HealthyCampus101: Her Career: Interview Questions

Some insightful interview questions compiled by a classmate. These are definitely worth considering before any job interview. Some "go to" questions for many interviewers.

HealthyCampus101: Her Career: Interview Questions: I remember sitting outside the room on my first interview. I literally had to push down on my leg to get it to stop shaking. And over and ov...

Resume Help from the Pros

Throughout my college career, I’ve struggled with the idea of going to the school career services office to find internships and ask for resume advice.

I had one bad experience sophomore year. To be fair, it wasn’t a bad experience exactly, but I was certainly underwhelmed. I made an appointment to go sit down with career services for resume advice, and ended up sitting with a work study student who told me my resume was in great shape and sent me away with some samples of how I might want to adjust the format. Great!

Needless to say, I have not used career services since. They have a great website that lists all sorts of internships and jobs, which works for some people. I’ve always been one to seek out my own opportunities. For that reason, as I look for a job, I decided it would be better to ask hiring managers for some tips instead of a work study student with comparatively less experience than I have had.

Here is what I learned from the pros:

1. It’s okay to ask someone to review your resume without asking them for a job. Many communications professionals are happy to help, and they know what skills employers are looking for because they hire communications people ALL THE TIME.
2. Use specific headings. Instead of Internship experience, use the header “PR and Marketing Experience”.
3. Don’t sell yourself short. Many sure the biggest names on your resume stand out at the top of the page.
4. DON’T USE ONE BLANKET RESUME- Just because you spent the time making your resume “just right” doesn’t mean that it is just right for the job you are applying for. Do your homework and make sure you use words from the job description in the body of your resume to show that your experience is relatable. If your page is too crammed, it’s even okay to swap out various jobs and activities as necessary.
5.  For an interview, make sure you can come up with at least one takeaway or story that you had with each past experience, from dealing with a difficult customer to seeing a huge project from start to finish. It is certainly impressive to be able to relate a tangible benefit from each of your experiences.

It sounds fool proof to me… fingers crossed!

Corporate Culture- Thoughts on the secrets of success...

Today I had the great pleasure of sitting down to talk company culture with the CEO of a large Boston area non-profit organization devoted to providing food and supplies to children and families that cannot afford them otherwise.


I must admit that I have never left a meeting feeling more inspired to do good. Many of the employees at the organization perform a ton of manual labor for small compensation, but they all just seemed so satisfied. It is such a unique feeling to be able to go to work every day and understand the greater benefit of all you are doing, but just by interacting with people who were so passionate about the organization, I left wanting to donate money and resources in any way that I could.


After my meeting, I ended up in a conversation about corporate culture with my OB professor. I suppose in a non-profit it’s easy to realize the benefit of your work… Just because you went to the office and put in a hard day’s work, hundreds/thousands of hungry people will be able to eat. How then, can this idea be carried over to build a culture in for-profit organizations.


As we spoke, I realized that I have never had a job that I didn’t enjoy. I’ve always been able to feel good about a hard day of work, whether I was 15 years old and working in a gourmet hot dog restaurant (true story) or 19 and working as a pharmacy technician… Or even in my twenties and enjoying a wealth of rewarding and educational internship experiences. How then, can you develop an organization filled with people who love coming to work every day? Is it a matter of positive feedback and customizing your management technique to ensure every person sees that their effort is valued? Or is it a matter of riding the wave of CSR so employees feel that the work they are doing benefits the greater good rather than just drives sales. In many ways I am excited to get out into the real world and find out. I understand that success in this way cannot be bottled- there is no fool proof formula for corporate culture. On the other hand, I believe my generation is uniquely poised to really drive a change here with a combination of social awareness and new skills and resources that may not have been available 5, 10, 15, and 20 years ago.

Drop and Meet us at Fenway!

Twitter is a great and curious networking tool. I was recently sought out on twitter by a company seeking to hire college seniors for a graduate program. I was a bit skeptical, but opted to go with it. And, after a few cold call phone interviews, they invited me to what soon became the strangest and most exciting job interview of my life.

Disclaimer: I LOVE job interviews.

Because I love job interviews I was intrigued when I was told on a Tuesday evening to clear my schedule from 6pm the very next day until 10pm Thursday evening. The only instruction was to report to Fenway park with a photo id. The dress code? “Come as you are.” Part of me wanted to hang up the phone and forget about it, but the another part rationalized that it must be a legitimate program if they can rent out Fenway Park… so I went for it.

After a brief cocktail hour/networking session with company managers, the 20 job candidates were divided into teams, provided with a tool kit, and sent to come up with a project. We had 20 hours to come up with a project that would inspire others and report back to present it. The tool kit contained a camera, a slinky, duct tape, and 5 cans of red bull- what more could we have POSSIBLY required?

As it all transpired, it was a tremendous learning experience. I am fascinated by organizational behavior and the dynamics of teams, so I found the entire ordeal very rewarding and insightful. My team of 4 came up with some great ideas and accomplished a lot in that short period of time. In the end, I wasn’t selected for the next round, but I think it is for the best. I had a ton of fun and learned a lot, but I don’t think the job was the perfect fit for me.