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Monday, January 29, 2007

The First Steps...Resume building

This past summer, I participated in an internship program called University of Dreams. I lived in Manhattan for 2 months. I was housed at one of NYU's dorms, Palladium Hall, right in the middle of Union Square. To the right of the dorm was a Trader Joe's grocery store and to the left of the building was a Trader Joe's Wine Shop and a few steps outside of the dorm's doors was the Union Square subway stop. With different celeb sightings from an America's Next Top Model winner to the Olsen twins, the location of my summer housing was perfect. Throughout the summer I went to a Broadway show, went on a cruise around NYC's harbor and traveled to Atlantic City for the 4th of July. But my main reason for being in the Big Apple for the summer was to intern at Blackbook Magazine, a progressive culture publication located in Noho, North of Houston Street. I worked in the advertising department and was able to sell ads for the magazine, attend parties the magazine threw at exclusive clubs, (as seen in the picture above) as well as making many trips to Starbucks, faxing, and sorting through mail. The experience was one that I'll never forget. I developed contacts, people to network with, new friends, and many new experiences. But the one thing that this summer of dreams did for me was to build my resume. The resume I am now using to determine my future in the real world.
Before University of Dreams, my resume was nothing to be excited about. I had a few volunteer events written down and a job at a grocery store, in which I found out later that I shouldn't really be putting on my resume anyway, my GPA, and my semester when I recieved the award of Dean's List. That was all I had, and it wasn't much at all. When first being accepted into University of Dreams, you are given a placement agent. Lindsey Kane, a former "dreamer" and now an employee with the program, contacted me right away and started the building of my resume. The resume tutorial the program uses was designed by the world-renowned resume guru, But Nadler. With years of experience as a career center director and with career guidance, University of Dreams has worked with him for several years. Here are tips from the program's website on how to correctly build a resume:
On top of your resume, centered, is your contact information. First you put your name, then below your name, your address. Below your address is your email address and a phone number you can be reached at. You should only put one address, one email address, and one phone number because en employer may be confused if there is too much information.
The first section of your resume is one that is titled "Qualifications." Nadler says on the website that this section is "a way to cut through the standard clutter of generic resumes...Employers instantly note - by reading the header alone - that you are both interested in and qualified for their industry." For this section you want to be industry specific, but not too specific. According to the website, "Entertainment and Media Qualifications" and "General Management and Marketing Qualifications" are good, but "Independent Film Studio Qualifications" is too specific. You then would list 3-5 bulleted items identifying key skills, abilities or qualifications that you have underneath this header.
The next section is Education, but like before, don't just write Education, write a header that describes your education like, Journalism Education. You will need to include your current university, major, dates, and degree progress. You should include your GPA if it is higher than 3.0. Or if your major GPA is higher than your cumulative, then just write Major GPA and the figure. Special awards like Dean's List should be included as well.
The next section is Experience, which is optional. It is optional because employers are really only interested in work experience that is relevant to what you are applying to. So you wouldn't put that you worked at McDonald's for five years in high school if you were applying to work at a record company or a magazine. If you do choose to add this section, then like before, you describe your work experience with a not too specific header and then add 2-3 bulleted items describing what you achieved at your job.
The section that follows is Courses. This section is also optional. If you have taken courses at your university that are relevant to the job or field that you are applying to, then add each one, followed by 2-3 bulleted items of the most impressive tasks you performed in these courses.
The next section is Leadership/Community. This is also optional. You may not have enough information to put here. This isn't the place to list all the clubs you may be involved in and as a rule, don't include a Fraternity or Sorority unless you had a leadership position within your organization. You should include leadership positions that may have to do with the job you are applying to.
The last section is Awards. Like the others above, it is optional because there may not be a lot to put here. Impressive awards can be helpful and add to your resume's content.
After completing the last section, you are FINISHED! Thanks to the help of the University of Dreams' Resume building website, I hope all of you find this as helpful as I did and I hope that it gets you many places in life!





Monday, January 22, 2007

Entering into the Real World...The First Steps

Hi, I'm Erin and a senior studying journalism at the University of Arizona and my entering into the "Real World" is rapidly approaching. Graduating college and entering into the "Real World" makes me extremely nervous and anxious, and I'm sure there are many like me, feeling like this, out there.

When I was home during winter break, my dad gave me two projects that needed to be completed before I returned back to school. The first was to clean out my room and the second was to start sending out as many resumes as I could. Of course cleaning out my room was something that I was not looking forward to, especially since all I was really looking forward to was sleeping as much as I possibly could. As I finally worked up enough energy to fulfill my dad's requests, I began cleaning and cleaning and found many interesting things that I had saved throughout the years. One of the last things that I found was the four-year calendar that I had received at freshman orientation at UA. The calendar began with the year 2003 and ended in 2007. Remembering back to that day when I had first looked at the calendar, I couldn't believe that May 2007, where a star marking the day of graduation stood out SCREAMING at me on the page, was only 5 months away.

Thus, the second project began, sending out resumes.

As much motivation it took me to begin cleaning my room, just imagine that time times a million. That's how long it took my motivation to reach the level of actually doing something when it came to sending out my resumes. I think it was the fact that I couldn't believe I'd actually be out on my own and working at a real job in a matter of 5 months. I then began to realize that I just needed to do it and May would come if I sent them out or didn't, and I thought to myself that I'd be much happier that I'd sent them out then not sending them out.
My dream is to work at a magazine in New York City or Chicago and that's where I started. I began googling and looking in the Yellow Pages in those cities, for contact information of different magazines and publishing companies. My first resume and cover letter that I sent out was to Time Warner, which houses publications like People. After feeling a rush of excitement and accomplishment after sending out just one resume, I knew that this was what I needed to do and I began to accept that the future was coming and there was no way to avoid it. And in order to make this process go smoothly and not as stressful, I needed to begin to enjoy looking for a job and to begin looking forward to life after college.

I'm hoping that this blog will not only help and answer questions for myself in my search for jobs and with keeping my motivation high, but for others as well. By posting tips on sending out resumes, how to dress for interviews, where to search for jobs, and many others, I hope this blog will be useful.
In the meantime...here are a few links to job search websites that I started with:
http://www.monster.com/
http://www.craigslist.org/
And from the words of Monster.com..."Today's the Day," so get started! I know I will.