Author Archives: Elaine Walker

It is crunch time for sure. Faculty and students alike are focused on covering important material, completing everything that has been committed to and finishing out the semester. Many of you will be balancing jobs, internships and volunteer efforts at the same time. As one of my junior level student’s put it “smart students know that the Thanksgiving break is not really a break. It’s just a chance to see family while you complete project work.”

As you finish up …

A recent student by the Society of Human Resource Management, the largest HR professional association in the US, showed that employers still expect thank you notes after the completion of an interview. The same research shows that younger employees are less likely to send thank you notes than more experienced employees. The same research highlights an important norm.

It is not that a thank you note makes you stand out in a positive way for future employment. It is that …

In last week’s blog, I discussed the importance of using your internship to build critical skills in departmental/functional technology. This week I’d like to highlight the importance of using your internship to build skills in working across departments.

Most organizations are complex animals with complicated management structures and processes. Working across departments is a key competency that is required to successfully implement change. This is a skill that is continuously being honed in all types of organizations and by individual’s …

Congratulations – you have nailed an internship. This is an important milestone in your professional career timeline. Internships teach you the ins and outs of how organization’s really operate on a day to day basis, and provide you valuable insight into what it would look like to work in a specific field, or for a specific type of organization. Your goal now should be to learn everything you can from the internship.

Two areas cut across all types of internships. Understanding …

In prior blogs I outlined the complicated employment market that faces our graduates, and provided a bit of insight into how the HR department manages the thousands of applications that are the result of today’s click and submit application process. Many students tell me that their strategy for finding a job is to apply for everything. Here’s one students story:

When I am between classes or have a few minutes I just look on Indeed.com or the Career Services …

Many years ago I served as the HR generalist for a 1,000 person organization. One of my many responsibilities was to solicit and review candidates for open roles. This was the pre-internet age, and every day’s mail brought numerous business sized envelopes containing resumes. I’d sit at night with 40 to 50 resumes around me and would use the position specifications and needs to sort candidates into 2 piles: Definite Yes, Definite No and Needs more review.

Flash forward a …

A few weeks back I discussed the importance of creating a personal story that helps others to understand you as a person. Part of that story line is understanding your individual skill set.

All too many recent graduates discuss the same three issues when they are asked what they are good at: leadership, group work and technology.

This may well be true, but this list is not comprehensive enough – and if every graduate has those skill sets, what makes you …

Like most staff functions, HR can be an organizational punching bag sometimes. In the worse of circumstances the Human Resources representative may be unprepared for the interview, uninformed about the specifics of the job or so overworked that they are rushing candidates through the process. In addition, LinkedIn and other job search support sites strongly encourage candidates to find ways to “work around HR” or to “use the backdoor to find open jobs” or to “avoid the HR black box”. …

Career Fairs are well tested methods to allow organizations to conduct quick and effective first screens of potential candidates (Insert link to blog #2 here on creating a personal story for more information about what first screens are designed to do at “first screens” highlighted above in red).

Career Fairs are also effective ways for students to learn about different companies and how they operate. So, what should you expect when you go into a career fair?

Don’t judge by …

Bentley boasts an excellent track record at helping our undergraduates and graduates move onto full time employment, and often students who are not firmly on the job path may worry that they are being left behind. Career advice sites often add to this confusion by telling you to follow your passion, or to do what you love.

But what if your only passion is watching Housewives from Atlanta?

What if you love everything, and are interested in a ton of …