IPFW Job Fair

The fall IPFW Job Fair is fast approaching. Don't forget to polish your resume, dress to impress, and come early. 

Thursday, September 20th

10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Walb International Union Ballroom

If you need help preparing your resume or honing your interview skills come to Career Services, Kettler Hall 109. We have extended drop-in hours Monday, Sept. 18^th and Tuesday, Sept. 19^th from 10am-4pm.

The IPFW job fair is open to all IPFW students & alumni, and local IU & Purdue alumni.

Job Search Time Management

School started this week at IPFW.  If you graduated over the summer, this could be a bit of a wakeup call if you aren’t yet employed in your field. Often, one of the biggest obstacles for job seekers is finding and managing their time. Check out the suggestions below:

Too Little Time?

Improving your career can’t always be your whole life.  You might have to work at a job not related to your career ambitions just to pay your bills. Maybe you have children to take care of or other important responsibilities. Stop waiting for long periods of uninterrupted time and look for small time periods that you can use effectively. Can you hop on the internet and look at a few job sites during your lunch break? Can you spare 15 or 20 minutes after the kids go to bed?

Too Much Time?

If you are currently completely unemployed, keep in mind that your job search is your job.

                Get up in the morning.

               Most of the people you want to contact will be active between 8am and 6pm. If you’re sleeping until 2pm, you could be missing out.

               Shower and put on real clothes.

                It’s hard to feel prepared and professional in your pajamas.

               Consider leaving the house.

               At home, you might find yourself distracted by family or unfinished housework.  Taking your laptop to the local coffee shop or using a computer at a public library could make it easier to focus. 

For more information on job searching check out: http://new.ipfw.edu/offices/career/students/job.html

Difficult & Tough Questions

 I want to address some difficult and tough questions that hopefully will aid you in the future in not so "cut and dry" circumstances...

What if I was fired from my previous job for reasons I don’t want to explain and the employer asks me about it in an interview?

The best way to answer questions like this one is to be brief in your answer and vague—but STAY POSITIVE. You want to remain truthful but also not give away too much personal information. For example, you can answer by saying "I needed to start my career path in a different direction, it was good for both the employer and I, and I have learned from my mistakes and am ready to move on and attain new skills." You can always answer in a roundabout way. The employer wants to know this: have they learned from their mistakes, and will they be a good fit here?

What if an employer at a job fair tells me to go apply online?

 

Yes-go apply online! Everybody else applies online and that is how the employer receives applications, but you showed initiative and you showed up! Keep the ball rolling and see if they would like to keep your resume on hand as well-sometimes employers will make notes on your resume after meeting you face to face and watch for your online application to show-up in their online database. Now you can also write in your cover letter “when I met your representative at the IPFW Career Fair…”

           What if I am asked a question in the interview I don’t know the answer to? Or a behavioral question about a situation that I have never experienced?

This can be difficult, but it is appropriate to say, “Let me think about that.” You can also ask the employer to come back to a question later on in the interview. If you have never experienced a situation that the employer wants to know how you handled, still answer the question by telling them what you would do in a situation like the one they are asking about. You want to answer all their questions in one way or another! This way, you are giving them some insight into how you process things and your response to a dilemma, even if it is hypothetical. Another way to go about this question is by answering with multiple scenarios. Perhaps you had dealt with a difficult employer in Job A, a lazy coworker in Job B, and asked for more projects in Job C.

1       I have done multiple interviews with different employers, but what if I prefer one employer over the other and hear from one but want to keep the door open until I hear back from another?

That is a very great question! A lot of people deal with this than you think, so don't feel alone. It is appropriate to ask for time to think it over so you can reflect before making a decision. Make sure the impression you are leaving is that you want to make the right decision and fit for you, not necessarily that you are waiting for the better offer you are more excited about! Ask if they have a deadline they need to know by, or give it a week.

If you still have not heard anything from anyone else give them a call to follow up and see where they are in the hiring process. At this point, you can let them know you have interviewed with other organizations, but they are your preferred choice.

 

MBTI Series: ISFP & work relationships

Building Strong Relationships
There is a book that I suggest to many people when they have relationship problems, and it doesn't matter if it's work or personal relationship problems this book will help. Check out The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman. He's actually written a number of variations on his original book to tailor the messages with different groups, one being in the workplace. One of Chapman's follow up books, The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace, is geared towards expressing appreciation towards your coworkers/staff in a way that is meaningful to them, which in turn builds relationships, understanding, and overall increases workplace satisfaction.

Chapman teams up with Dr. Paul White in the workplace edition to discuss appropriate ways to express the five languages, which are words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, tangible gifts, and physical touch. I'm sure you've just cringed a little with that last one, but below you'll find some suggestions on how this communication theory can work well even in the workplace. The key message to remember when successfully implementing this method of communication, with anyone, is to know what his/her preferred language of appreciation is and then finding appropriate ways to show this appreciation towards him/her.

5 Languages of Appreciation
It can be hard to determine how others want to be treated, especially if you don't know the person very well. Some people have just asked their coworkers a simple question like, "What's something I/the office could do to show our appreciation for you and your hard work?" You could also try identifying with their current stress level first like, "I've noticed you've been working very hard on that project and I know I would feel overwhelmed with it. Is there anything I can do to help you?" You can also make some suggestions like bringing them coffee or assisting with a small portion of the project.  This can help you determine if they appreciate tangible gifts or acts of service. Once you've determined their preferred language here are a few options to demonstrate your appreciation to them:

1. Words of Affirmation - write a small note and leave it on their computer; submit kudos to HR on someone's behalf, if the company has a "Good Samaritan" type program; acknowledge his/her hard word at the end of a staff meeting or when that project comes up in the itinerary
2. Quality Time - offer your coworker an open door if they ever need to talk; go to lunch with him/her and make sure you spend time talking about his/her concerns and not yourself; remember why people go on vacation or have special events and take 5-10 minutes to talk with him/her about what's been happening
3. Acts of Service - offer to help him/her with their project; if you know it's his/her responsibility to do something on a regular basis and you see it's not getting done offer to do that for them
4. Tangible Gifts - bring in homemade cookies for the whole office, but reserve a couple for the coworker who values tangible gifts and deliver it personally; offer to buy him/her lunch; find out what their favorite mid-afternoon snack is and bring it for them on occasion
5. Physical Touch - high-fives, handshakes, pat on the back, and fist bumps are all appropriate ways to demonstrate appreciation through physical touch at work. Just make sure you use them in a way that makes sense to the other person, because if he/she doesn't know why you're giving them a high-five then the appreciation message has been lost.

INTROVERTED-SENSING-FEELING-PERCEIVING (ISFP)
After giving you a fair background on The 5 Love Languages it's time to talk more about ISFPs and why I'm suggesting they consider their current work relationships and how they work.  Everyone, can benefit from Chapman's theory of communication but as I was reviewing ISFPs and reading about their strengths and weaknesses I thought that his book was very relevant.

ISFPs have some amazing strengths when it comes to personal relationships, like being a very trusting and flexible individual with others.  They are very cooperative, loyal, and focused on needs of others which leads them to being great friends and very insightful when it comes to relationships. ISFPs are very perceptive of others' and their own emotional needs and feelings and shows their commitment to others through their actions. They definitely live by the motto that actions speak louder than words.

There are weaknesses, of course, as with everyone, and often these weaknesses are actually when ISFPs allow their strengths of perception to take advantage of others. Because ISFPs are so aware of others' emotions and what is important to individuals sometimes it can lead to manipulation in a relationship. While they may not see it as manipulation, others might. Also, since Feeling is as strong component of ISFPs, conflict management is not a strength. When you combine the Feeling with Perceiving it can be a recipe for poor or lack of decision making, too. The 5 Love Languages discusses the importance of understanding other people's communication preferences which can be very helpful with conflict management and decision making.


Some suggestions for ISFP personalities

• Reflect on alternative ways to make decisions and even find out how others process decision making
• Use The 5 Love Languages to understand the others in your workplace and use that knowledge as a means to help resolve conflict in the office
• Continue to offer support and understanding as many appreciate it
• As you develop your decision making skills, be sure to share your reasons for the decisions with all parties involved
• Stop trying to persuade solely through relationships

For more information about MBTI there are great resources at your local library, or CLICK HERE to review the other MBTI entries from our blog. Some information in this blog was inspired by and drawn from Introduction to Type and Emotional Intelligence by Roger R. Pearman.

PART TIME JOB FAIR on IPFW Campus

Part-Time & Work-Study Job Fair Fall 2012 Registration is OPEN!

The "I just need a part-time job during school" fair

Log into JobZone with your myIPFW username and password www.ipfw.edu/career

Look to the right side of your homepage screen and find, "Attend Events"

Click on the Part-Time & Work-Study Job Fair Fall 2012 and you may register there.

Be sure to put this on your calendar—See you there!

Summer Jobs

Check out these cartoons on Summer Job Cartoons from Job Mob

Need a Summer Job? Check out our current job postings on www.ipfw.edu/jobzone

10 Things That Can Be "Career Killers"

1. Talent Shortages: Make sure to acquire the best education, skills, and experience

2. An Ever-Changing Economy: Have the ability to adapt, be creative, and stand up to challenges

3. Rising Cost of Healthcare: Make wise lifestyle choices, employers want a sustainable workforce

4. Social Responsiblity: Be aware of a broad worldview and weave social responsibility into business strategy

5. Environmental Awareness: Going green also means staying disciplined to possibly work from home and managing time effectively

6. Technology as a Way of Life: Stay updated on the latest technology trends and be willing to work longer or less traditional hours

7. Mobile Workforce: Technology allows us to work "less in the office" so don't be too committed to "punching out" at 5pm

8. Millenial Invasion: According to a study by Mercer, by 2020 40% of the workforce will be Millenials, or those born after 1980; know who you are working with or for!

9. Mixed Generations: People are waiting longer to retire and are living longer; Meister and Willyerd say by 2020 the workforce will include 5 different generations; Work well in teams!

10. Global Talent Seeking: The talent pools are much larger within a "smaller" world; accept other cultures, learn a new language, and be open to new ways!


Pulled from http://www.salary.com/10-global-trends-killing-your-career/

By Dawn Dugan, Salary.com contributing writer