Lori Rush of Rush Recruiting & HR says her two most important tips are to be prepared and well practiced.
Before you can give an impressive job interview, career consultant Lori Rush stresses, you have to get yourself ready to be impressive.
“How prepared you are for the interview is how prepared you’ll be for the job,” Rush told College of Business students Oct. 28 in a one-hour seminar in Austin Hall’s Robert Family Event Room sponsored by the college’s Career Success Center.
Rush, a COB graduate and the president of Rush Recruiting & HR in Portland, says pre-interview prep should be both thorough and detailed. For example, what are the mission and values of the company, and how has it been affected by changes in the industry? Also, learn the firm’s lingo — if it prefers “clients” and you instead use “customers,” that shows a lack of homework and/or attention to detail.
Other highlights from Rush’s presentation:
— Remember an interview is your chance to gather additional information about the company and the job, so be ready to ask questions as well as answer them.
— Don’t interrupt the interviewer.
— Don’t be afraid of a few seconds of silence; if you’ve thoroughly answered a question, resist the urge to break dead air by saying something else, something you’ll likely end up regretting.
— Don’t talk negatively about a former boss, company or colleague.
— Anticipate questions you might be asked and practice answering them aloud. Have specific accomplishments to share.
— Be prepared to talk about your failures/weaknesses, what you learned from them, and how you’re bettering yourself.
— Close the interview strongly. Express your interest, ask about next steps, and include a query such as “what questions do you have about my fit for the position.”
— Follow up with a thank you note.
— And if rejected, use it as a learning experience, including politely asking why you weren’t a successful candidate.
Tyler Kluempke, far left, joined other students for a panel discussion last winter to talk about internships.
For 2015 marketing graduate Tyler Kluempke, when Oregon State’s football season started without him in Corvallis to cheer for the Beavers in person, that’s when it hit him that he’s part of the real world now.
The good news for the former Marketing Club president is that his first stop after the College of Business is “exactly what I wanted to get into.”
Kluempke is a sales and business development representative with Oracle, and as the school year approached in Corvallis, he was wrapping up five weeks of training – the final three at corporate headquarters in San Francisco, the first two in Boston, where Kluempke will be based.
“It’s been a crazy couple weeks to say the least,” Kluempke said Sept. 14.
In his role with Oracle, he will serve as an account manager with current cloud ERP systems clients and also try to grow revenue streams. ERP stands for enterprise resource planning, and Kluempke describes the systems as “software packages that are the essential backbone of all businesses across all industries.”
“Financial reporting, procurement, project management, everything a C-level employee needs to run a business,” he said. “My territory is the Pacific Northwest and all of western Canada, mid- to small-size businesses up to $500 million in revenue. I’ll try to generate new business, warm calling, cold calling. It’s a sales role, a killer job, exactly what I wanted to get into. I always wanted to be in the tech world.”
Kluempke said the Career Success Center in particular and the College of Business in general “really put the opportunities in place for me to learn a lot of essential material, to really excel.”
“You hear a lot of material, it’s like drinking out of a firehose, and things kind of piece together once you’re out of the school zone and in the workforce,” he said. “I went to a lot of guest speaker events and talked to executives. There were a lot of similarities in the answers when it came to people successful enough to reach upper-level management or the executive level, and it usually came down to putting your head down and just working, just doing your job. Those are simple concepts that kind of get masked in the tech world, where everyone thinks they’re going to have the next Facebook or Snapchat and it’s going to go boom overnight. They’re not paying attention to those long hours, going to the events they need to go to, going to a networking event.”
Kluempke, third from right, says his education is coming into particularly sharp focus now that he’s in the workforce.
Yuan Feng Chao addresses the audience as fellow panelists Tyler Kluempke, left, and Keenan Seguancia listen during the Students Speak Out event on Jan. 27.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, and come up with at least one to ask every day.
Find a mentor.
Anticipate interview questions and practice answering them.
Research the company well in advance.
Lose your ego and be ready to learn from everyone in the company.
Develop your communication skills, both the formal and informal ones.
Understand that you’ll likely be asked to do at least some amount of grunt work.
Those were among the internship lessons passed along Jan. 27 by an eight-member panel during Students Speak Out. The Career Success Center organized the event, the first of its kind, and the near-capacity audience of about 50 in the Robert Family Events Room included a mix of majors and grade levels ranging from freshmen to MBA candidates.
Senior panelist Keenan Seguancia praised the first-year students for taking the initiative to learn about internships so early in their college careers and wished he had done the same thing. Seguancia, a business information systems/accounting major, interned with Nike in summer 2014.
In seeking out internships, Seguancia emphasized using the Career Success Center – “They search for opportunities for us day in and day out,” he said – and to research companies to see if their core values and mission statement align with those of the prospective intern. He also stressed the value of joining clubs on campus both for the resume-building and networking value.
Other panelists’ internship firms included Neil Kelly, Daimler Trucks North America, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Naked Wines, Mutual of Enumclaw, Olah Inc. and Robert W. Baird & Co.
Tiga Evans, a sophomore majoring in merchandising management and sustainability, spoke of being ready for whatever questions the interviewers might ask, including in her case, “Why do you want to work for this company?” and even “What is your favorite movie?”
Taylor Wobig, a senior in interior design, urged students not to exaggerate their skills when interviewing, and she also offered a networking tip: When you receive someone’s business card, write down additional information about the person on the back of the card for future reference.
About 50 students of varying majors and class levels attended.
And Hannah Taylor, a senior in finance, reminded the students that while internships provide for a variety of interesting and challenging responsibilities, they’re not all glamorous ones.
“Know you might be doing grunt work at the beginning,” she said. “It’s what you’re there for.”
For more information about internships, visit the Career Success Center, Austin Hall 102, and also like the center on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/OSUBIZJOBS.
Justin Leuck and Carolyn Hoard listen to Career Success Center advisor Tamara Mitchell talk about networking.
Look and sound like a professional.
Ask to be endorsed.
Don’t embellish your capabilities, or worse, make things up.
Don’t include personal information in your profile that you don’t want prospective employers to know about.
Take the time to research groups and then join the ones that seem the most valuable.
These were all among the lessons Wednesday afternoon as career advisor Tamara Mitchell conducted a student workshop in the College of Business’ Career Success Center on how to use LinkedIn, a social networking site aimed at career building.
Mitchell said data from the U.S. Department of Labor show that 75 percent of all jobs in this country are obtained through some form of networking, highlighting the importance of using every type of available tool for making connections with prospective employers.
LinkedIn gives users the opportunity to network with vast numbers of professionals in their field and related ones, provides excellent job search and company research capabilities, and perhaps best of all, it allows organizations to actively and efficiently hunt for job-seekers as they try to fill openings.
“People are going to search for you,” Mitchell said. “You might as well make it easy on them.”
Workshops are scheduled for 3 p.m. at the CSC two of the next three Wednesdays as well. On Jan. 21, the topic is “How to be competitive in the job market.” On Feb. 4, students will learn more about networking skills.
Business Information Systems student Parker Edwards during his internship with Alaska Airlines
The Career Success Center’s #MySuccessIs campaign was created to engage College of Business students in order to help them to be successful academically and in seeking employment after graduating. Senior Business Information Systems student Parker Edwards is a perfect example of someone who made the most of his undergraduate experience, having landed some great internships while in school and receiving a job offer with a software company in Portland before even graduating. Check out Parker’s story and advice for future and current students below!
Parker Edwards, Business Information Systems
What are your post-graduation plans?
I’ll be working immediately after graduation as a technical project management intern at Jive Software in Portland.
Edwards gets to see the inside of the cockpit while interning with Alaska Airlines
I worked for three years with the College of Business in the IT department. This gave me a good inside look at what it takes to keep the College running. I also developed my technical skills and problem solving abilities through a bunch of projects that have had a direct impact on how staff, faculty and students use our technology.
I also worked last summer as an intern with Alaska Airlines. I worked in the Maintenance and Engineering division as a systems and process analyst.I got a lot of experience where I was able to put the material I’ve learned in class to practice to solve real problems. Some of the scripts and tools I wrote while I was there are still in use across the maintenance stations. During my internship, I also was able to take advantage of the employee flight benefits. I went on day trips to Honolulu, San Francisco, San Diego, and Barrow, Prudhoe Bay, and Anchorage, Alaska. I was also able to take a long weekend and go to Disneyland with my girlfriend.
What advice would you give current and future College of Business students about how to be successful in their program and in seeking a job?
Get as much experience as possible. All of my experience has built on itself and been instrumental in helping me find job opportunities after graduation. Getting a job on campus has also been extremely beneficial. It has allowed me to build a relationship with many professors and staff members at the College, and has given me many great networking opportunities.
I’d also say to be open to all kinds of companies in your internship search. I spent so much time looking at ‘tech’ companies that were very widely discussed within my major that I overlooked a lot of other great companies. Alaska was one of them, and without the Career Success Center helping me broaden my search, I probably wouldn’t have found that internship.
Did you utilize the services at the Career Success Center? How did they help you prepare to enter the job market?
I attended an informational session put on by the CSC for jobs and internships at Alaska Airlines. It was this session that I realized what a great opportunity an internship with Alaska would be, and I went through the process of perfecting my résumé, mock interviewing, and contacting the company representative, all because of the CSC.
I believe that my internship with Alaska has been one of the most important pieces of my work history and has allowed me to find many opportunities for employment after graduation. On top of that, I had one of the greatest summers of my life and made a lot of good friends as an intern. And this was a direct result of the work done by the CSC!
Edwards said that the Career Success Center opened doors for him that he wouldn’t have otherwise discovered
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
I’d like to be able to fly like Superman.
How would you have used your superpower (or not used it) while getting your degree?
I don’t think being able to fly would have helped me much, but I definitely would have taken a bunch of trips to a more sunny place whenever the weather here got bad.
What is your favorite thing about Corvallis?
It is small enough that I feel safe as a student, with enough to do that I don’t ever feel too bored, but not big enough that I feel like just another ‘face in the crowd.’
What’s your favorite thing about OSU/OSU’s campus?
Although it isn’t currently finished, I love Austin Hall. I’ve been able to tour the inside and it is going to be the most beautiful building on campus. I think it inspires collaboration and creativity in a way we haven’t seen yet on campus.
If you knew you were leaving Corvallis for good, where do you go for your last meal here? What do you order?
Mongolian Grill, without a doubt. It is the BEST place in Corvallis, and the assortment of food you can get is amazing.
College of Business Dean Ilene Kleinsorge addresses students at the first annual Career Boot Camp
Last Friday at the Reser Stadium Suites, about 60 first and second year business students attended the Career Success Center’s first annual ‘Career Boot Camp’ workshop.
Students listen to a ‘speed dating’ presentation from alumni and faculty from Oregon State’s Business Information Systems program.
The one day intensive program kicked off with a “speed dating” session between undergraduate business students and professionals representing all of the College of Business’ undergraduate majors at Oregon State, followed by an educational business etiquette lunch.
The afternoon kicked off with a keynote address by Dr. Will Keim that addressed the keys to success in college and life. The session concluded with breakout sessions on personal branding resume writing and social media in the job search.
Those who attended said it was a rewarding and informative experience. For first year business student Anna Kameshima, one of the most valuable takeaways was the chance to speak with alumni and professionals representing so many different aspects of the business world.
“It was very interesting hearing from so many professionals with different experiences and backgrounds,” said Kameshima. “Choosing a major can be a very difficult decision, but hearing from actual business professionals is very helpful.”
First year student Logan Charboneau said the biggest thing he learned at the event was the importance of social media.
“We’ve all heard the ways that social media can hurt you when looking for a job, but I didn’t realize how much social media sites like LinkedIn can actually help you get a job,” said Charboneau.
Attendees were treated to a lunch event to teach proper business etiquette while dining.
Brandi Fuhrman, the assistant director of the College of Business’ Career Success Center, said she received overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and volunteers.
“We heard from students that they got more out of the event than they expected, which was exactly what we wanted to hear” Fuhrman said after the event. “As well as this first event went, we’re looking forward to building on its success to make future Career Boot Camps even better.”
The Career Success Center is located at 209 Bexell Hall, and helps connect College of Business students with the resources needed to obtain internships, interviews and jobs.
Oregon State College of Business student Elizabeth Yamada didn’t know what to expect when she sat in on her first Industry Information Session.
Yamada is hoping to join the MECOP business and engineering internship program and wanted to hear from representatives of the Boeing Company, one of the session’s featured companies and a MECOP sponsor as well.
She spoke with Boeing Project Manager Katie Schuberg, an OSU Finance and MBA graduate and former MECOP intern herself.
Yamada left with her questions answered, a new contact at a company she’d love to work with and renewed confidence in her path.
“[Schuberg] was also a MECOP intern, and hearing she doesn’t have a technical background — like me — I needed to hear that,” Yamada said.
Put on by the College of Business Career Success Center, Industry Information Sessions bring representatives from multiple companies to Bexell Hall 328 at 4 p.m. every Tuesday.
Every session focuses on a different industry, allowing students to meet with recruiters, find out more about companies and start networking for future jobs and internships.
Fall term’s first session featured the aviation industry, with representatives from Boeing, the Port of Portland and Evergreen Aviation.
Yamada said the environment was welcoming, with recruiters open to questions and eager to give advice.
“It’s not as scary as it sounds like,” she said. “When they announce it in class, networking can sound intimidating, but the recruiters are just like we are.”
Schuberg said she enjoys coming back to Corvallis as a Boeing rep now, and encourages students to attend as many professional events as they can before graduating.
“It’s about opening students’ eyes to the possibilities at a company,” she said of her role on campus visits. “I never thought about Boeing until I was there.”
The sessions and in-person contact with a representative can also be tools when looking for future positions.
“That face-to-face interaction with representatives from a company is huge,” Schuberg added. “We do take resumes and answer questions, and it shows you’re proactive.”
For her, that active role in the job search is the best thing a student can do.
“You’re the only one looking out for yourself,” Schuberg said. “Put yourself out on a limb sometimes.”
Early on in her career, Brandi Fuhrman realized that her favorite part in any position she held was helping her coworkers.
“I like feeling like I’ve been helping someone,” said Fuhrman, the new director of the College of Business Career Success Center.
“We’re all human, we all make mistakes,” she said. “If I can help someone by sharing about my mistakes or just observations as I try to help them through something and help them be better, that for me is really rewarding.”
As the new Internship and Career Services Coordinator for the Career Success Center, that’s Fuhrman’s main task, helping COB students not only connect with jobs and internships but preparing them for those opportunities and present themselves in the best way possible.
The Career Success Center helps students prepare for a job search and eventual career through information sessions with companies, professional development workshops to teach essential personal skills and other services such as job and internship listings, resume help and more.
Fuhrman is excited by the possibilities the center holds (she started officially Feb. 6) and is looking forward to adding to its offerings.
“Everyone has been extremely welcoming. The students have been great,” Fuhrman said. “I think it has the ability to grow quite a bit.”
A native of Southern California, Fuhrman came to Oregon to attend the University of Portland before coming to Oregon State for her MBA in 2003.
Most recently Fuhrman worked as a senior operations leader for Target in Albany, running the shipping department but also working as a recruiter and helping develop Target managers for more senior positions with the company.
“A lot of what Target’s culture is and what drew me to this job is development,” she said. “A lot of time was spent working with my direct managers and helping to develop them so that they can get promoted or help them become better leaders.”
She remembered one manager who needed work on interpersonal skills, but showed promise with more analytical tasks.
Fuhrman worked to develop ways for him to spark conversations with coworkers while also introducing him to company leaders who could help develop his skills with data and analytics.
“He was a huge asset to Target but maybe not in that role,” Fuhrman said. “He was probably your average manager, but I saw the potential. That was extremely rewarding.”
As a recruiter, Fuhrman represented Target at career fairs, mock interviews and other events, those same activities she’ll now counsel College of Business students in mastering.
“I was the person on the other side at the career fair, trying to tell you about Target, analyzing the student standing in front of me,” she said. “Now I’m on the other side trying to give them tips and pointers on how to be the person standing in front of the recruiter that when you walk away the recruiter is writing great things about you on your resume instead of putting it in the ‘no’ pile.”
Leaving with not only a degree but also a solid understanding of the professional world is a key to a successful college experience, something the College of Business Career Success Center understands.
The first workshops explored resume and personal brand development, with sessions on social media in the job search, professional dress and leadership development still to come.
The most recent session on Oct. 17 featured Kathrine Giacchino and Pinky Gonzales discussing how students could work to build their own brand before even venturing out into the job market.
Giacchino works with Rubicon International, a boutique technology consulting firm headquartered in Portland, while Gonzales is the Founder and Chief Strategist of Portland-based Upriver Solutions.
The next workshop takes place Oct. 31 at 3 p.m. in Bexell 415, with talent development professional Lea McLeod discussing how social media can be used to help secure a job.
