What to Expect at the UW STEM Fair

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Jordan
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The 2012 S.T.E.M Fair.

The UW S.T.E.M. Fair is tomorrow, Thursday, April 11, from 1-4 p.m. in the main lobby of the Engineering Centers Building. Below are five key tips and things to remember.

1. Wear professional dress

We all know you dislike (some hate) wearing professional dress, but you really should wear it for the S.T.E.M Fair. While we cannot speculate on what others will be wearing, if there are others wearing professional dress you will make a poor first impression if you are not wearing it too. If no one is wearing professional dress, think of the awesome impression you will make. The way I see it, it is a win-win to wear professional dress. Check us out on Pinterest for some great suggestions for Men and Women.

2. Come with an elevator pitch

Right after you shake their hand, give them a 30 second elevator pitch. This is in a nutshell, the verbal form of your cover letter. It explains who you are, your purpose for talking to them, why you feel you are qualified to talk to them and that you are really interested in their opportunities. With this, anything you can add in your elevator speech about the organization you are talking with is a great bonus. Most of the time you get a short window with the employer, so making sure they know you know about their company will give you more time to talk about what you want to talk about, a job.

3. Know who you want to talk to

Before you come in the doors of the Engineering Centers Building, you better know the companies you want to talk to. Not only should you know the employer you want to talk to, but about their organization in general. I have gone up to organizations before and gotten caught not knowing anything about them – not the best first impression. Check out these links for a complete list of employers and labs attending the S.T.E.M. Fair.

4. Do a warm-up

Before you go and talk to your top three employers, talk to an organization you are not really interested in. Just grab an organization that does not have a lot of people standing in line and give them your pitch. This will help get the wiggles out and sometimes you might find an organization you actually want to work for.

5. You won’t get a job here

The most important thing to remember when you go to any career fair setting is that you will NOT get a job at the fair. A career fair setting is meant to give you leads to positions and connections in an organization. It is the connections you make and facilitate after the fair that make it such a great event. Send the recruiter a thank you email with your resume attached the next day and you could get yourself on the top of the call back list. These connections are your gateway to getting positions in the organization in the future.

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How to Answer the “Tell Me About Yourself” Interview Question

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Jordan
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tell me about yourselfFor every interview I have ever had, the first question they always ask  is, “Tell me about yourself.” While it may seem like an easy question, it will set the tone for the rest of your interview, and is the first impression the employer gets of you. Below are five tips to help you ace this question.

1. Be confident

Employers can sniff out a lack of confidence from a mile away. As the first question, this is where they test out whether you are confident or not. Check out this blog post, Interviewing with Confidence: Taming the Midwest Humble, for more information on how and why you need to be confident in your interview.

2. Start with your credentials

First, you should start with your credentials. ” I am a senior majoring in _____.” I always have this little segment down. These are the main points you want to get across to anyone that you meet. This will lay the groundwork for what you want to address in this question.

3. Tell them why you chose your major/industry – give them a story

Passion is one quality employers look for because it’s an indicator that you will be dedicated to the work you will be doing. Talking about the inspiration for your major and why you want to have a job in this field is one way to convey passion. For example, tell the interviewer about a class you took that was inspiring or a life event that caused you to go down this path. Tell a story that gives them a reason to keep listening, giving them insight into why you would be a passionate and enthusiastic employee.

4.Tell them about your experiences throughout college

You then need to transition to telling them about the most influential experiences you have had while in college. Give them a short synopsis of an influential class, your internships, students organizations, volunteer opportunities or anything else that has been influential. This gives them a quick overview of why you have the experience for the job.

5. Tell them how your experiences help them in this job

The most important thing is the ending, or the “hook”. Tell them why your experiences make you the best candidate for this position. Tie all of your experiences and your inspiration together to make you look like you are an enthusiastic candidate that has the experience to back it up. Try an ending phrase like “I am specifically drawn to this position because it would offer the opportunity to utilize my _______ skills and grow in the area of _____. I feel drawn to the work you do here based on past experience and future goals”.

The five steps outlined above represent one way to answer the question. We’ve gotten feedback from employers that this is a good raodmap – but it’s certainly not the only way. Feel free to mix it up a little. Have a friend ask you this question to gain experience and increase your confidence. Like it or not – this question will always come up in an interview, usually right away. Below is a video that demonstrates some good and bad answers to this question.

Jordan Simonson

By Jordan Simonson
CALS Career Services Peer Advisor

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Interviewing with Confidence: Taming the Midwest Humble

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Jordan
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interview confidenceAppearing confident in an interview is not easy to us Midwesterners because of a term coined by some as…”the Midwest humble.”

As someone from the Midwest, you may not think you are humble, which is the mistake I made. At one of my interviews I felt I was very confident, but after the interview the employer told me, “I wish you would have more confidence in your accomplishments.” “Wait, I haven’t been confident?!,” I was shouting at the interviewer in my head.

Appearing confident to an employer is very important and can be one of the deciding factors in a hiring decision. Here are three tips to help you appear confident in an interview.

1. Talk about your “top five”

Before your interview, you should identify the five most important things on your resume that relate to the position for which you are interviewing. During your interview, you need to make sure you get each of these “top five” into the interview conversation. Once you talk about each once during the interview, mention them all again.

2. Do your research and come prepared

“What do you know about us?” is one of the most important questions organizations ask during an interview. This surprises many potential employees (including myself) and can derail your interview. This is why it is really important to do your homework before the interview. The organization website is a great place to get some background knowledge, but that is not where your research should end. You should also look at their social media pages to see the latest news an organization is promoting. Read their blog posts from the last month, especially if that blog post relates to the position to which you are applying. In multiple occasions during an interview, I have used this information to make myself look “in the know” about a company.

3. What questions will they ask?

An important drill to go through before the interview is to think about questions interviewers could ask you and then answer them. This exercise will help you answer questions faster and with more confidence during the interview.

After you do all of this, you may still need to quell your actual nerves. Just make sure to watch the “ums” and breathe before every answer. You don’t need to rush your answers -  slow and steady wins the race.

Jordan Simonson

By Jordan Simonson
CALS Career Services Peer Advisor

Posted in Interview Success | 1 Comment

CALS Stars: Emily Gasteyer

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Jordan
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IMG_0872As freshmen, we came to college with endless possibilities.  We could join new student organizations, our GPA’s reset to 4.0 and we were finally free from our parents.  We could be anything and do anything – all by ourselves.  Emily Gasteyer, a sophomore majoring in Biochemistry, thought the same things when she first arrived on campus.  Little did she know, her freshman experiences would change her outlook on something she loved dearly; science.

“I love science and I always have, even in high school and middle school. I always loved numbers and looking at data to come up with solutions to problems,” said Gasteyer excitedly. “I came to college thinking I could do everything on my own, I didn’t need anyone else.  You realize when you come to college, not only is it good to take advantage of other people, but you have to.”

This was something Gasteyer learned from a residential community called Women in Science and Engineering (W.I.S.E.) her freshman year.  She was on a floor in Sellery Hall with 60 women all interested in science, technology, engineering or math (S.T.E.M.).

“It is a learning community that provides support because sometimes it can be really hard to be a woman in science. There are not a lot of us.  I am in Physics 201 right now, which I’d say is 80 percent guys.  That is different for me, my freshman year I was taking general classes like math and chemistry, which is pretty much a 50/50 split. As soon as you get to those higher level classes, it starts to get predominantly male. It can be hard because then you feel a lot of pressure being female and it can make you want to quit and give up.  That is the purpose of W.I.S.E., to start from an early age and start with that mindset of, ‘you can do it,’” said Gasteyer.

Not only has this opportunity allowed her to gain meaningful relationships with women in S.T.E.M. fields, it has also helped her get connected on campus, including getting a job in the Huttenlocher lab.

“Another huge thing that W.I.S.E. helped me do was meet professors, and that is actually how I met Dr. Anna Huttenlocher. She came to W.I.S.E. and gave a talk about her research and I thought what she was doing was really interesting. Her research pertains to auto-immune diseases and I had some personal experiences with it. I went up after the presentation and asked her about her research and I actually asked her if there were any positions open.  She basically said ‘yes, why don’t we meet sometime together and talk.’ So I did and I ended up getting a job.  I can say I have a job directly because of W.I.S.E.,” said Gasteyer.

Through W.I.S.E., Gasteyer also found a passion for communicating science to the public, something she learned when she volunteered at the UW Space Place to help teach children science.

“I have done outreach with the UW Space Place through the W.I.S.E. program.  For our second semester, we had to participate in eight hours of science outreach in the community.  We went there a few Saturdays over the semester and we came up with a kid-friendly presentation that was interactive and exciting.  It was basically to get kids excited about science,” said Gasteyer.

As a sophomore, Gasteyer is a peer mentor for W.I.S.E., where she is helping women learn from her experiences as a freshman and now as a sophomore.

“As a peer mentor for WISE, we try really hard to help the girls take advantage of their resources.  We tell them about resources and get them excited about things, how to go about looking for a job or a research position and how to get help if they are struggling in a class.  Our primary goal is to show the girls everything campus has to offer,” said Gasteyer. “Another part of it is how the girls can take advantage of each other too. You can’t do it on your own.  One of my goals as a peer mentor is help the girls figure out, ‘yeah, you can do it on your own sometimes, but it is really good if you can collaborate with other people on the floor.’  You need to do that to help yourself out.”

Even with the amazing experiences Gasteyer has had as a student, she still isn’t sure of her path.

“I am doing all of these things to try and figure out where I want to be. I am trying to figure out what interests me and what I’m passionate about enough to enjoy coming to work every day.  I did programs like W.I.S.E. and got a job in a lab because I wanted to figure that out,” said Gasteyer. “Since starting in my lab, I have figured a lot of things out.  I know I don’t want to go to medical school and I know I want to do something more applied.  Something that involves laboratory work, but that can have applications in every day life.  Work has helped me figure that out and when I get to go to work, I love what I do.  I like sitting at my bench and running reactions or making solutions.  Lab has helped me figure out that I do like that.”

Even though Gasteyer doesn’t know her exact direction, she is doing a great job at doing things now to help guide her career path in the future.  It’s not always a bad thing to be uncertain about your exact career. The goal for every student should be to gain experiences that allow you to move closer to your career goal – programs like W.I.S.E are great for supporting students on this journey. For more information on the W.I.S.E program go to www.housing.wisc.edu/wise

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