DiversityInc names Top 50 Companies for Diversity 2012

Billed as the leading assessment of diversity management in corporate America and globally and now in its 13th year, the Top 50 Companies for Diversity list is derived exclusively from corporate survey submissions. Participation in the survey has increased dramatically, up 11 percent in 2012 to 587 companies. DiversityInc provides access to previous diversity lists as well as other specialty lists derived from same data submission.

AskUCSO: Summer, the UCSO and the Career Street Journal (CSJ)!

Even though the UCSO Help Desk closes for the summer, the Undergraduate Career Services Office (P101) is buzzing with activity. The Employer Relations team of four is planning the fall semester interview schedules, career fairs and much more. The Student Services team continues to provide career coaching and they are looking at new and innovative ways of supporting students and their activities.

Great jobs and internship possibilities don’t stop just because it’s summer. Please keep checking the CSJ, every week, for the job postings throughout the summer months and beyond.

We receive great job postings from companies and you may be asked to submit your resume on the UCSO website, directly to the company using the information provided in the job posting, or on the company’s website. You can identify job postings in the CSJ by checking the ‘Listing Type’ column: ‘Forward Resume to Employer’ or ‘Contact Employer Directly’. Be sure to click on the blue highlighted link for the position Job Description. If this listing type states ‘Contact Employer Directly’, the link will also tell you if your resume should be submitted directly to a person or via the website through an online application. Job postings may remain on the CSJ for one or two weeks, usually starting on Friday and ending at 4:00 p.m. on the following Thursday.

The resumes submitted are reviewed by the company representatives and the student may then be contacted directly to arrange for an interview. Initially, this could be a Skype or telephone interview.

The UCSO is here for you, so please send your questions via email (ucso@indiana.edu) or call us at 812-855-5317.

Have a GREAT summer!

Start Small, Win Big

I recently received an offer from a small consulting firm. After talking with the founder of that company, I started to see the power of small business. Sometimes we are so focused on large companies that we don’t see the rewards small companies can bring to us.

Working in a comparably small business can give us a solid foundation and appropriate attitudes to be a long-run winner. In a small scale business, most of the time we need to figure out by ourselves that the decisions we made were right for the firm. We are able to be more independent and really get a taste of the “real-world”.

We can also have a chance to immerse in different areas of the business. Someone who works in marketing department may gain experience in information technology area. In our college years, from my perspective, we don’t need to limit ourselves to a small list of favorites. Taking advantage of every opportunity and making the most out of it will give us more experience than we expected.

It’s not a bad idea to set yourself a challenging goal for your career. It can give you motivation and help you to find a direction in your life. However, no one can reach the goals in their sleep. No matter how bad we want it, the process of achieving our final goals will take a lot of time and effort. Many of us have a dream of being a successful business man or woman, but it's hard to make the dream come true if we don't have what it takes to survive in the business world.

AskUCSO - What are your plans? We want to know.

by Marcia Vander Linden, UCSO Help Desk

What are your plans for this summer and beyond? Please report your job/internship/graduate school/military or other plans so we can update our records!

When the Kelley School (and others) needs statistics about each graduating class, they turn to the UCSO for data, so it’s important for each and every one of you to report your plans even if they don’t seem to involve the UCSO at all. This is especially true for each Kelley junior and senior class, but we collect ‘status’ information from all students, regardless of your major or expected graduation date. In this case, your ‘status’ refers to any plans you have that relate to your future and your career.

The more information we know about where you are working, your job location, the types of work you are doing, your rate of pay, and so forth, the better we can extrapolate trends and helpful information for our student coaching and employer outreach efforts. This all culminates in helping us to provide you and your fellow students the best support and encouragement as you make critical decisions about your career path.

As always, the specific details of your ‘status’ are kept entirely confidential, but through your reporting you can influence the way in which Indiana University, current and future students, employers, and the world at large, relate to the opportunities to be found at the Kelley School of Business. In addition, we at the UCSO couldn’t be happier anytime we know that you are on your way to achieving the next step in your career goals. Thank you for your help!

Don’t Ever Reveal your Logins/Passwords, even if asked!

We’ve heard recent reports in the media that some employers ask job candidates to reveal their login/password information for social networking sites or even their email accounts as part of the interview process. This is apparently one way that recruiters could get around the fact that you may have privacy settings in FaceBook and other services that prevent people you haven’t marked as “friends” from seeing your private profile, pictures, and other entries on the site.

We want you to know that you should never feel pressured to reveal such information to employers and this was recently backed-up by a statement we received from our professional organization, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE):

“NACE’s position is that this practice violates ethical standards. Employers should not require or request that job candidates provide password/login information to their personal social network accounts as a condition of employment or as a condition of consideration for employment.

NACE’s “Principles for Professional Practice” provides for a recruitment process that is consistent with EEO and privacy laws and a process in which students are free from undue pressure.”

They go on to advise us to counsel students that employers do not have a right to require you to provide your logins and passwords during the employment recruiting process, and we certainly agree.

We haven’t heard of any situations where that has happened with any of our students, but if you have any questions or concerns please come talk to our staff so we can address the situation promptly.

My Job Shadow Experience

Luckily, I had a chance to visit a company’s global headquarters during the spring break this year. I shadowed with the Global Information Technology team and Internal Audit team. Truth be told, the whole experience was unforgettable, and I learned lessons that possibly would never be learned at school.

The path to career success is not always straight. To find the one thing that you really love is very important.
While talking with the IT Director, he told me that he used to be in different positions before his current position. Sometimes, we unconsciously limit ourselves because we are trying so hard to follow the mainstream demand of the society, or only focusing on the areas that fit into our majors. However, life is unpredictable. There is seldom a straight path to the success of our career. After graduation, our job will be a major part of our life. No one wants to spend eight hours a day, five days a week on something that we don’t even love. More importantly, it will be very difficult to achieve success if we are not enjoying what we are doing. Therefore, it would be a better idea spending more time discovering what you are really interested in, than follow the rest of your peers.

The role of teamwork.
It’s self-evident that teamwork is extremely important when it comes to team projects, but I didn’t realize the real-life meaning until then. I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to join in a phone call conference with different parties from Europe simultaneously. The purpose of the phone call was to discuss about the process of a major on-going multi-million IT project. The work is very challenging due to the goals of the project itself, the number of people involved, and the culture and language barriers. Without effective teamwork, not to mention about such multi-million global project, even a department-wide project could fail miserably.

Flexibility and adaptability.
In terms of the company’s internal audit department, young auditors are required to rotate from one factory to another and from one department to another. From the perspective of managers, they can have an opportunity to assess young auditors and place them in the correct places. For young auditors, before they finally become competent auditors, they need to know the organization and its activities as well. With that being said, they need to have strong flexibility and adaptability. Such abilities are often desired by many other different industries. Other than the skills and specialties required by a particular job, we should also know how to manage our time, and to adapt to new environments and situations. Those abilities can not only help us in our career, but also in our life.

Read Real Reviews From Recruiters: What They Said About YOU, the Interviewing Student

The UCSO often receives feedback from recruiters who have interviewed students on campus. We hear the good, the not so good and yes, the ugly. While a vast majority of recruiter feedback is positive, the miscues need to be acknowledged. Mastering a strategy to avoid common interview pitfalls is not hard, but it takes attention to ALL the details and dedication to success- PREPARATION!

Here is a sampling of the interview casualties in the past two weeks:

“Most of the students were energized and excited to be there. A few seemed to be going through the motions rather than becoming fully engaged.”

“I was rather disappointed in some basic interviewing details the students were missing (ironed shirts, requesting business cards, ability to answer in STAR format, language, online presence, thank you, and follow up). All students have been through X220 and X420, they really should take more to heart the advice they are given.”

“We had one student show up late and then he burped twice under his breath in the interview. We had to ask him on every question for more detail so we could get a complete answer although he seemed intelligent, just a poor communicator.”

Learn more about interview blunders and how to avoid from recruiters in this Career Builder article 10 Unusual Interview mistakes, and 6 that are all-too-common.

Job Search Advice: Do NOT apply online...YET

Applying on line for a job posting may seem like a logical step in your job search process, but before you click the “apply online”, here is an insider tip to help you understand why this method may not always be the most effective path to landing an interview.
As a former recruiter and hiring manager, this was my review process for selecting interview candidates:

1. Resumes are constantly uploaded into an electronic system as candidates apply online. We had thousands of applicants in our data base. It is a sea of potentials in which a hiring manager knows only a small percentage will stand out and be the right fit for the company.
2. A job is posted online via internal company channels first - meaning people already within the organization will know about the opening before you- then it is placed on general job posting boards like CareerBuilder, Monster, etc.
3. The recruiter conducts a key word search with the help of the hiring manager and the top candidates are identified by the system- usually 10-20 candidates are selected. (This is why it is critical your resume speaks directly to the job opening.)
4. The recruiter evaluates the choices, conducts phone interviews, and narrows the list further.
5. The top 3-5 candidates are forwarded to the hiring manager for interview consideration. At this point the hiring manager may also have a personal referral that was not in the database (this is why networking is so vital!).

The moral of this recruiter’s story - instead of tossing your resume into a sea of potential candidates, go directly to the hiring manager - the person who is making the hiring decision for that specific job posting. You want to stand out by convincing them you are the qualified person for the job. If you can get the hiring manager’s buy-in first, then when you do apply online, your odds of getting noticed have just improved. Need advice on the best way to reach out to a hiring manager? Make an appointment with a UCSO coach!