Career Services Update - week of Week of April 26, 2004!

* Congratulations – New hire Sonya Harrington snagged a Marketing Assistant position at Acorn Products in Lewiston. Acorn’s slipper socks are standard issue on all space shuttle flights. Now Sonya will leave our atmosphere for the weightless environment that is the “Stars of the Moment” bulletin board.

* ? – I’ve gotten some emails from students that start with a question mark – and it’s not because they have a question. In fact, they are completely unaware its happening. Apparently when you use the web-based version of Outlook the question mark is added when you send the email. It appears before any of the actual written text – which looks, well… foolish. My fear is that you may send an inquiry to a prospective employer with Web Outlook and will look silly doing it.

The answer is simple – don’t use web mail when emailing about jobs, just use regular ol’ Outlook and you’ll be fine. IT is aware of the issue. Having said that, it’s never a bad idea to send a test email to yourself or friends to check on formatting and to see if the attachment you are sending can be opened.

* Job Hunting tips – As the end of the school year approaches thoughts turn to the summer job (it is the first thing you think of, isn’t it?). If you’re going back to the same position you’ve had before consider asking the boss for more responsibility this time around. There’s something to be said for having a “steady” job for several years, but you must continue to build your skills and that can only be achieved from tackling new challenges.

* Interview tips – Take a look at your resume and see if you are able to explain each item in a concise, thoughtful way. Do you have an abbreviation on your resume that you don’t understand? What about that job two years ago – can you describe what you did? It’s a good idea to have those “basics” down before your interview. Bring your resume to the interview and don’t be afraid to refer to it.

* Jobs – some newbies this week include:

an Accounting position in Central Maine through Bonney Staffing (agencies aren’t allowed to say who their clients are in print although at times you can put 2 and 2 together).

Senior Spectrum in Augusta is looking for a Communications Intern

Irving Tanning in Hartland has a need for a Summer PC Support Technician (I don’t have a complete job description on this yet – I will post it when more info becomes available).

All jobs can be seen on the jobs posting website after midnight when the system updates. It’s a good idea to check this a couple times a week and it will be updated in the summer too.

Have a great week!