Applying is Terrifying

by Jonathon Baron, CAPS Marketing Assistant

We’ve covered a lot of information about applying for jobs and internships on this blog, and we’ve talked about the stress that goes along with the process.

No argument there. I’m a senior entering my last quarter here, and while I’ve found a professional niche that I now want to enter, I've also found that it doesn’t make the application process any less terrifying. I have to support myself next year, but I also want a job that I will actually enjoy. So I’m worried about all of the variables that go along with the search: that I’ve misjudged aspects of my application, that I’ll be rejected after getting my hopes up, or that I’ll miss possible opportunities because I haven’t extended my range far enough.

What can I do to reduce the anxiety? I've gotten advice about broadening my search, that I should network to the utmost and send resumes to as many employers as possible in order to maximize my chances of finding a job—-and one that is a good fit, at that. But I’ve put some thought to this, and I wonder if, at a certain point, it’s actually more useful advice to loosen up, let go, and place your faith in yourself to find what’s right for you through a narrower scope.

It’s tough to be graduating and to not know what you’re doing next year, and we’ve been trained for four years in working hard for the right results. Plus, UChicago does a fantastic job of introducing willing students to a large network of alumni (the Alumni Careers Network), and providing information and advising regarding employment. CAPS even provides on-campus recruiting (OCR) for UChicago students, and has a massive database of interested employers, looking for all kinds of people to hire in the Chicago Career Connection (CCC).

These are all fantastic resources. But because there’s such a wide range of information and assistance available to University of Chicago students, it can start to seem like sorting out the mass of information in front of you is even more stressful than sending in the applications. Even if you’ve narrowed your job search to one industry, and you’re only looking at employers in a single city, you’d be stunned when you notice the still enormous number of possibilities open to you.

So here’s my two cents, and you can take it or leave it: strike a balance. Try to put things into perspective. You can’t do everything. The resources at your fingertips are there to assist you, not to make the application process more complicated. If you start to feel overloaded, take a step back and take a breather. Don’t just go to CAPS to get the names of more employers or alumni to talk to—ask for advice on how to preserve your sanity while you continue your search. That’s part of the process, after all. You shouldn’t limit your search and bank on possibilities that could go south and leave you stranded come June. But you’re only human (even if you are a soon-to-be University of Chicago graduate—congratulations), and it’s more productive to develop a clear strategy for your job search than to overextend yourself and go crazy in the process.

Alternatives to Summer Internships

by Sherry Cao, CAPS Marketing Assistant

As a first-year, I've already heard a lot about how important internships are, but I’ve also accepted that it’s pretty tough to get a Metcalf internship at this age. As I wait upon responses from other internships and opportunities, I’ve been brainstorming (with a little help from my friends, and from CAPS) alternatives to summer internships. So far, this is what I’ve come up with:

1. Get a job and do some volunteering on the side
   Start contacting businesses to ask about working for them this summer, and don’t forget to mention that classes for us don’t start until the end of September—-this will set you apart from everyone else who has to go back to school in August. Volunteering on the side is a great way to do something that you like that you might not otherwise be able to do, and it also looks great on a resume. If you've been volunteering for the same organization for awhile, don't be afraid to ask if they have any paying positions that you might be able to fill.


2. Take the time to travel, either around the country or internationally.
   Why, you ask? Well, why not? Not traveling is something many people regret, so make the best of your youth and get out there. Whether you want to visit all of the great Midwestern amusement parks (Wisconsin Dells, Cedar Point, Six Flags Great America…seriously, they’re great), go camping in Michigan or travel across Europe, summer is a great time to get away from all the reading and work of school and relax.


3. On a related note, my best friends and I are in the process of planning a road trip.
   I moved away from them during my freshman year of high school, and I’m super excited to be dedicating a week of my summer to spending time with them. We’re not quite sure where we’re going yet, but using this time to catch up is great, especially when none of our schedules match up during the school year.


4. Contacting alumni in your area through the Alumni Career Network is always a great way to broaden your horizons.
   Check out the Alumni Career Network on https://caps.uchicago.edu to find alumni who are doing something that you're interested in. E-mailing and networking with alumni is a great way to learn about what their UChicago education has done for them, and it may even inspire you to do something similar. These alumni have volunteered to dedicate their time to at least talking to curious students, so be polite, but also satisfy your curiosity and network!


5. Start your own business!
   I did something like this with my friend last summer--we made flyers, talked to our neighbors and eventually had a little tutoring business going. It was nothing too big, but various family friends asked us to tutor their elementary and middle school students. It’s a great way to stay busy, earn some extra money and keep your brain fresh and active.

If you need help coming up with more ideas, or want to talk to someone about how to get started with a summer job/internship/research project, come visit us!

Interview Brainteasers

by Laurel Mylonas-Orwig, Strategic Programming and Outreach Manager

Most mornings when I arrive at work, there are already a handful of students in business attire loitering in our reception area. Since interview season officially opened at the end of October, I've observed a lot of different waiting room activities. Many students bring a laptop or a book while others read the newspaper; some pace nervously, while others sit, staring straight ahead, until an interviewer appears to collect them.

Let's face it, interviews can be nerve-wracking. While on one hand getting an interview is good news--at least you're being considered--on the other, getting an interview means that you have to prepare yourself for at least a 30-minute barrage of questions about who you are, what you do, and why you want to do it at Organization X. So, in summary, yikes.

The good news is that there are a lot of different ways to prepare yourself for an interview. As you may have heard before, CAPS offers practice interviewers (call 773-702-7040 to schedule an appointment with one) who can grill you as much as you'd like. We also have a new tool called InterviewStream, which you can access via your Chicago Career Connection account. InterviewStream allows you to record yourself answering questions, and then review it yourself or send it to us. Just a tip, though--even though you can use it anytime, anywhere, please, if you're going to send it to us, put a shirt on.

One of my favorite strategies for preparing for an interview is to review the company information and come up with questions that you think they may ask you (or that you want to ask them). This is an especially good strategy if you're interviewing with a company famous for its tough interview questions...like, say, Google. A recent article on Business Insider.com reviewed 15 of the questions that prospective Googlites have been asked in interviews. Take a look at a few of them below (answers are at the bottom; for all of the questions and more detailed answers, see the article). Although questions like these are certainly not going to be the norm in interviews, they're amusing/interesting to read (and if you are interviewing with Google, congrats and best of luck)!

1. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?
2. How much would you charge to wash all of the windows in Seattle?
3. How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?
4. Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco.
5. Explain the significance of "dead beef".
6. A man pushed his car to a hotel and lost his fortune. What happened?
7. Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year old nephew.
   
8. You are shrunk to the size of a nickel, and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

Here are the answers:

1. This purpose of this question is to see if you can explain the challenge to solving the problem. When it comes down to it, this is really just a glorified math problem, like the type that your 5th-grade math teacher thought were tons of fun. The short answer is, ballpark an estimate for the size of the bus (we'll assume 8' x 6' x 20'), and then determine the amount of space inside the bus (960 cubic feet = ~1.6 million cubic inches, since there are 1728 cubic inches in a cubit foot). Do the same for a golf ball (V = 2.5 cubic inches, if r = .85), then divide the former by the latter to come up with the number of golf balls (~640,000, my math says, though the author of the article above claims 660,000). Assume some space will be taken up by things already inside the bus, like seats, so round down accordingly, leaving you with ~500,000 golf balls. The important thing about this question is not whether you get the answer exactly right--this isn't a math exam--but that you can explain the process clearly and show that you know how to go about solving the problem.


2. This problem is deceptively simple. While you might be tempted to try to figure out how many windows are in Seattle, and then come up with a lump sum for the total number. This is a good way of complicating your answer needlessly. Instead, think of something like $15 per window. This answers the question, without causing you to do a lot of unnecessary mental gymnastics.


3. This is a problem of supply and demand. There can only be as many piano tuners as there are jobs for, so that's the answer. If you want to be more specific, lets assume that pianos need to be tuned once a week, and it takes a piano tuner one hour to tune. If he works a 40 hour week, that's 40 pianos. So, one tuner for every 40 pianos. If you want to go deeper into this type of problem (a Fermi problem), check it on Wikipedia.


4. There a multitude of ways to approach this problem, so the first thing to do is ask what kind of emergency you are planning for. From there, you can proceed. This is another question that's designed to see how you attack the problem.
   


5. This is a tech problem, despite how it sounds. Here's the answer, cribbed from the article: "DEADBEEF is a hexadecimal value that has was used in debugging back in the mainframe/assembly days because it was easy to see when marking and finding specific memory in pages of hex dumps. Most computer science graduates have seen this at least in their assembly language classes in college and that's why they expect software engineers to know it." In all likelihood, you're not going to get asked this type of question unless you're applying for a job that is more tech involved.


6. He landed on Boardwalk! Yes, it's really just a bad joke.
   


7. There are a lot of different answers to this question, mostly because it's designed to test your ability to convey complex ideas in simplified terms. Here's what the article suggests: "A database is a machine that remembers lots of information about lots of things. People use them to help remember that information. Go play outside." (I agree, minus the last sentence.)


8. This is all about testing how creative and inventive you can be when put on the spot. So, put some thought into it!
   

So, there you have it. Remember, interview skills are like muscles--the more you work on them, the stronger they'll get. Good luck!

Summer Stress (And How to Kick Its Butt)

by Sherry Cao, CAPS Marketing Assistant

It’s that time of the year again in Chicago: the snow that was once a novelty has become a relentlessly depressing visual fixture, midterms have been generously sprinkled into all of our schedules, and spring seems to be eons away. But it’s not! And neither is summer.

That’s why I’m blogging today about summer opportunities, the mere thought of which may be stressing you out right now (don't worry, I still have no idea what I'm going to do either). But that doesn't mean that you should become a ball of misery. Instead...

1. Come to the Summer Opportunities Info Session Thursday February 10! The Facebook invitation informs that the purpose of this program is to “Learn how to find and apply for internships, jobs, volunteer work, research experiences and College-sponsored programs at this presentation for undergraduate students”...and the 195 people who have RSVP'd as "attending" tells us that there are at least 195 people in the same boat. The good news is, there are still plenty of internships and other opportunities out there, so come to CAPS tomorrow and learn about them! And if you somehow miss this one (which you shouldn’t), come to the “Available Metcalf Opportunities Info Session” on Thursday, March 3rd from 5-6:30 pm and /or “Finding a Summer Opportunity over Spring Break” on Monday, March 7th from 4-5:30 pm.


2. I have also been advised by my college adviser and CAPS career counselor to look for internships and jobs for the summer in a wide variety of places. My adviser recommended Idealist, a website that's great if you’re interested in non-profit organizations and humanitarian efforts. My career counselor recommended that I actually call local organizations and businesses in my hometown (or in Chicago, if you want to be here for the summer) and just ask if they have any positions/internships available for college students.


3. Finally, another option is to get a job over the summer so you can make some bank/stay busy while also volunteering on the side. There are always worthy organizations that need your help—and this is a chance for you to explore future career opportunities and feel good about it too! Both the job and the volunteering will contribute strongly to your résumé, and you won’t have to go through long internship applications.

If you have questions about summer opportunities or need help starting/restarting your search, the folks at CAPS are always willing to help, so don't be shy--come see us! Have a happy College Break Day!

Don’t Stress!

by Sherry Cao, CAPS Marketing Assistant

My stress levels were at an all-time high last night. Perhaps it was the amount of homework due for today, or the fact that there is a direct relationship between levels of stress and time passed into the night, but I went to sleep knowing that things had better be better when I woke up (because they weren't very good when I went to sleep!). And they were—because here I am sitting at CAPS writing a blog post, having survived Honors Calc and a double dose of Spanish.

As you probably know, college is stressful, especially when, now that fourth week is here, midterms are looming (or have already begun). Add to that thoughts about what to do this next quarter/this summer/for the rest of your life, and you may well feel overwhelmed. So allow me to share some of my favorite stress buster activities, many of which are unique to the University of Chicago.

Running down 57th Street to the Lakefront—Watch the bluish-gray palette of the waves in winter as you take a breather, and see if you can spot the Lake Michigan iceberg (it exists). Then run back past Powell’s Bookstore and take a look in the free box of books. I picked up On Being Happy and The Shining last time I went.

Cleaning your room—This is mindless domestic work, which is exactly what one needs sometimes. Whenever I clean, I also find lots of stuff that I've lost, so that makes me feel good too.

Going to a basketball game—This is very UChicago in the sense that it’s not. Oh, the irony?

Heading out to Hallowed Grounds (or whatever your favorite campus coffee shop is) with enough money to buy a cup of coffee, and nothing else—Stay and sit for a while. Bring a friend, watch people play pool or just soak in stuff that’s not inherently school-related.

Taking a moment to just breathe—Then organizing and prioritizing. Sometimes the best way to de-stress is just to get all the small pesky things that you need to do out of the way--like e-mailing someone back, paying a credit card bill, or doing laundry.

So, to quote the ever-inspiring J-Mac (Jesse McCartney): “Don’t stress, don’t stress, don’t stress. Girl, you deserve nothing but the best!” And by "girl," he means stressed out UChicago students. Enjoy your week!

What are your favorite stress release activities? Leave a comment below!

True or False?

by Sherry Cao, CAPS Marketing Assistant

As we all settle into our winter quarter schedules, I’d like to play a little game of “True or False”—CAPS style. I would say CAPS is pretty well-known around campus--but in my experience, not everyone knows just how convenient or helpful their services are. So, play along by reading the following statements and guessing if they are true or false. (Also, you might want to cover up the part of the computer screen that says true or false.)

1. CAPS is a super long trek from campus.
   

   This is false. I live in Max P, and it usually takes 7-8 minutes to walk over here. It’s a pretty scenic walk too, with passing by Rockefeller Chapel and all of the lovely Gothic architecture. But if you can't get over here (you're studying abroad, you broke your leg playing broomball, etc.), CAPS does phone appointments too, so go ahead and call us at (773) 702-7040.

2. You need to dress super nicely when you come to any of our meetings, events, or to our offices in general.
   

   False (ish). First of all, dressing nicely is always fun—-why else would they have Full Suit Friday? (It’s a real thing, I promise.) Second, most of our events don’t require you to dress up. As long as you’re wearing something that’s weather appropriate (for your sake), feel free to stop by any of our events and meetings! But if you are attending an employer information session (especially with a financial or consulting firm) or coming for an interview, then it's time to don your professional wear. If you're even in doubt about what to wear to an event, feel free to call for advice! (And if you want more advice about what to wear and when to where it, check out this past blog post.)

3. Making an appointment with CAPS is intimidating.
   

   This is false—I promise! I work here, and even I felt a little apprehensive going into my first career exploration meeting (which I had last week). I mean, I only had my high school resume in hand, and I NO idea what I was going to do with my summer, much less my future. But that’s totally okay because I came out of my 30-minute meeting with a more professional resume and a better idea of what my summer may look like. I also got activated for On-Campus Recruiting (OCR) during the meeting, which means that I can apply for tons of great internships and externships.

4. Ida Noyes is a neat building.
   

   True! The exterior is very cool and detail oriented—I often see student photographers lurking around taking pictures of the stone cherubs or the cobblestones. They also have brass monkey door handles and other monkey-related details around the building (which is honestly a little creepy, but hey, they’re kind of growing on me. Not literally.)

I hope you had a fun—-and educational—-time playing! If you have more questions about CAPS, feel free to leave them in the comment box. Have a good weekend!

How to Hit the Ground Running

by Sherry Cao, CAPS Marketing Assistant

"Happy New Year" seems to be the greeting of choice around the CAPS office this week—and with good reason, of course, as it is the first week of 2011—so Happy New Year to all of our readers out there as well! I hope you all had a great break/New Years/Holiday Season. I did a lot of shopping, sleeping and reading in my three week break, and now I’m back to class and ready to hit the ground running.

Coincidentally, that is also our theme today, and I’d like to show you how you too can hit the ground running in terms of getting ready for the future—whether that means this summer or further down the road. So read on to find out more about all of the great programs CAPS is offering to help you start the New Year off right.

Coming up this week…

• Wednesday January 5, 12 p.m.: How to Dress to Impress for Interviews. Get a free lunch while learning important interview skills to help you make the right impression.


• Thursday January 6, 12-4pm: Super Walk-Ins: Half Day. CAPS staff will be reviewing resumes, activating students for Chicago Career Connection and answering career fair, Metcalf and ABG questions. So bring your resume and get your behind in here!


• Thursday January 6, 4-4:30pm: How to Work the Winter Career Fair. Learn how to make the most of the few minutes you have to talk to recruiters at the Winter Career Fair.


• Friday January 7, 12-4pm: Winter Career Fair. Come peruse potential future employers’ booths—they have a wealth of information and, more importantly, freebies! This is a great way to explore and learn more about what you want to do.

All of these events will be held in Ida Noyes Hall.

Important Events in the Near Future

• Wednesday January 12, 5pm and 7pm: Venture2Adventure—this is ONLY open to first years. I’m pretty sure we got a cute little blue flyer along with a luggage tag before we left for break about it—but in case you don’t know, Venture2Adventure is a great event for first years to learn about summer opportunities and resume writing, and catch up with friends over dinner. This will be held in Bartlett Dining Commons.


• Wednesday January 12, 6pm: Summer Opportunities Fair—Open to all students. Come meet representatives from local organizations as well as University-sponsored organizations and learn about all the cool things you could this summer. This event will be in the Quadrangle Club, which is across from Reynolds Club (1155 E. 57th Street).

You can find out everything you need to know about all the CAPS Winter Quarter events on the CAPS calendar. And don't forget to join the Career Advising and Planning Services group on Facebook to get invites and updates!