References and Letters of Recommendation

By Ethan Vernon, senior international affairs and Chinese major at CU-Boulder

           

Before looking for a job, you should already have your references figured out. References will be used by the majority of employers to confirm and qualify a prospective employee’s past work experience. Thus, who you choose as a reference should not be last minute decisions. Your references may simply be available to answer employer inquiries on your behalf, or may provide letters of recommendation.

           

You first need to identify who has enough knowledge of you as an employee and will be able to give a positive account of your experiences together. You should choose people you have had good experiences with and who are familiar with your work.

           

After narrowing your list of potential references, you have to let them know you are considering them by sending a reference request. This is typically done via phone or e-mail, with an e-mail having the added benefit of providing an easier way out for uninterested references. “Would you be able to provide a good reference for me?” or “Would you feel comfortable enough to give a reference for me?” are two examples of how to phrase your question in a way which will identify willing references who will likely have better things to say about you.

           

Once you have a list of willing references who agreed to help you out, you should provide them the most recent information regarding your work experience, your goals, and the progress of your job search. This will help them make connections between their experiences with you, your current experiences, and the future experiences you are pursuing. Things like your most recent resume, cover letter, and the company for which you are applying are all good pieces of information to provide. If you are asking for a letter of recommendation, it may be helpful to ask for accounts on your specific attributes, such as meeting deadlines or being responsible.

           

Lastly, it is important to realize that a good reference may go a long way in convincing an employer to hire. Thus, you should thank your references for their help. This can be as simple as sending thanks in an e-mail, or taking some time out of your day to provide personal thanks over the phone. Your references will appreciate the gesture.

Negotiating the First Year of Rest of Your Professional Life

By Max Gompertz, senior communication and psychology major at CU-Boulder

While the transition from student to employee is undoubtedly a difficult one, some simple tips can make the shift much less intimidating.  These pointers will help you navigate the first year of professional employment.  Instead of allowing negative feelings like anxiety, uncertainty, or doubt to preoccupy you on the first day of the rest of your life, take advantage of this straightforward advice to keep calm and carry on.

Get Ready

1)   Review:  Look over the literature that you likely received when you were hired for the job.  Information about vacation time, sick days, and payment methods specific to the company will be included, and is expected to be common knowledge among all employees.  Asking questions for which you were already provided the answer will make you look irresponsible and unorganized in the employer’s eyes, so read up beforehand!

2)   Dress:  …to impress! Employers like to see employees who respect and enjoy their job.  Spend some time at a local suit vendor to select clothes that fit right, look professional and make you feel confident.  Confidence is the key to establishing yourself as a valuable addition to the company.

Get Set

3)   Get Organized:  Taking notes on your first day will make you look sharp, organized and motivated.  This will set a great foundation for you to begin your new job, and you’ll impress your superiors!  Although note taking may occur more often in college than in the corporate world, continuing this good habit throughout your life will put you a step ahead of your coworkers as well as help you focus and better understand what is expected of you.

4)   Attitude:  During the first weeks of employment, anything can happen… so be prepared.  As noted in McGill University’s Career Planning Service, it is crucial to be “positive and flexible” during your first year of employment.  Since your workflow probably won’t become concrete for the first few weeks, volunteering to help with whatever you can and exuding a positive attitude will make you stand out amongst other employees.

5)   Initiative:  Make a point to introduce yourself to coworkers.  Rather than waiting for other employees to introduce themselves, be outgoing and take the initiative to begin the introduction. Not only should you apply this to peers and coworkers, but McGill University also recommends that you “get to know your boss.” This advice may seem like a no-brainer, however, getting to know your boss is one of the best ways to get recognized internally and move up at a company.

6)   Attention:  Don’t overlook any details during your first year on the job.  Your superiors will be carefully checking your work, so it’s important to be careful not to miss anything.  Make sure you dot your I’s and cross your T’s if you want to find success during the first year of your new job.

GO!

7)   Culture:  As highlighted by the University of Missouri Career Center, be sure to “learn the organizational culture” at your new job.  Employees who understand the management styles and reward mechanisms their employers use will be more likely to benefit than those who don’t take the time to understand the company culture.

8)   Position:  Employees are encouraged to “learn their place” in order to make the biggest impact on their company’s profitability.  The connotation here is not one of penalty or ability, but rather, refinement and productivity.  In college, we were taught to speak up, but make sure you pause and think before doing so.  It is not to say that companies or employers do not value your opinion, but you must be careful not to waste their time on redundancies or trivialities.  Therefore, know your position and what contributions are expected of you.

Additional information can be found on these sites:

First Year on the Job – A Short Guide to Post-Graduation Workplace Success

10 Tips for Your First Day of Work

First Year Success

Holding an Informative Informational Interview

I’m Tamara Berkman, a 2010 communication graduate from CU. After finishing a yearlong public relations internship, I am looking for a full time public relations or marketing position. To help further my job search, my friend suggested I talk to her neighbor, Ruth, who runs her own communications firm. I’ve heard of informational interviews, but I wasn’t sure how talking to someone who has no job to offer would be helpful. I deciding that hearing about the communications field from someone who is already a part of it would help me continue professionally.  After talking to Ruth - and some of her peers - I received great job searching advice.

Here are some tips on how to use an informational interview to guide your career path:

1)     Ask how people got started in their field.  This was the most eye-opening question I asked. Some started as assistants, while others volunteered and interned to gain the skills they needed. It took many of them 2-3 years to get an entry-level job in the industry, but they persevered and are now in a job they love. After holding multiple internships and volunteer positions, this was far from what I wanted to hear, but it helped me realize that I am on the right track even if the destination is still distant.

2)     Ask for resume, cover letter and interviewing advice. Those in charge of hiring can tell you several things they see from candidates that make great impressions or discard them from a job. For example, coming in to an interview with a list of questions is much more acceptable than claiming you already know the ins and outs of the position and company. Having questions shows you’re interested in the company, not just the job.

3)     Ask what you can do now to find a job. No one I spoke to was hiring, but they all had suggestions on how I could use social media, job boards and local groups to help my search.  Many suggested  Andrew Hudson’s Job List, Colorado Non-Profit Association Job Board and the Denver/Boulder based LinkedIn groups’ discussion boards.

4)     Write a thank you note. Anyone willing to take time out of their day to talk you about job searching is doing you a favor and deserves a thank you. I hand wrote each thank you note, as it seemed more personal and required a bit more effort.  Knowing I was meeting with so many people in such a short time, I made it a point to always have a package of thank you notes and stamps close by. To leave the best impression possible I sent each letter out within a week of meeting - while our conversations were still fresh. If you need help on writing a thank you note here are some examples.

After meeting with multiple people in the communications field, I am certain that while this job search will not be easy, by taking advantage of any opportunity to do an informational interview, I can make many connections with those already working in areas that are of interest to me. Eventually, I know I will reach my ultimate goal of a full-time communication position.

For example, I reached out to my friend Alex who has been working in the communications field for a few years and asked if she knew of any good contacts. Alex got me in touch with Steve, her former boss at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Over the summer Steve left CP+B to start his own communications firm, Sapka Communications. After our conversation, Steve offered me a part time job at Sapka Communication gathering press contacts, tracking media and managing social networks. This will be a great opportunity to learn from a communications veteran and expand my network more. Through experiences like this and my commitment to furthering professional connections, I know eventually I will reach my ultimate goal of a full-time communications position.

Career Services also offers assistance with informational interviews. Check out our Quick Tips here. Consider joining the University of Colorado Boulder Alumni LinkedIn group to network with a variety of professionals and conduct additional informational interviews.

A Day in the Life of Vail Resorts’ E-Commerce Coordinator

When Charles Townsend first began his college search, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to study.

“I just wanted a school that had a lot to offer and also had good skiing nearby,” Charles said. “That’s why I came out to Colorado.”

However, it’s Charles’ job as Vail Resorts’ User Experience and E-Commerce Coordinator that has ultimately helped him earn a living and continue living in Colorado. Part of Charles’ role at Vail Resorts includes managing the e-commerce sections on the company’s different websites—from ski pass purchases or equipment rental. He also provides recommendations to the larger marketing organization on site usability, or giving the website a consistent look and feel that is both user-friendly and leads to a positive customer experience.

When he first arrived at CU and discovered that he had an interest in marketing, Charles began taking the prerequisite classes in order to apply to the Leeds School of Business. However, as soon as Charles discovered that he had to take classes he found less interesting before he could take marketing classes, he decided to explore his interest in sociology.

“I figured that would be a great application to marketing, to use my knowledge of large groups of people, as opposed to one person’s mind like in psychology, and leverage that knowledge in more of a marketing/advertising sense,” Charles said.

Around this time, Charles made an appointment to see a counselor at Career Services who helped him network and reach out to alumni. One of the alumni Charles met through CU’s alumni database was a sociology major who worked in the marketing field, and because of their shared backgrounds and interests, Charles was able to arrange a meeting with him. Charles developed a friendly relationship with this alumnus, who he spoke with about once a month. The CU alum accepted a position at Vail Resorts, and when he had been working there for about six months, Charles was just starting to look for internship opportunities for second semester of his senior year. During his search, Charles asked this friend about possible one day per week internship opportunities that might exist at Vail Resorts and ended up landing a spring internship with their online marketing department.

“That worked out great and that was my foot in the door,” Charles explained. “It gave me great exposure to the company and I really enjoyed it.”

Charles interned at Vail Resorts during the summer after his senior year until he was offered a full-time job in the group sales department. Charles worked in sales for about a year before his current position opened up in the online marketing department and he was able to transfer.

What does a day in Charles’ life look like?

> Around 7:30 a.m., Charles starts his morning with breakfast and spending some time with his dog out before heading to work.

> From 8 or 8:30 a.m. until around 5:30 or 6 p.m., Charles reviews and responds to emails, attends a meeting with his team or the IT development team, and troubleshoots and makes changes to various areas of the website.

> Charles finishes his day off with a 30-minute commute home.

What’s ahead for Charles?

“I love being in the online space and focusing on websites. I’d love to be able to spend more time exploring the local space. Another one of my responsibilities has been to oversee our local website platform and maintain those other sites which are different than the standard Vail.com that people visit.”

“In terms of the future, the online space is something I like being involved with. I’ve really enjoyed my time with Vail and hope that there will be some good opportunities that come up. I’m still looking for opportunities out there, but ideally, that next step up would be within my same department, but who knows? I think the online space is where I want to remain, and I want to keep working with passionate people who have similar personalities to me.”

What advice would you offer current CU students?

“I’d say definitely use Career Services for all they offer. I certainly tried to leverage that resource as much as I could by meeting with a career advisor once a week and getting job interviews even if it’s a job you know you won’t be interested in long-term—just having an interview is extremely helpful and helped me. It’s not like I just applied to my job at Vail; I applied to jobs through Career Services and while none were as exciting as Vail, they were all great experiences in terms of having that interview practice. I’d also say to be passionate about your major and what you’re interested in; it separates you from the rest of the pack. Embrace that instead of trying to hide it.”

Simplify your job/internship search: CSO

In between getting settled into a new place, starting classes, attending student group meetings, and tackling homework, many students struggle as they look for jobs and internships during the first few weeks of fall semester.  But finding an job or internship doesn't have to be so challenging with the help of Career Services' free online job/internship search tool, Career Services Online.

"Over 9500 organizations have posted jobs specifically for CU Boulder students and alumni in CSO since 2005," said Cherie Wilcox, Assistant Director for CSO. "Companies range from very recognizable household names--like CBS News, Proctor & Gamble, Warner Music Group, Walt Disney, NCAR, Lockheed Martin, Teach for America--to smaller local organizations from every industry."

Job Search criteria

As of Friday, August 26, 973 jobs were posted on CSO, and of those jobs, 360 were part time or seasonal positions, or internships.  Every year, companies ask CU's Career Services to post internships as well as part time, seasonal and full time positions on CSO, but what good is a potential job or internship opportunity if you don't apply for it?  Sometimes, job or internship opportunities go unnoticed by students and no one ends up applying for them, and it's not uncommon for Career Services to receive calls about once a week from an employer who listed a position on CSO and didn't receive any applications, Wilcox said.  When this happens, Career Services will send the employer a packet of students' resumes that were uploaded on CSO that fit the criteria in the job description, and/or email the opportunity out to students who list a major and/or job preference on CSO that matches the job description.  To maximize the amount of potential jobs and internships available to you, it's important to fill out your CSO profile completely, upload your resume, and actively apply for the posted positions.

CSO is also a great tool for seniors to use as they begin their post-graduation career search in the next few weeks.  Positions posted on CSO can be with companies in Boulder, all over Colorado, out-of-state, and even outside of the U.S.!

So what are you waiting for?  If you're still looking for a job or internship, create a username and password for CSO, log in to CSO on the left side of the Career Services homepage, and start your job/internship search.  New and exciting opportunities such as the ones listed below await you — check them out!

Job ID 29273: Event Assistant for the Emergency Family Assistance Association

Job ID 29169: Marketing Assistant at the University of Colorado's Wardenburg Health Center

Job ID: 28997: Fall Intern at Skiing Magazine

Job ID 28258: Fall 2011 Internship with Warner Music Group

Job ID 27768: Tax & Accounting Assistant with Cline & Associates

Job ID 29193: Technology Development Intern with Simple Energy

Job ID 28339: University Intern - Global Scientific Business with Kimberly-Clark Corporation

If you're having trouble figuring out where to start once you have your CSO profile set up, check out our step-by-step guide to CSO.

How to Use Career Services Online (CSO)

One of the main questions CU students ask is “Where can I find jobs and internships?” Career Services Online is the answer to this question as well as a resource for many other things. CSO is FREE for all CU Boulder students and alumni. Please use the following explanation to better navigate CSO! (more...)

Careers in the Spotlight: Working for a social media agency

One of the great things about going to school in Boulder is that career opportunities abound in such a technologically advanced city. Elyse Heslin is just one CU graduate ('10) whose pre-graduation career search led her to job in an industry she is passionate about. (more...)