This guest post is from Ashley Sherrick (UO, ’07), an intern at Conkling, Fiskum & McCormick, a public affairs agency in Portland, Ore.
So I know you have heard this before, but the key to landing your first “real” job or internship out of college is to market, market, market yourself! Just being a recent grad myself, I went through the whole freak-out process of not having a job lined up after school.
My best tip is to do informational interviews. I know, it may sound like a waste of time because you might think there’s no job potential because it is not a formal interview, but they really do pay off.
Call a company that you may be interested in and see if anyone is available to do an informational interview. Likely you will be directed to someone willing to spend time some time talking and give you a chance to market yourself a professional with potential. And the best part is that you can relax and be yourself; you’re the one doing all the interviewing – not to mention that you won’t get sweaty pits (read: gross) like you may during a real interview.
First, be prepared. Do background research on the company and prepare a list of questions tailored to each specific company you interview with. Second, ask your interviewee what experiences brought them to where they are in their career today. Ask for tips for a new graduate trying out the working world and what they recommend for moving up in the workplace.
Remember this is an informational interview, your chance to do the interviewing, and you may realize that what you thought would be a fabulous place to work is not really what you are looking for.
Lastly, if the interview goes really well, you may want to ask your interviewee if it is okay that you leave your resume and cover letter… but feel out the situation first. Usually, it is not appropriate to leave a resume and cover letter because the interview is not formal, but as said earlier, feel out the situation. And always ask for another person that you could get in touch with at the company at the end of the interview.
In my case, I did an informational interview with a woman at Conkling, Fiskum & McCormick, which went great. We ended up talking for an hour and a half just about life in general, as well as a bit about the company, and I ended up landing an internship just from the informational interview.
Another important way to market yourself is to have a blog. I’m sure some of you have already created a blog or will in the near future thanks to Kelli, but blogs are a great way to let the world, as well as potential employers, see your writing style. It shows that you have a passion for writing, which you should (we are journalism majors for a reason) and it also shows that you are keeping up with the exponentially growing social media and the ever-changing journalism industry.
Good luck! And have fun.
