Finding Your Personal Mission

A couple weeks ago we had an amazing BYU devotional titled "What Is Your Calling in Life?" When I say amazing, I mean totally blog worthy, wish I had heard this when I was in college, still need to hear it, recommended the video be posted on the BYU University Career Service website once it's released. AMAZING! The speech was given by Jeffery Thompson, a faculty member in the Public Administration program of the Marriott School. His outline for how to find your calling in life is well organized and dead on. He also addresses the myths around having a life calling. For those of you looking to find your next job, your major at school, or your career you should read/listen to this talk. Currently it's available on MP3 for free by visiting the BYU Speeches website. They will likely release a free PDF and video eventually. If they do I will be sure to embed it in this post.

Jeffrey Thompson picture from BYU News Release

Another GRRRReat article that I have found helpful, if this subject is on your mind, is "Personal Ministry" by Bonnie D. Parkin. It was featured in BYU Magazine, which luckily my student ward Relief Society President received in the summer of 2007 and read in our presidency meeting. Love it!

Then of course there is this article in June's edition of the Ensign, if you haven't already read it.

Let me know if you'd like some hook ups with Career Services. You have to take advantage of it while I'm still here!

P.S. Audio and transcript are available for this talk, here. Still waiting on the video.

Anatomy of the Job Hunt

BYU University Career Services some how attracts a group of amazing, creative, dedicated student employees. One of these is Andrew, who has attended many a UCS strategy meeting (a.k.a. talk session) and he has implemented some great new programs to our department as well. Quite the feat, for a student employee. Well, Andrew recently received two internship offers, after a very laborious process, from two very prestigious consulting firms. He shared with our staff meeting his experience this morning, and I asked him if I could share with you. He agreed.

Andrew and I share a few things in common: we're both brilliant, and humble... we both experienced the limbo of job searching and we now want to give back and help others through this limbo and avoid any mistakes we (mostly me) may have made. Andrew created this timeline (click to visit the interactive timeline page) of his internship hunt process to help students have an understanding of the effort and time involved with searching for an internship or full-time position.


You can scan the timeline by following the link, and then clicking and dragging on the dark gray bar at the bottom of the timeline. In total, this timeline spans four months of the effort (though I know he was working the full academic year towards this effort), 17 applications, six first round interviews, three final round interviews, six no responses, and two offers!

If you are in limbo, waiting for an internship, or your first job, or medical school results... Enjoy the ride! My chinese doctor once told me never say "Don't worry," because worrying with my personality is almost inevitable. Rather, know that it will take some time and effort, but along the way opportunities will miraculously come and in the end you will end up exactly where you need to be. Just enjoy the ride and fight the good fight. I know - I've done it twice before, and am on my third limbo... this time as an attached spectator to Scott. It's not fun to be patient, but it sure does have it's rewards!

AND if you are in job hunt limbo and need a little boost, feel free to comment or send me an email. I've got connections, so let me use them on you!

3 Things NOT to Do When Preparing for Your Job Interview

I've had a few interesting experiences lately in the office that have inspired me to think that I need to write a blog post for all of you readers who are looking for jobs. Being in a Career Services department and in a job directly related to recruiting and interviewing, I'd like to offer you some advice by learning from people who are making mistakes in front of my very own eyes.

Tip #1 - Entry Level with Bachelors = 1 page resume*

If you are just getting out of college, with little employment experience, and only a Bachelor's degree, I would recommend trying to keep your resume down to one page. Sure, it's okay if you run over a bit, but most interviewers want a short, concise summary of the things you've done. So DO NOT create a resume "packet." DO NOT include in your resume packet the article that was written for The New Era by your mom about your young women's achievement award or four letters of recommendation. Feel free to cite those great achievements or recommends on your resume if they directly apply in a professional way to the job for which you are applying. If the recruiter really wants to read those documents, he/she will ask you to provide them.

*Some industries or international countries may require a longer curriculum vitae (CV), and if you have more education and/or authored publications to site, these rules may not apply to you.

Tip #2 - Apply for jobs that fit your skill set, and customize your resume for each application

More and more articles have been written lately citing that today's graduates will have to work harder for their job. Please DO NOT interpret this statement to mean that in your job search attempts you should be obnoxious. DO NOT apply for any and all jobs that breathe. You look desperate! If you are not accepted to interview for a position, don't physically show up for the interviews asking if there are any open slots. And PLEASE, take the advice that recruiters give to you and DO it! If they say you need to apply through their site, and a phone call to the CEO wont help your case, you SHOULD listen and apply through their site.

It is true that graduates will have to put in a little more effort to get their jobs than graduates of the past (depending on your alma mater). Good tactics for jobs searching include: networking professionally, customizing every resume you submit based on the job description especially for online applications so your resume will be discovered by the database searches, researching the company before interviewing, attending company information sessions, and sending thank you cards after interviews. These are professional business techniques that will help the recruiter remember who you are, understand that you "know your stuff", and feel that you would be a great fit for their company.

Tip #3 - Watch your attitude

This tip could go to either extreme of the spectrum. I'd like to first address the most annoying of the attitude extremes - arrogance. When you approach a company for a job, I would not recommend going into the interview thinking that you are God's gift to creation. Heavenly Father loves you and thinks you're amazing, - Yes! But an interview is a time when you are contemplating how you will like the job/company you're applying for, and more importantly the company is contemplating if they would enjoy working with you and could benefit from your skills. No one likes working with an ego. Be humble, also known as teachable. Ask good questions and learn from what the interviewer has to say about your experience. Try not to act so much like this, even if your interview is as awkward and frustrating.

I have also heard plenty of recruiters commenting about the shy bunch of wallflowers that come in for interviewers. If you're LDS you may have the tendancy to be too humble when applying for jobs. Unless you are interviewing in Japan, DON'T be afraid to toot your own horn a little bit. Tell the company why you would uniquely be qualified for the position and ask them at the end of the interview what your next step should be if you're really interested in wearing that EMPLOYEE name badge. Be confident in who you are and where you've taken yourself. If you're not confident, take the time to think about what you want to change and do it, so you can smile and tell your next recruiter that you are a good fit because you've researched it out.


You probably can tell that I'm passionate about the subject. I've seen the failures, People, and I've seen how recruiters deal with them. If you want the job, try not to follow in these aforementioned footsteps.

Need more tips? Set up an appointment with a career advisor at your local university. Chances are they'll see you even if you aren't a current student or alumni. They can tell you if you're making these mistakes and/or others. In the meantime I'll be on the look out for more blunders at BYU to pass on to my friends.

Career Spook Alley Success!

When I started preparing and advertising my October open house event for University Career Services at BYU, I would have never imagined that it would be such a success! The event went from 11:00am - 3:00pm (which was a long time, especially when you have to prolong lunch). Career advisors in our center acted as fortune tellers for the event, offering a fake career future for the students who visited the spook alley. Once the fortune was given, the advisors asked what the students really wanted to do and offered a list of services we could provide to help them build the career they wanted.

Fortune tellers included:
Wendy from Wendy's and her French Fry fortunes
Big Navajo, the Medicine Man with chants that invoke the spirits of career advice
(don't worry, he served his mission with the Navajo people and speaks fluently. All very authentic)
Cowgirl, and her magic career advising boot
Blackstrodomus, and his magic black eight ball
Trucker, and his chew
Our local Shriner, and his magic fez hat

In total we had 185 students get counted at the end of the career spook alley. While I was hoping for really high numbers, that was about all we could handle. We were talking to students the whole time with no breaks, had short waits for fortunes, and had a lot of fun walking around and seeing what everyone else was doing. One of the advisors reported that 75 - 80% of the students who came in to visit were freshman and sophomores, which is exactly who we want to introduce to the center at this time.

Big Navajo was gracious enough to give Scott his fortune by chanting to the gods for career advice. Scott received the number 3 or 4 calling in the Navajo people... Corn Grower. Big Navajo said, " Plan A - Corn Grower. Plan B - Sports Med. People in the center here, can help you with Plan B. For Plan A though... you come to Big Navajo."

My husband, the Corn Grower

Here I was thinking that Plan B was physical therapy. Thanks for setting us straight, Big Navajo!

So I'd say it was a success! More so, it was A LOT of fun and I was so glad that everyone got as into it as I always have been. For more pictures, and to view videos of the event, visit my Facebook.

Making Your Own Way in a Down Economy

At BYU I have to take an hour lunch every day, and that hour has to be away from my desk. You might be thinking, "HAVE to?! Wouldn't you want that break?" Yes, most of the time. But really, if I have to stay on campus, and I can't be on my computer because I would be bothered with work related things, than I might as well be doing work. It doesn't take me a whole hour to eat one enchilada (Thank you, honey, for making me dinner!)

So yesterday I took my hour to eat an enchilada and read the latest issue of whatever magazine fills up our waiting areas in the interview halls of our office. I grabbed a Business Week with a picture of an ostrich on the front (that HAS to guarantee entertainment, right?) and headed to the kitchen where my food was reheating.

In this issue of Business Week I found a most interesting article that seems to demonstrate a principle that I've been hearing over and over again lately. And that principle is this: In a tough economy or in times of change, you have to be creative in the way you advertise your ability to contribute. For example, it seems like the accountants who survive in their departments when menial tasks are shipped overseas, are the ones who learn new skills and offer to facilitate as moderator for the new function. We also heard a professor at BYU talk to students in health programs about how they may need to approach the corporate world to create their own position rather than applying for a job description. He said that students will be successful when they show a company their areas for improvement and how the student's degree and skill sets can resolve the issue.

Well Sysco, the mega food service distributor, is offering free consulting services to restaurants on how to improve their cost savings. So Sysco offers cooking tips and graphic design for menus and spends hundreds of dollars on free services so that restaurants will keep coming back for more Sysco goodness.The article quotes Sysco as saying "We felt if we could improve their business, that would improve our business with them." Smart cookies! Read and be amazed.

Your Personal Job Finder

A note before I proceed with my employment advice: On Saturday I cut Scott's hair. It was very exciting. I even took pictures by request from my best friend. I was so excited to post my adventure, when I discovered that the memory card wasn't in the camera when I took pictures. The pictures are saved to the camera itself, which as you may know, is incompatible with USB connections. So no pictures :( However, I was successful in cutting Scott's hair at home. In my opinion, I did a pretty good job, except I'm pretty sure there is one tuft of hair in the front that is longer than the rest of his mane. That's modern, right? I used clippers for the bottom and sides, but had to wield scissors on his overgrown top fro. Scary! Maybe someday I'll be able to recover the pictures.

Moving on...

The Fall Semester is upon us. Recruiting season at BYU is starting to bloom, and my work is becoming only slightly busier. With recent economic swings, more and more students and alumni are having difficulties locating or keeping satisfying employment. Not only that, but students have more competition for part-time jobs than ever before. On-campus custodial jobs have had more applications in a matter of hours this year then they have received in entire posting periods of years past. This environment presents an interesting puzzle of requests for our University Career Services staff.

Yesterday I attended a webinar presented by LinkedIn on how career services can better use the online application for university and student networking. Most of the networking advice was old news to me, since BYU-Idaho's business department taught me self-marketing skills brilliantly. However, LinkedIn is coming up with some new tricks and had some helpful tips inside the system, of which I wasn't previously aware.
As I updated my Public Profile yesterday on LinkedIn, I received two requests from Scott's cousins to help search for local part-time jobs. They know something that you may not... and that is that I am an Internet research GENIUS! Mwahaha! Go ahead, doubt, but many can attest that this is true. Last year I even found a long lost cousin of a recruiter visiting BYU, so he could reconnect (and get football tickets). Skills, I tell you! My favorite thing to research, though, is jobs. I research them for myself ALL the time, even when I'm not really looking to change employers. There is an inexplicable joy for me, when I find the perfect job for someone. Really! Plus it gives me a good challenge.

So I'm updating my networking profile, and helping family find jobs, and it hits me! ... Why am I not offering this service to more of my friends/faithful readers? I am in a position where I am intimately connected with new job advertisements every day from all over the world. I love to search. I love to network. I want to help people find jobs in this difficult economic situation. How does that NOT equal, personal job finder blog post?

If you or someone you know is looking for a job, I would be thrilled to come to your aid. Any industry. Full-time, Part-time, Temporary, Seasonal... Give me a challenge. Just post a comment, send an email, or connect with me on LinkedIn with some details on where and what you want. I will be your job Cha-Cha! Your personal job finder.