September 30 and October 1, the dates of the NSBE/SHPE Career Fair, are quickly approaching. If you haven’t started already, it’s time to prepare. Dig your suit out of the back of your closet and dust it off. If it needs a good cleaning and pressing, send it to the dry cleaners. It’s important to look professional at a career fair. T-shirts and jeans just don’t cut it. You also want to find and polish your resume. If you haven’t put one together yet, now would be a good time to do that.
In the process of compiling your resume, you probably want to pay specific attention to the “objective” section. Take some time to think about what you want to achieve from this career fair. Are you looking for a summer internship? Or maybe a co-op? What kind of place do you want to work at? A huge corporation? A small, privately owned firm? Where do you want to live while you are working? You need to make sure you know what you are looking for or else you will get lost at the career fair.
You’ll definitly want to take advantage of the CDC. They have tons of resources that are helpful with planning internships, co-ops, and careers after graduation, as well as information on countless jobs available. In the CDC Café, there are many binders full of sample resumes, cover letters, and any other kind of correspondence you would need to write. Attend one of their seminars or schedule an appointment with a counselor for one on one attention. Take your resume in to be critiqued. All the people in the CDC are there to help you get what you’re looking for.
A “Preparing for and Navigating the Career Fair” seminar is being held September 20 in DCC 324 from 4-6 pm. Professionals from Intel will be discussing first impressions, what you need in your resume, and how to market yourself. Don’t miss this!
Freshmen, although you just got here and the last thing you are thinking about is next summer, you want to start preparing by at least deciding what you would be interested in doing over the summer. It’s never too early to put together your resume. If you do it now you’ll only have to edit it later. A lot of companies are looking for freshmen so make sure you at least check out the career fair. Who knows—you may get a really good offer.
