Fall 2013 Career Guide

M O N D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 3

FALL CAREER GUIDE

TEKsystems, the nation’s largest IT staffing company, is attending the UMD Career Fair on Thursday, September 26. TEKsystems is seeking candidates for entry-level sales and recruiting positions in the Washington DC, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore offices.

If you are interested in beginning your sales career with an industryleader please contact Andrew Leahy at [email protected].

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2 THE DIAMONDBACK | fall career guide | monday, september 23, 2013

College: Full minds, empty pockets

By Jessica Nocera@thedbkFor The Diamondback

Student loans, rent and dining out can become expensive — that’s why many students find jobs on the campus to earn some extra money. Whether it’s serving up ca�eine to sleepy students at The Co�ee Bar in Stamp Student Union or displaying the latest Terps gear at the University Book Center, there is an opportunity for everyone.

“Working part-time is a great option for broadening skills,” said Becky Weir, an assistant director at the University Career Center. Weir said employers look for employees who can take their skills and apply them in their workplace.

Not only are on-campus jobs a way for students to earn money, Weir said, but they can also serve as resume boosters.

“A student’s degree won’t get them a job, but work experience will,” she said.

Below are three students working di�erent jobs on the campus:

Caroline Cummingsfreshman, letters and sciences

O�ce worker at Good Tidings Catering

Although Cummings is still learning how to navigate college life and balance school with other obli-gations, she is up for the challenge of having a job her first semester on the campus.

Cummings works 16 hours a week at Good Tidings Catering, editing contracts for the executive chef and manager and managing social media connected to the Good Tidings food truck, Green Tidings.

Although Cummings has an o�ce job, she is still in the kitchen and sees people hard at work in each position at the catering company.

Cummings applied for the job at freshman orientation, and although it hasn’t exactly met her expectations, she’s been making the most of it.

“I thought I was going to be working as a server for the catering business, but even though I have a di�erent job,

it has all been working out great, and I really like it,” she said.

Javier Scottsophomore, journalism

Welcomer at the Visitor Center

Scott started working at the Visitor Center this semester.

“I love my job; I love meeting and greeting people,” he said.

One of his favorite parts of the job is meeting a variety of people every day. He’s seen prospective students and faculty members, tourists and alumni come through the center.

“Last week an alumnus came in who had graduated about 30 years ago, and he went to the Dairy to relive his past College Park days,” Scott said.

Scott said he really never has a typical day at the Visitor Center because his job revolves around whoever comes through the door.

“We mostly receive questions about parking and tours, but occasionally a few interesting questions are thrown at us,” he said.

Wenxiao Lijunior, business

Facilities sta� member at Eppley Recreation Center

Li has worked at Eppley for the past two years. A a facilities sta� member, she primarily checks people into the gym and gives out equipment.

Li said she sets her own hours, and she typically works four hours

each week. “Working at Eppley is an enjoy-

able working environment because everyone is always energized and happy,” she said.

However, Li can be confronted with difficult situations at work. People who aren’t a�liated with the university sometimes try to work out at the ERC, which isn’t allowed.

“We turn them away, and they get angry,” she said. “We go along with our day, as there is nothing we can do for them.”

Interested in finding a job on the campus? Visit the University Career Center in Hornbake Library or check out careers.umd.edu.

[email protected]

Students make money on the campus

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 | fall career guide | The Diamondback 3

Landing the jobBy Gillian Vernick@thedbkFor The Diamondback

In the first few days of fall, stu-

dents are often met with the daunting task of landing a coveted internship or job. While this undertaking may be overwhelming, there are plenty of experts and students to shed light on

the experience and make the task a little less intimidating.

Kelley Bishop, the Universi-ty Career Center’s director, said while it may seem like common sense, it’s extremely important for students to have an interest in the jobs they’re pursuing. The best way to network, he said, is for students

to be plugged in to the professional field of their choice.

Bishop also recommended stu-dents spend 60 percent of their energy on simply understanding the employer, looking into the company’s history and researching the market-place they want to enter. Bishop said interviews are primarily about the

employer and the company, rather than the interviewee. While it’s ex-tremely important to be prepared, Bishop advised students not to look too far into simple questions.

“I think the toughest interview question is, ‘Tell me about your-self,’ because kids will overthink it,” Bishop said. “It is not a trick ques-tion; they truly want to know about the person they may be employing. Give a genuine answer.”

Erica Ely, the internships direc-tor at the University Career Center, recommended that students think about their “power stories,” or stories that express their interests and ex-periences both in and out of the classroom. Students should prac-tice these stories and sell themselves to the company with which they’re interviewing.

“As far as interviews go, the most important thing is to be specific,” Ely said. “Don’t brush over the details or sell yourself short.”

Ely warned against being the senior with nothing to talk about in regards to a resume. She recom-mended students volunteer, take part-time jobs and intern, not only to boost resumes but also to figure out what they like and dislike.

Ely also said students shouldn’t use the exact same resume, cover letter and interview tactics for dif-ferent companies. She suggested stu-dents “tailor and target” when trying to land the right job. It’s best to find out what the employer is seeking and communicate that through a resume and a cover letter, she added. Do not be generic, Ely said; it’s important to put e�ort into the resume because that positive work ethic carries over into the workplace.

See Jobs, Page 5

“As far as interviews go, the most important thing is to be speci�c. Don’t brush over the details or sell yourself short.”

ERICA ELYUniversity Career Center director of internships

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The business behind baseball

By Ryan Carbo@thedbkFor The Diamondback

Summer vacation conjures images of beaches, sun, ice cream and America’s pastime: baseball. Although most fans see baseball as a form of entertainment, for Evan Friedman this summer, it was a business.

Over summer break, Friedman, a sophomore business student, interned for the business and marketing department of Major League Baseball Advanced Media in New York City. Friedman de-scribed the experience in the beginning as “surreal,” but said he quickly grew accustomed to

both the work and the environment, ultimately finding the internship in-credibly rewarding.

However, despite the glamorous employer, working for MLB Advanced Media showed Friedman the amount of number-crunching that goes into the baseball business.

“Every day I would go in and I would get an email from my super-visor with data,” Friedman said. “I would put them into an Excel file … so I could analyze them on a day-to-day basis.”

This task, he said, was arguably the most tedious part of his day because he had to enter the numbers manu-ally, and he was often given multiple days’ worth of data every day. That much math can really add up, but

Friedman’s love of baseball made all the computations worthwhile to him.

“I definitely knew what I wanted to get into when I was doing this,” he said. “As much as it was about business and marketing, it was also about baseball.”

After Friedman finished his data work, he usually monitored baseball games — either previous games or ones being broadcast live. Friedman was tasked with making sure every-thing was in the proper order from a marketing perspective. This meant looking out for the company’s in-terests by determining whether the announcers were doing their jobs and keeping track of all the adver-tisements during games.

“Major League Baseball has a deal with every broadcasting team. They are supposed to make at least one advertisement for the company I worked for every nine innings,” he

Evan friedman, a sophomore business student, interned for the business and marketing department of Major League Baseball Advanced Media in New York City over the summer. marquise mckine/ for the diamondback

See mlb, Page 5

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mlbFrom PAGE 4

said. “I listened to what the an-nouncers said to make sure they were doing what they were sup-posed to do, and I also looked at the field itself for advertisements.”

Not many people outside the industry know what really goes into the marketing portion of the game, but the opportuni-ty to see the inner workings of baseball left Friedman wanting more, he said.

Friedman’s advice for students who want to land a dream intern-ship is to apply early and often. He encouraged students to seek out opportunities that excite them, no matter their educational focus.

“Pick something that you really want to do and you really have a passion for because if you don’t, you will be very, very bored,” he

said. “Don’t just do it because it fits with your major.”

However, Anna Koozmin, a soph-omore community health major, said it’s difficult to make an internship work with school.

“Internships are a great way to gain experience in a field you might want to pursue as a career. What concerns me the most is trying to figure out how to fit it in to your schedule, especially if you apply a semester before and are unsure of your final schedule,” she said.

Sophomore finance major Zach Cohen agreed with Friedman and emphasized the importance of going after internships, even if they seem overly ambitious.

“Getting any sort of internship as early as possible is definitely crucial to getting your foot in the door in order to succeed later in whatever field you are studying,” Cohen said.

[email protected]

jobsFrom PAGE 3

With the university’s Fall Career and Internship Fair on the horizon, Bishop advised taking the time to prepare. Students should look into what kinds of employers are going to be there and what their compa-nies have been doing lately, he said.

As for resumes, Bishop said ex-posure is definitely an advantage; if employers have heard about stu-dents or have seen their names before they see their resumes, students are in a good position.

Additionally, Bishop said al-though this week’s career fair offers lots of opportunities for students to get exposure to po-tential employers, there are also specialized career fairs going on all year.

Senior marketing major Kyra Peckaitis interned with Honest

Tea over the summer and said in-ternships are all about keeping in touch. She said students shouldn’t be discouraged when they don’t immediately hear back from a company, and she recommended networking and taking advantage of opportunities on the campus.

“In general, I really think that the most important part of mar-keting yourself is to make connec-tions all the time. Go to career fairs and meet recruiters; email them and tell them how nice it was to meet them,” she said. “Companies care about people that care about their company.”

Brittany Moore, a senior com-

puter science major, echoed Peckai-tis’ sentiments about attending the career fair, where she previously met with company o�cials who o�ered her an internship. Moore also said family connections helped her get another internship, which she kept for three consecutive years.

Jillian DiNardo, a senior English and film studies major, stressed the importance of experience. She works at the on-campus Writing Center and recommended it to students needing experience on their resumes.

DiNardo said it’s important for students to try not to get discouraged when job or internship opportuni-ties don’t come to fruition; students should keep trying and take chances.

“Even if it isn’t the intern-ship you always wanted, take it anyways because you never know,” she said. “Take the opportunities as they come.”

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“Even if it isn’t the internship you always wanted, take it anyways because you never know.”

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Managing college responsibilities

College students these days are perhaps some of the busiest people on the planet. Many are forced to deal with working a job along with taking classes and attempting to maintain some sort of social life. I know I have found it challenging (at best) to balance an internship, school responsibilities and relationships.

My most time-consuming commitment is school. Despite taking only four classes this se-mester, I still fi nd myself devoting a majority of my time at home to homework and reading for my classes. The Internet may have revolutionized how knowledge is shared, but it also revolutionized how homework can be distributed and collected. A large portion of my homework is completed online, which forces me to plan my eve-nings around workloads and due dates. Readings for classes also take large amounts of my time. As an English major, I am assigned multiple readings for each class that can range from a few pages to an entire novel at a time. If I plan poorly during a week with a paper, presentation or exam, I could fi nd myself seriously behind.

While I am fortunate enough that I have not needed to keep a job during my time in school, I have had the opportunity to work as the Terps and ACC sports writer for SportsWatch.com. As a blogger, I am charged with writing several articles a week and keeping up to date with sporting events. These articles can take an hour or more to write and as much time to re-search. If I am assigned a game recap, I have to plan free writing time around the start of the game and its fl uctuating time of comple-

tion. Because the website covers all sanctioned NCAA sports, I have to keep up with many di� erent sports and the news events pertaining to them.

Of all my life’s facets, my social life has su� ered the most because of

my responsibilities. Having hours of schoolwork and additional writing each day limits the free time I have to interact with friends. While I know they have similar obligations and time restraints, I still feel as though I have missed many opportunities to spend time with those around me. With di� ering class and work sched-ules, my friends and I can rarely get large groups together. Often I am forced to choose between complet-ing assignments and enjoying time with friends.

I know all of these specifi c ob-ligations and responsibilities are temporary, and I know I am blessed to have opportunities like these, but I can’t help but feel stressed and overloaded sometimes. In the long run, putting my time toward schoolwork and writing will do more good for my life than any-

thing else — it’s just the getting there that is difficult. But I’m looking on the bright side. At least after college, responsibilities go away — right?

Dave Stroh is a senior English m a j o r. He ca n b e rea c h ed a t [email protected].

6 THE DIAMONDBACK | fall Career guide | monday, september 23, 2013

DAVE STROH

responsibilities tion. Because the website covers all sanctioned NCAA sports, I have to keep up with many di� erent sports and the news events pertaining

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Making the most of internships

While choosing a career path may seem daunting for many students, one of the best ways to explore an interest is an internship. Unlike simply reading books or taking a related course load, internships allow students to observe a career up close and discover how it tangibly a� ects its employees and clients. As a pre-law student, one of my favorite internships was working two summers at a family and criminal law fi rm in Frederick.

The fi rm had two attorneys and one paralegal, falling on the small side of private-sector firms. At first, I was apprehensive about working with so few attorneys. What if one didn’t like having me in the o ce, or — worse yet — what if I didn’t learn enough?

By the end of my first day, it was clear to me these fears were unfound-ed. The fi rm’s small size proved to be an invaluable asset to my learning because the attorneys were more willing to sit with me one-on-one, provide their insight on cases and their implications and give advice on the best way to achieve my goals.

It is often helpful to return to an en-joyable internship after a semester or more to evaluate the career through a new lens. During my experience with the law fi rm, I worked two noncon-secutive summers and found that my life experiences and coursework in the interim period allowed me to analyze complex legal issues in a more thoughtful way. Further, by my second summer, I already had a knowledge of office procedures and therefore had time to observe additional court dockets and client meetings.

The type of work you complete can be even more important than the type of business with which you elect to intern. While most interns will be

tasked with monotonous o ce work, be sure that your other duties include active observation and involvement in the fi eld.

While having a brand-name summer internship may look great when applying for jobs or graduate school, your earlier college years should be fi lled with exploration of your interests. Sometimes, this en-deavor is more successful at a local or family-run business that isn’t quite the corporate workhorse for which you would eventually like to work.

Internships help to solidify your interests, but more importantly, they help you eliminate potential careers from your consideration. Not every experience will serve as some sort of divine epiphany of your perfect future job. For example, after drafting wills, ob-serving divorce mediations and hearing explosive custody battles, I decided family law was not for me. The criminal dockets were equally unappealing because my emotions often clouded my pro-fessional judgment.

While my internship turned me away from certain types of law, it simultaneously reinforced my desire to practice law in general. Actively participating in hearings, alternate dispute resolution and client ap-pointments gave me a far more com-plete picture of the legal profession than simply taking a few law-related courses at this university.

Regardless of your major, complet-ing an internship is invaluable in ex-ploring career options. Landing your fi rst choice requires careful research and active self-promotion. Use your resources — check department blogs and local newspapers for job listings, and consider visiting the University Career Center.

Ti� any Burba is a senior government and politics major. She can be reached at [email protected].


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Taking charge of the fall career fair

By Katy Kelly@thedbkFor The Diamondback

Many students are painfully aware of the di culty the job market poses for college graduates. With some-times hundreds of college students and recent graduates pursuing a limited number of jobs for a certain listing, it’s more important than ever for prospective employees to set themselves apart and prepare to enter the market.

According to some experts, the key to landing a career is net-working. And with more than 300 employers slated to attend, this year’s Fall Career and Internship Fair — which runs from Tuesday to Thursday in Comcast Center — is the perfect opportunity.

The career fair will feature a wide range of employers varying from Microsoft and AT&T to the Nation-al Security Agency and Capital One. Erica Ely, director of internships at the University Career Center, said the best way for students to take advan-tage of the event is to come prepared.

“Prove that you have done your research ahead of time,” Ely said.

Students can easily find out what companies will be at the fair by logging on to Careers4Terps, the online career database for univer-sity students. The database allows employers to list any special skills they are looking for from students, as well as whether they are “first-year friendly” for freshmen looking to secure jobs or internships.

Ely encouraged students to go to employers’ websites and the Ca-reers4Terps database to research opportunities and ask employers specific questions about those positions. The career center has a website for the fair, and it keeps students updated on career-related happenings through social media outlets such as Instagram, Face-

book, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest.

Ashley Delaney, a senior kinesi-ology major, has attended multiple career fairs and encouraged students to check this year’s out.

“I would want students to go just to see what there is to o�er and for them to look at the career center’s website to see how they can e ciently spend their time there,” she said.

Delaney said she hasn’t always been as prepared as she could have been for the career fair. It wasn’t until after attending the fair that she discovered how helpful campus resources can be.

“If you are going to take it seri-ously, you should look at the career

center website, and you should be yourself. Dress to attract the employ-ers you want to work for,” she said.

Melissa Barron, a senior commu-nication major, landed a job with Pepsi as a food service intern for the past two years, and her work experi-ence made her realize she wants to go into business. She used career-ori-ented tools to help her secure the internship, she said.

“I use LinkedIn and Careers4Terps religiously,” she said.

Although she’s still a freshman, Shahrazad Hired, a government and politics major, said she hoped to gain

more knowledge about interviewing and the workforce by attending the fair. She said she plans to bring copies of her resume and dress profession-ally in “trousers and heels.”

“I’m hoping I’ll get more knowl-edge on getting a career, resume building and networking,” Hired said. “Just basic knowledge to further

a student attends a past fall career fair. This year’s fair is Tuesday through Thursday; more than 300 employers will gather in Comcast Center to recruit students, and shuttles will run each day. �le photo/the diamondback

myself in the workforce.” Shuttle buses are available to and

from the fair from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day and are expected to arrive every 15 minutes. A full list of employers attending the fair is available at careers.umd.edu.

[email protected]

“you should look at the career center website, and you should be yourself. dress to attract the employers you want to work for.”

ASHLEY DELANEYSenior kinesiology major

Fall 2013 Career Guide

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