News Archives
Work Event Dos and Don’ts
At some point in your career, you’re going to attend a work event that’s outside of normal business hours. They actually happen more often than you think! This week, I had both a luncheon and a cocktail hour/dinner on the same day. I never thought I would have a job where I have to attend these events, let alone two in one day! Even if you don’t think you’ll be encountering work events in your career, you need to be prepared anyway. Here are some do’s and don’ts of attending a work event.
Do: Be Polite to Waitstaff
I worked in retail and the service industry for years. Waitstaff have to put up with a lot. Their job is stressful, fast-paced, and exhausting. Keep this in mind the next time your food isn’t the greatest, or you don’t get your drink as fast as you want. In the dating world, …
How to Handle Allergy, Cold and Flu Season
âWinter is coming.â A phrase that strikes fear into the hearts of many. Not just because it means something major is impending on Game of Thrones, but because it means the time for getting sick is upon us. Whether itâs just getting a common cold, or something major like the flu, âtis the season of sickness. Hereâs how to navigate life during whatâs sure to be a tiring time!
Utilize preventative measures.
The easiest way to handle getting sick is using preventative tactics. Get your flu shot, not just for your sake, but for everyone elseâs! If you skipped your shot, it doesn’t mean you didn’t get someone else sick. Donât want to stop by your doctor to get the flu shot? Go to Target. It sounds weird, but the MinuteClinics inside Target stores are doing free flu shots AND they give you a $5 Target coupon! In addition to …
How to Handle Politics in the Workplace
Since today is election day, what better topic to address than handling politics in the workplace? The level of chaos and tension in the current political landscape feels like it is at an all time high. Sometimes it seems like itâs all anyone can talk about. But hereâs how to handle politics being brought up at work.
Donât ever make assumptions.
Whether itâs you or someone else steering the conversation in a political direction, never make assumptions. Donât assume that anyone will have the same view as you. Some people are uncomfortable at the thought of voicing their political opinions, and logically so. People often clash when they have different beliefs, and you want to avoid negatively affecting someoneâs opinion of you. If you have a negative view of someone because of their political beliefs, maybe that conversation should have been avoided in the first place!
Never use derogatory language. …
Why You Should Recognize Your Intern’s Work
Lots of employers take on interns. Plenty of professionals will tell you the importance of a structured intern program. But sometimes itâs easy to get lost in the handling of day to day tasks. For most interns, this role is their first experience of the âreal worldâ of their desired career path. It can be overwhelming, stressful, and completely new. This makes it crucial to recognize your interns when they do great work.
Whether positive or negative, feedback is necessary.
One of the signs of a successful internship program is constant feedback. There should be some type of schedule laid out for performance reviews or self-evaluation, and outlining tasks and goals. Of course, sometimes there is a need for constructive criticism. But donât let that be all your intern hears from you! Positive reinforcement, while it seems trivial, goes a long way. Recognizing your intern when they succeed with an …
Why it’s Worth it to Stay in Indiana
If youâre attending school in Indiana, youâre probably thinking about what your future plans are. When I attended Butler University, it always sounded like everyone wanted to go somewhere else after graduationâŠNew York, California, Washington D.C., and so on. I think part of the reason why people want to move somewhere else after graduation is because they arenât aware of everything Indiana has to offer. Here are a few reasons why itâs worth it to stay in Indiana.
Indiana has the best of both worlds.
In 2016, a study of the best housing markets for millennials came with a catch â the cities with the best housing markets had almost no jobs to offer, and the best job markets meant higher housing costs. Cheap housing usually goes hand in hand with poor job markets. However, Indianapolis made the list of the top 10 most affordable metro areas for cost per …
How to Fight Burnout
The weather outside seems to be consistently cold, and not in a cute, Instagram-worthy seasonal kind of way. Thereâs been rain, and lots of gray skies. If youâre a student, youâre in the midst of a heavy workload. If youâre working, daylight hours are decreasing, and youâre probably waking up when itâs dark, and heading home when itâs nearing sunset. Everyone is likely feeling the effects of burnout, a state of physical or mental exhaustion after prolonged exposure to similar stressors. Hereâs how to fight it.
Take breaks throughout your day.
Personally, I know that Iâve always tried not to take breaks, both when I was in college and now. I worried that they would distract me and ruin my productivity. It felt like a sign of weakness. This is the wrong perception of breaks.
Taking brief breaks is proven to help with your focus during prolonged work and fight …
Sleep and Productivity: They Go Hand in Hand
Now that weâre entering midterm season (I know, sorry for bringing it up), plenty of students sleep less as the amount of schoolwork increases. If youâre not in school and working, itâs easy to feel like youâre not getting enough rest in todayâs hectic world. Regardless of your situation, sometimes you just don’t get enough sleep.
How does sleep really impact your work?
One study found that lack of sleep is directly related to poor levels of function at work, but many likely find that an obvious conclusion. However, it gets worse. Another study found that while sleep deprivation doesnât necessarily impact rule-based cognition (think mostly mindless tasks, like standardized tests), it negatively affects your innovative thinking, strategic planning, and risk analysis.
If youâre in school, you definitely need your planning skills to manage your schedule, and innovative thinking is often needed when working on assignments. If youâre working, whether …
How to Ace a Phone Interview
As I searched for a job after I graduated college, I was navigating a new kind of hiring process. In my previous experiences, I would receive a request for a face-to-face interview, and they either hired me or they didnât. I became used to excelling in those types of interviews, and thought my job search would be easy. It wasnât. For the first time in my life, employers were requesting a phone interview instead of in-person. This meant all my face-to-face skills were worthless, as my interviewer couldnât see my body language or facial expressions. A phone interview is structured differently from an in-person interview. So hereâs what you need to know to ace one.
Set up the ideal environment.
If youâve never had a phone interview, itâs exactly what it sounds like. You schedule a specific time for a phone call, and the interviewer asks you questions over the …
Avoiding Scams During Your Job Search
Ah, college. Youâre starting to embrace your independence, youâre away from your parents, and youâre getting a taste of everything the world has to offer. While this sounds amazing to you, it also sounds great to people who want to scam you. College students can be susceptible to scammers, who try to use your newfound independence to take advantage of you, especially during your job search. You might think you can spot an internship scam or manipulative job posting from a mile awayâŠbut can you really?
Misleading Practices
Have you ever searched for a certain type of job on a site, then it pulled up a position that wasnât really related? Look out for companies that use misleading practices to get you to view their job posting. For example, when I was looking for communications/marketing internships in college, I kept getting sales positions as search results. Occasionally, it would be …
The Job Search and Dating: More Similar Than You’d Think
After I graduated, I was still in the midst of my job search for an âadultâ job/career. So I continued at my internship and working retail, searching for that coveted full-time position. At the same time, I navigated the dating world, trying both online dating sites and various events to meet people.
I noticed uncomfortable similarities between dating and my job search. Here are the two biggest lessons I learned.
Both parties won’t immediately reveal their true intentions.
Most of the time, on that first or second date, you won’t be completely honest with each other. You won’t say that youâre hung up on your ex, and youâre trying to date to forget them. Your date wonât say that theyâre just lonely because theyâre living by themselves, and have no intention of talking to you after this date because they have commitment issues. But you both feign interest, and warily …
I Didnât Want to Go to Career Fairs â But Hereâs Why You Should
As students, plenty of you donât want to go to your college career fair. I certainly didnât. It takes away from valuable free time, you have to change into something other than sweatpants, and spend time awkwardly interacting with people. But it wasnât until I started representing my organization at career fairs that I gained a new perspective. Career fairs are actually incredibly important.
My Career Fair Experience
I attended career fairs maybe two or three times during college, all during my freshman or sophomore year. The only times I ever went was when my professors made me go. They made us do assignments based on the career fair (writing about our interactions, collecting a certain number of business cards, etc.). I thought going was a massive waste of time when I had such a busy schedule.
I was wrong.
Now that I occupy a position where I represent my …
Should You Hire an Intern?
So youâre wondering if you should hire an intern. It can lead to a mutually beneficial relationship and a great experience! But instead of jumping right in, take time to really contemplate if hiring an intern is the right course of action.
What Does an Internship Entail?
Before you get started, you need to clear any assumptions or misconceptions you have about interns. It might seem like an attractive idea, but an internâs purpose isnât to be your personal coffee delivery service, run your errands or be a cheap/free substitute for a full-time employee.
If youâre assigning interns tasks that are on the same responsibility level as a full-time employee, theyâre probably going to feel overwhelmed or exploited. Thereâs also nothing wrong with assigning somewhat menial tasks, but if their entire experience is filing and making copies, youâre missing the point! Internships exist to offer students or young professionals an …
State of Change: Why Itâs Important to Share Your Story
âState of Changeâ is a documentary that aired Sept. 6 on WFYI. For those who missed it (itâs now available online), the film follows three Indiana students â Shannon, Dengke and Jaedyn â as they take a road trip around the state, interviewing different professionals in some of Indianaâs leading industries. Each student comes from a unique background and has questions about their future that theyâre looking to answer.
It shows a time many know well, whether youâre a high school or college student; an entry-level or seasoned professional. The transition from graduating high school to entering college and charting the path for your future can be a difficult one.
The interviews led to valuable lessons: the path to your ideal career doesnât have to be linear, a career fieldâs work might differ from your assumptions and the importance of interacting with a variety of people in a field youâre …
One Post is All it Takes: A Reminder to Keep Your Social Media Clean
By now, everyone has heard the cautionary tale of the NASA intern who was fired because of two profane tweets. Homer Hickam, a former NASA engineer, had tweeted a warning to the now-former intern about her language use, but she was unaware of his identity and used profanity in her reply to him. While the story was certainly cringe-inducing, many people may think the same situation may never happen to them. But chances are, employers will look at your social media. You just wonât be lucky enough to get a warning.
Social media is fun and engaging, and many of us have the habit of posting anything and everything we do. But more employers use social media in the hiring process than ever before. A 2017 survey by Harris Poll found that 70 percent of employers used social media to screen candidates.
This is both your greatest advantage and disadvantage.
This doesnât mean you should delete your accounts. …
How to Offer Competitive Internships (Even if They’re Unpaid)
Letâs be honest, there are plenty of employers that are searching for interns. The hunt for good applicants is highly competitive. If you donât have a big budget for paying interns, you might have to get creative. So how can your company distinguish itself to attract the best candidates?
Pay isnât the only factor.
If your internship is unpaid, or has a lower pay rate, it doesn’t necessarily alienate you in the job market. Students take internships for valuable learning experience and to take their first step into the âreal world.â Pay isn’t the only factor prospective candidates look at. That being said, it’s worthwhile to look at EARN Indiana to stretch your budget a little further. It’s a state work-study program that matches up to 50 percent of your internâs hourly pay. Read more about EARN Indiana and the program requirements here.
Offer other benefits.
What if you just can’t afford a paid intern? …