#BE

Tag: #BE

Finding referrals using LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be a very useful tool if used the right way! In this short, 1 minute video, I explain a simple trick that not a lot of people know about that you can use to find people that are in a company that you are interested in, or that have the job you would like to have in the future. The chances of you getting hired exponentially increase if you have someone as a referral. So, making this step could be the difference between you getting the job or not!

If you would like to learn more about using LinkedIn to its full potential to make more connections, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (oliver.decroock@lawrence.edu) or Grace Kutney (grace.kutney@lawrence.edu).

Oliver De Croock ’24, Student-Athlete at Lawrence University majoring in Economics and Career Peer Educator. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Job-search websites reviews

There are many job-searching platforms out there. Some are bigger, such as LinkedIn and Indeed, and some are smaller. Although using the bigger platforms is important to network, meet people, and build relationships, knowing about smaller platforms that are focused on specific niches can be to your advantage when looking for a job. In this article, I tried to find some of these smaller platforms to see what advantages there are about using them, why you should sign up for them, and if they are worth the money they ask for.

Ihire finance

If you are looking for a job in finance, IHire Finance is very directed towards finance jobs. On this platform, you will find job opportunities from Budget Analysts, Corporate Financial Consultant, Investment Banking Analyst, Equity trader, compliance managers, and even VPs of Finance. Although this platform focuses mostly on higher-paying jobs for more experienced people, I was able to find some entry-level jobs as well as even internships related to finance. While this platform offers a lot of very good information about the jobs and gives very useful insights, it does come with a cost. The cost to become a premium user for IHire Finance is $35/month and it comes with resume guidance, your resume will be highlighted to employers, a dedicated support team ready to assist you, and salary insights. If you are looking for a job in Finance, I would recommend signing up for this platform as it could be a good investment to find the best fitting job for you.

Link to iHire Finance website

Pathrise

If you really want some extra help in finding the best possible career in industries such as software engineering, marketing, data science, or sales, Pathrise offers a service in which you will be able to work 1-1 with a personal mentor that will help you focus on what you need to do in order to land your dream job. Based on their website, their service is free until you’ve already landed a position at a top technology company. Pathrise has both customers that have many years of experience and want to try to get a better job and customers that are right out of college and want to try to find the best fitting job for them. Although I personally didn’t try this service, it might be interesting to work 1-1 with an expert to see what they think you need in order to get to the next level and find the perfect job.

Link to Pathrise website

MarketingHire

MarketingHire is considered one of the best Job Boards for Marketing and Advertising Professionals. If you are looking for a job in Marketing or Public Relations, this free website is a great tool that you could use. Based on their website, companies like Microsoft, 3M, General Electric, Google, and many more posts their job offers on this platform. Applying to these postings on a smaller platform could differentiate you from other people. This website is useful for both higher-paying jobs and internships.

Link to MarketingHire website

SalesJobs

SalesJobs.com is a leading job board that works with more than 200 partner websites to promote job ads. It offers a wide array of useful resources, such as a resume database, candidate matching, and ATS integration. SalesJobs. com is helpful for someone looking for a sales job in the future, as it features opportunities for sales professionals in various industries and locations.

Link to SalesJobs.com website

Many other job searching platforms could be useful to find your dream job. Although I tried, finding the perfect one isn’t easy. The best thing to do is to try them out for yourselves, see if there are opportunities on some of these smaller platforms that you think could be good for you, and apply. Platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed are very important and you should always keep using them. However, having another way in through a smaller platform will show employers that you are looking for new ways, you are doing your homework and you are willing to be different than everyone else and go the extra mile to find the job you want.

If you have any questions about these platforms, or you would like to talk to me about more platforms that you found that could be useful for other students, please don’t hesitate to email me or schedule an appointment with me.

Oliver De Croock ’24, Student-Athlete at Lawrence University majoring in Economics and Data Science. Oliver works as a Career Peer Educator at the Career Center and is the President of the Lawrence University Business Networking Club. Connect with Oliver on LinkedIn.

Sample Behavioral Interview Questions

It’s time to practice for your interview! While knowing what experiences you have had in the past is very important, knowing how to answer behavioral questions can make the difference between being hired or not. Behavioral questions are designed to learn how you would respond to a specific workplace situation, and how you solve problems to achieve a successful outcome. Here is a list of possible behavioral questions that they could ask you divided into different sections.

Teamwork

With teamwork behavioral questions, interviewers get a sense of whether or not you like working on a team, how well you work in groups, and what role you tend to take on a team project (leader, mediator, follower..). These questions also show whether you are easy to get along with, which is important in almost any work environment.

  • Talk about a time when you had to work closely with someone whose personality was very different from yours
  • Give me an example of a time you faced a conflict while working on a team. How did you handle that?
  • Tell me about a time you wish you’d handled a situation differently with a colleague

Client-facing skills

Client-facing skills behavioral questions give interviewers a way to see how you react to different kind of clients. What would happen if the client is frustrated, or if there a large number of clients waiting and how you can handle that pressure.

  • Tell me about a time when you made sure a customer was pleased with your service
  • Describe a time when you had to interact with a difficult client. What was the situation, and how did you handle it?
  • When you’re working with a large number of customers, it’s tricky to deliver excellent service to them all. How do you go about prioritizing your customers’ needs?

Ability to adapt

The ability to adapt is a very important soft skill that is required in any job. The way you answer these questions will give a sense of how you are able to adapt in a new working space and how flexible you are to change and adjust to new situations.

  • Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure. What was going on, and how did you get through it?
  • Give me an example of a time when you had to think on your feet in order to delicately extricate yourself from a difficult or awkward situation
  • Tell me about a time you failed. How did you deal with the situation?
  • Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure

Time management skills

Time management is another very important skill to have. When one of these questions is asked, make sure you are clear about how you managed your time carefully, what tools did you use and why did those tools help.

  • Describe a long term project you managed. How did you keep everything moving along in a timely manner?
  • Tell me about a time you set a goal for yourself. How did you go about ensuring that you would meet your objective?
  • Tell me about a time you had to be very strategic in order to meet all your top priorities

Communication skills

The ability to communicate is closely evaluated in a job interview. Some recruiters will not ask questions directly related to communication in the interview but just see how the candidate is able to communicate during the interview. However, other recruiters might ask you behavioral questions that show the candidate’s communication skills with a real life example.

  • Tell me about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it was a hit
  • Tell me about a time you had to explain something fairly complex to a frustrated client. How did you handle the situation?

Motivation and values

Motivation and values behavioral questions are asked to see what values and what kind of personality the candidate has. It is important to always be honest and show how your personality could be an asset for the company. 

  • Tell me about a time you saw a problem and took the initiative to solve it rather than waiting for someone else to do it
  • Tell me about your proudest accomplishment in work or school
  • Tell me about a mistake you’ve made. How did you handle it?
  • Tell me about a challenging situation you overcame at work
  • Tell me five things that you are NOT

How to prepare to answer behavioral questions

Read the job description carefully. Make a list of the top skills or qualifications it calls for. Think of a story that demonstrates your ability in each area. Following the STAR technique, write your stories down, including the situation, task, action and result. Then, practice saying them out loud several times. Your answers should only take about 1 ½ to 3 minutes. In order to make a good impression, telling stories that are related to each one of these questions is crucial. Telling stories is the best way to be remembered by the recruiter.

Practice is the best way to succeed at behavioral interviews. If you would like to practice doing behavioral interviews, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (oliver.decroock@lawrence.edu) or Grace Kutney (grace.kutney@lawrence.edu).

Oliver De Croock ’24, Student-Athlete at Lawrence University majoring in Economics and Career Peer Educator. Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Job Prospects for Humanities Majors

By Jonathan Hogan

If you’re a humanities major, you may have received some pessimistic or rude comments about your choice of major. As a German major, I am personally sick of people thinking that all I do is study the language of German, and I’ve heard people tell English majors that they’re “majoring in a language that they already speak fluently.” Regardless of your humanities major, whether it be History, Gender Studies, a language, or something else, I hope you haven’t internalized the discourse that demands that your prospects are dim. As this article will demonstrate, humanities majors have the widest array of careers to choose from, making your problem not a lack of opportunities, but rather the difficult decision of which path to take.

Before delving into some of the main career paths taken by humanities majors, it’s worth mentioning that one of the distinct specialties of those holding humanities majors is finding niche positions to work in that likely won’t be enumerated because of their specificity. Thus, if nothing listed is in your interests, don’t fret! This is merely a broad and by no means an exhaustive list. If you know with all your heart that you want to work as a religious advisor at the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, then go for it! 

Law

               One of the most common majors that apply and are accepted to Law school is English. This shouldn’t be a surprise, as both humanities majors and law degrees require a mastery of language, as well as the ability to analytically read and critically think about texts. If a law degree sounds interesting to you, click this link to read an article on the first step to applying for law school—the LSAT.

Publishing

               Similar to Law, the field of publishing plays into a strong connection with written language. In comparison to Law, publishing places more of an emphasis on a love of books, networking abilities, and editing skills. For an article on what it’s like to work as an editor, click this link, and for an article on how to break into the relatively tight-knit industry, click here.

NGOs

               Okay, NGO can mean a lot of things, ranging from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative political think tank, to Médecins Sans Frontières; however, the humanities can also mean a lot of things, making NGOs a potential place of work for essentially any major. The Center for Reproductive Rights, for example, would pair nicely with the Butlerian gender theorist out there, and Public Allies, an NGO dedicated to social justice through representative leadership, would pair nicely with a History major, or really any major that focuses on inequality in general.

Journalism

               Another popular path for humanities majors is journalism. Because of the broad range of subjects that are written on, the only real requirement for Journalism is strong writing skills; however, Journalists are most effective when they can pair their strong writing skills with deep background knowledge in another area. For this reason, humanities majors are especially well-positioned to go into the field, as they typically command a deep well of knowledge on a specific topic, as well as immaculate writing skills.

Academia

               For those of you who have read the above career industries and are struggling with the idea of giving up theorizing and researching for more general use of skills developed at Lawrence, academia might be for you. One of the major advantages of going into academia is that, if a doctoral program really wants you, they will ensure that you aren’t losing money when pursuing your degree through fellowships and undergrad teaching positions. That being said, academia in general, is going through a major upheaval in the U.S. and the humanities appear to be suffering more than STEM and Social Science Departments. When asking your favorite professor for advice about pursuing a doctoral program in a humanities field, a question that will likely come up is: “would you still choose to pursue your doctorate even if you knew that it wasn’t going to lead to a job in academia?” If the answer is no, then it’s probably advisable to find a different outlet for your passion. If the answer; however, is yes, then you’ve just determined your next step for after Lawrence.

               A short list of five broad industries in which humanities majors typically find themselves working likely has not solved all of your professional development problems; however, hopefully, it has pointed you towards an industry that you might want to learn more about. In the worst case, however, this article can serve as a good tool for fending off anyone who’s mocking your decision to major in the humanities—just say you’re planning on going to law school 😊. 

Jonathan is a Third Year German and Government major. He works as a Peer Educator to assist students in the CJW and GLI career communities. In addition to professional development, Jonathan is interested in the cultural construction of the modern nation-state, normative constraints on rational behavior, and all things German. You can schedule an appointment with him here to improve your resume, learn more about the CJW and GLI career opportunities, and work on anything else professional development-related.

Video: Summer Research 101 (2021)

Are you interested in summer research, but not sure how to successfully secure a position? Do you want to become a competitive candidate for on-campus and/or off-campus research opportunities? If you answered yes to either of these questions, this workshop is for you. Join Jacklyn Fischer (Career Center) and Prof. Deanna Donohoue as they walk you through the timeline and process of preparing a competitive application for any type of summer research.

Career Spotlights: Product Manager

Interested in pursuing a career as a Product Manager? Read and find out more information about what a career as a Product Manager will look like!

Job Duties

As a Product Manager, your main job is to make strategic decisions related to product management and provide in-depth expertise to improve the product. This profile is one of the most important profiles in every industry, especially in IT and manufacturing companies. A product manager is often considered as a “mini CEO” of a single product as they work closely with marketing, engineering, sales, and support to ensure customer satisfaction goals are met.

Where They Work

The role of Product Manager gained more and more popularity with the growth of technology companies. Based on a Statistic reported by Zippia.com, the biggest percentage of Product Managers work in tech companies and in Fortune 500 companies. However, Product Managers can also be found in other companies in the Manufacturing industry, Finance, Retail, and Health Care.

Working Conditions

As a Product Manager, you will work in a team with many different people to be able to ensure the success of the product. You will often work well over forty-hour weeks, including evenings and weekends. There is a great deal of pressure connected with this job due to numerous deadlines, schedule changes, and regular meetings with other managers. Many product managers must travel frequently throughout the United States and abroad to meet with their clients.

Education and training

Although every company will be different, candidates will usually need a Bachelor’s degree in business or a related field. Based on a report by Zippia.com, 72% of Product Managers have a Bachelor’s Degree, and 17% have a Masters’s Degree. Those who have completed a degree in economics, marketing, communications, or statistics will be preferred. Some companies even require a master’s degree in management. Before becoming the head Product Manager, a candidate will need at least two or three years of experience in the product management field. Other skills required to become a product manager are the following:

  • Business Expertise
  • Leadership Skills
  • Operational Ability
  • Strategic Thinking,
  • Analytical skills
  • Quantitative skills
  • Time Management
  • Negotiating skills

Pay and Benefits

The role of a product manager is one of the highest profiles in a company’s organizational structure (right below the CEO and board of directors). Therefore, the salary to work as a product manager can range from 70k/year in smaller companies to 140k/year in bigger ones. One of the biggest benefits of being promoted as Product Manager is being a step closer to being promoted as CEO of the company.

Oliver De Croock ’24, Student-Athlete at Lawrence University majoring in Economics and Career Peer Educator. Connect with me on LinkedIn.