Preparing for life after graduation can be challenging. With the help of the Preparing for an Interview event at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB), attendees were able to get ready for the future with the help of the Center for Career Advising and Student Success on April.
Lauren Knottek, a student advisor within the Center for Career Advising Career and Student Success, started the workshop with an introduction to what is provided within the professional advising office, which included: resumes, cover letters and job/internship search strategies and more.
She then started with her presentation about interviewing, brushing up on your resume and getting straight to the point/concise with certain information.
“Research says that employers spend around seven seconds on your resume, so keeping it as concise as possible would be the best,” explained Knottek.
She then talked about formatting, which should be “clean, super easy to read, and around one to two pages.”
From this, Knottek dove into interview skills where she pulled up slides about researching the company you’re interviewing for, whether that be the location of the place you’re interviewing for or doing research on what they do and how well they do it.
Knottek also recommended you should practice for your interview beforehand, where you rehearse the questions you may be asked and your answers.
According to Knottek, you should plan out your time accordingly and plan to arrive for interviews early.
“The purpose of an interview is an opportunity for you to showcase your skills and energy that they are looking for,” she said.
It can also seem as though you’re interviewing them too and interviews are an excellent opportunity for you to see if a job is the type of environment you want to spend a lot of your time in.
Knottek ended the workshop with answering any last minute questions.
CSUMB student Asul Garcia-Melendez asked “if we have never had any job experience, would we leave in our high school experience instead?”
She answered “I think you can absolutely draw on experiences in high school; what I like to tell students is to create a section of relevant coursework and ways in which you’ve showcased leadership or effective communication.”
“You always want to thank the interviewer or the panel, I am a huge fan of thank you emails and it should be done within 24 hours,” Knottek said. “You kind of want to keep it light and short, but absolutely send a thank you email.”
For more help and information when planning for life after college, reach out to your Career Advisor.
