Volume 124 Issue 144
kansan.com
Friday, April 27, 2012
SCHOOL
--their resume by using the online Optimal Resume tool, a self-directed resume development tool, or schedule an appointment with a Career Coach.
Preparing for the job search LEARN TIPS OF THE TRADE FOR GETTING THAT JOB AFTER GRADUATION OR FINDING AN INTERNSHIP FOR THE SUMMER // ALLISON BOND
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JESSICA JANASZ
Getting that job you want is as easy as nailing the preparation.
Alyssa Keith started off the month of March by putting on her best business attire, printing off copies of her resume and heading to the journalism career fair. "I went in there with an open mind," says Keith, a senior from El Dorado. "I'm open to anything. It's pretty much 'have bag will travel.' But before connecting with journalism employers from around Kansas, Keith prepared by also going to the University Career Fair and seeking help from the University Career Center.
Keith is not the only one preparing for career fairs on campus. The University Career Center director David Gaston says 1,000 students attended the University Career Fair in February with 116 businesses to choose from. Two things to prepare and polish before career fairs are resume and interview skills.
One of the ways the Career Center, located in room 110 at the Burge Union, can help is through building and polishing your resume. Students can work on
Debbie Snyder, employee at World Company, which employs around 200 people in places such as the Lawrence Journal-World, Mediaphormedia and Sunflower Publishing, offers a tip for student resumes. "Include all of your experience, even if you feel it's not relevant," Snyder says. "You learn something from every experience." Gatson reminds students though that the purpose of a resume is to secure an interview. Resumes provide the opportunity to promote your experience and skills as a good fit for a position.
Once the interview is secured though, how can you make sure the interview goes great? One way is to practice through mock interviews. Students can fine-tune their interview skills by sitting down with a career coach for a video recorded mock
interview. After the interview, the tape is replayed and talked about.A new edition of this process is called the optimal interview, found at kucareerhawk.com. Students can perform a self-directed mock interview where they select a set of questions that an actor in a video then asks in an interview. Afterward, students can send in the tape to get critiqued, a process that is done all online.
"First impressions are pretty important," Gatson says. Going into an interview, "you have to communicate what you have to offer with a 30-second commercial of who you are and what you want to do," Gatson says. Through a very individualized approach, the Career Center, serving around 3,000 students a year just for individual appointments alone, seeks to assist students in any phase of figuring out what they want to do, from choosing a career direction or major to helping develop resumes and search for jobs.
Paul Coleman, who works at Lazer
105. 9 radio station in Lawrence, agrees that it is all about the interview process. "You come in and say, 'I didn't know what else to do so I thought I would come and apply,' that's not going to work," Coleman says. "We are looking for people who are motivated and know what they want."
Whether finding an internship for the summer or trying to get that first job after college, polishing your resume and interview skills never go to waste. "The Career Center is here to help," Gaston says. "We love to help folks realize their dreams."
THREE BIG INTERVIEW TIPS David Gatson, University Career Center director,says there are three big tips to preparing for a great interview.
Self-Assessment: Know who you are and what you want to accomplish. Network: Look for opportunities that correlate with you. Then communicate what value you can add to an organization. Do background research on the company you are interviewing with. When interviewing make sure to include some of that research into the conversation. Follow-up: Make sure you follow up the interview with a written note or an email afterward.
Kucareerhawk.com offers these tips for building the best resume:
Be clear: A resume should address the experience required for the position you are applying for.
Be concise: Try to fit your resume on one page.
Be clean: Make sure your resume is neat and easy to read. Tips to accomplish this are use a readable font such as Times New Roman in 11 or 12-point type, highlight achievements and skills using bullet points, use action verbs and avoid abbreviations.
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FILM
Documentary prompts race discussion in schools
Patrick Monroe, a senior from New Berlin, Wis., looks through a lens to focus a shot for his documentary. The documentary features the "Can We Talk" program at Free State High School, which focuses on racial issues in public schools.
XIN LI/KANSAN
IXIN LI
XIN LI editor@kansan.com
Yimer said the program was meant to facilitate understanding of different races and reduce the academic performance gap between white students and students of minority groups. She said she was surprised by how unrecognized the program
Sylvia Yimer, a graduate student in the School of Social Welfare, went to visit the program "Can We Talk" at Free State High School. "Can We Talk" is a localized part of a national program. Yimer said her visit was driven by her interest in race equality in public schools.
A group of University students is producing a documentary called, "Courageous Conversations about Race," a program encouraging high school students to face racial issues.
Last September, Yimer brought the documentary idea to a University student club, the Documentary Film Society. The student club was just established by then. The president of the club, Patrick Monroe, a senior studying film, was excited to hear about the idea.
Index
CLASSIFIEDS 7
CROSSWORD 4
SPORTS 8
SUDOKU 4
"Film can be used to make change and be the outlet for voices that are marginalized to be heard." Yimer said. "These kids wouldn't get an opportunity to get their stories heard without someone giving that to them necessarily."
Monroe said it was great to know that Sylvia was as dedicated as he was to filming and directing.
was. Yiner decided to make a documentary to raise awareness of the program.
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
OPINION 5
"Since we started, we were focusing on funding and didn't have
The program is inspired by the book "Courageous Conversations about Race — a Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools" by Glenn Singleton and Curtis Linton. In February, Yimer and Monroe flew to San Francisco to interview and film Singleton.
Yimer said Singleton was personable. The author set aside more than four hours of his day to meet exclusively with Monroe and Yimer.
"It was easy to tell how passionate he was about his work and how eager he was to help us," Yimer said. "The interview with Glenn is by far the most important interview for the film."
"As a filmmaker, I hope this will be a calling card not just for me, for the club, but for KU," Monroe said. "We want to show people what KU students are capable of."
Monroe said a lot of work needs to be done to make the documentary successful and he hoped they could eventually send the documentary to film festivals. He hasn't yet announced a release date.
anything solid to work on," Monroe said. "Then Sylvia called me with this golden idea."
Monroe said the project would expand through the school year and develop into a 70-minute feature.
During spring break the team conducted an interview with a Free
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State High School student who said to have benefitted from the program. Yimer said their next goal was to set up an interview with Tim Wise, one of the leading authors on race and racism in America.
Don't forget
Edited by Anna Allen
Today is the Brown Bag Drag Show sponsored by SUA, Queers & Allies and Kicker. This is the last Tunes @ Noon of the year.
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Showers and thunderstorms are likely, also wise mostly cloudy.
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