve prepared enough, but you can’t find the “right” opportunity (the current conundrum I’m faced with)

Lifehacker had an interesting article about that all important document, the resume.

“Having a resume begs for you to go into that big machine that looks for relevant keywords, and begs for you to get a job as a cog in a giant machine. Just more fodder for the corporate behemoth. That might be fine for average folks looking for an average job, but is that what you deserve?“

Read full article here.

I remember walking in to get my resume critiqued at the CSPD offices. I was so proud of my resume and how good it made me look. I thought my layout was neat and my descriptions were right on. I sit down with the reviewer and I immediately saw the red pen in her hand ravage my resume. I guess perfection is only in the eye of the beholder, aye? The only eye you should be concerned with though, is that potential employer’s. So, rewrites are key and… inevitable.

If you can’t back up what you write on your resume in the interview, why write it? I think the best advice I’ve received about the resume writing process is that every word you put on that piece of paper is a gateway to about a dozen questions. Be sure that document reflects exactly who you in multiple ways. Example: We are all responsible to some degree because of tasks xyz, but what else? Your resume shouldn’t present yourself as one dimensional.

Be honest.

I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had to start my resume from scratch. Writing your resume is a long process. You shouldn’t be finished after just one draft. Talk to people, especially the people you’ve worked with: you might be overlooking important responsibilities, character traits or specific details about the company/organization. Read it over and after you’re finished, read it again.

Download the CSPD resume guide here.

We are very excited to intoduce two current Fox School of Business student bloggers to Opportunity Knocks. 

Abigail Ricarte and Joseph Norton

Both Abigail and Joe have agreed to give you a student prospective on their internship and job searches.  We hope their insight, successes, and excitment will be helpful to all our students.  Please feel free to ask them questions, comment on their posts, and gain some valuable feedback from those who are currently going through their search for the PERFECT CAREER!

Please read their bios and allow them to introduce themselves!!

If you are interested in sharing some of your insight into your personal job search please contact the CSPD office!

Hello everyone, my name is Abby Ricarte. This is my first ever student entry for the new CSPD blog. Exciting!

I am currently an undergraduate student at the Fox School majoring in marketing. I plan on graduating in January 2009.

Every time someone asks me what I plan to do after I graduate, I say “I have absolutely no idea!” I suppose that’s only half true. I know what I would love to do- it’s just a matter of realizing that vision. At this juncture in my college career, I’m trying to figure out how to make a realistic plan after graduating that would somehow encompass my dreams- cliché and cheesy that may sound.

My passion is music. My main interests are design and technology. And I absolutely love my major. Now, to find a career that includes all four of those elements would be ideal. I’m also interested in e-commerce and non-profit organizations- contradictory to say the least.

Admittedly, I am one of those people who really do listen to everything. I am a music junkie and frequent many review sites and audio blogs daily: my favorites include Brooklynvegan and Soul-Sides. For music industry news, I go to Coolfer and Billboard.biz. (I guess that’s my tip of the day. If you are interested in an industry, do what you can and be immersed in it- read read read!) My morning reading material consists of the aforementioned sites as well as Digg, the Huffington Post, Fast Company, and Wired.

I host a show called Beatcakes on Temple’s only student run radio station, WHIP, which showcases my favorite tracks of the week and random ramblings. I am also currently the vice president of TU Philippine-American Council, a cultural organization very near and dear to my heart. Earlier this year, I joined MEISA (Music and Entertainment Industry Student Association).

My first internship was at a small independent film company in New York City called Priority Films. I was a part of a team that provided entertainment marketing and promotion at a grassroots level for three of the company’s socially conscious films.

I’ve since interned at two major record companies, Sony BMG and EMI. At Sony BMG, I was a marketing intern for their distribution company, RED, which is amongst the top major distributors for the independent sector. This past summer, at EMI (which has now merged with Universal Music Group), I again was a marketing intern under its distribution company, Caroline.

I’m just giving you a few tidbits for now. Through this blog, I will definitely elaborate on my past experiences as well as take you on my current journey- the ups and downs, the good and the bad. I’ll try not to leave anything out. Enjoy!

Feel free to email me with any questions: abigail@ricarte.net