As a subscriber to the Indianapolis Business Journal, today I received my 2009 edition of the annual IBJ Book of Lists.  The book (more like a magazine, really) is exactly what the title indicates, page after page of lists of Indianapolis-area companies sortedby industry, size, growth rate, etc.  It’s not exactly leisure reading, but it is, in my humble opinion, the most undervalued and underutilized job search resource for students and young professionals looking for local job and internship opportunities.

While it’s easy to hop onto Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com and submit your resume to hundreds of jobs, it is a serious understatement to write that finding quality positions is a challenge.  Particularly in a slowing economy, you need to be a proactive job seeker – and this is where the Book of Lists comes into play.  Along with basic information about each company (industry, revenue, # of employees, primary services, major clients, and more), you’ll find a link to each company’s website, where many organizations, lacking the time and staff to sort through hundreds of Monster-generated resumes, will post open positions to which you can apply directly.  Even if there are no open positions listed, you can learn more about the company and find contact information for you to begin setting up informational interviews. 

Alongside lists such as the Top 25 Fastest-Growing Indianapolis-Area Private Companies and the Top 25 Largest Indianapolis-Area Firms by Industry (Logistics, Public Relations, Accounting, etc.), you’ll find information on professional organizations you should consider joining, non-profits, and graduate programs.  I recommend getting your hands on a copy as soon as possible, which you can do one of 4 ways:

1. Subscribe to the IBJ and you’ll receive a copy as part of your subscription (my #1 recommendation) as well as 24/7 access to the interactive online edition
2. Order a paper copy through the IBJ website
3. Buy a copy at Northside News, or Delaware News, or any local Borders or Barnes & Noble bookstore
4. Download digital versions of individual lists (which can add up fast)

If you’d like some tip and tricks on getting the most from your copy, come see me and I’ll happily walk you through some strategies.

I’m tremendously excited about a new course I have designed and will be co-teaching this Spring along with Sherry Zike from the Career Placement Office - X300: Online Career Planning for Non-Business Majors.  While Kelley offers X320 for business majors, there are students across campus with limited options for exploring career planning and career management within a structured course.  X300 was designed to help fill this void.

The class is taught entirely online over the first 8 weeks and is a 2 credit hour course.  It’s going to be interesting (the class is all about you, after all), very informative with copious amounts of feedback, and the assignments are engaging and fun (really!). 

Please check out the short (4 min) online presentation below by clicking on the image and spread the word to all of your non-business major friends and classmates across campus! 

Of course there are.  In fact, as I write this blog, we have just wrapped up a day where three of our interview rooms were full and all of the employers intend to extend offers to Kelley students, which is clearly encouraging news - even if it meant that we kept running out of coffee the day after a late Colts game.  

This is not to say the immediate job forecast isn’t without its stormy patches.   The economic turmoil has hit fields such as investment banking particularly hard (see Credit Suisse announcement) and the threat of a prolonged slowdown has many employers pulling back on new hires across the board – recent college grads included (see For ’09 Grads or PDF).  

If this sounds like it means more work for you as a job seeker, it does.  There are jobs, but gone are the days when a job search consisted of a visit to KelleyCareers and broadcasting your resume on Monster and CareerBuilder (two of the most frustrating online job boards for recent college grads).  The relatively strong job market for recent grads over the past few years has given some students the impression that companies and jobs will always seek them out, instead of the other way around.  Now that we are likely entering an economic slowdown, job seekers need to be more proactive than ever and the knowledge and application of effective job search skills and strategies is essential.

And that’s the ultimate silver lining: If you are looking for a job in a bad economy, you have to learn how to tap into the hidden job market, identify new / interesting / growing companies, explore alternative career fields, and learn to sell yourself.  Once you develop an effective job search repertoire, you’ll have a set of skills you can rely on for the rest of your career.  If you do it now, you are set for life.

Now that I’m back to blogging on a regular basis, I’ll be sure to share some tips and tricks, but please do yourself a favor and visit the Career Placement Office if you have any questions or concerns.  Don’t panic and don’t let the barrage of negative news stop you from going after the job or career you want.  What works for one student won’t necessarily work for another and we can help you set up a plan that caters to your strengths and your interests. 

In the meantime, I encourage you to listen to this Wall Street Journal podcast featuring an interview with Trudy Steinfeld, Director of Career Services for NYU.  She gives a candid assessment of the job market and passes on some timely advice.

I wonder how I can get on the Wall Street Journal’s speed dial?

Guest post courtesy of Angie Meyer - Associate Director, CPO and our resident Accounting Recruiting Guru

Accounting and Accounting/Finance students need to be ready earlier than most other students, as the vast majority of recruiting activity for accounting positions takes place during the first part of the Fall semester.  The Accounting Fall Recruiting season officially starts on Sept. 10th with the Accounting “Meet the Recruiter” event, which will be held in the new Campus Center from 4-6pm.   All Accounting students who graduate in December 2008, May 2009 or August 2009 should plan on attending this event and participating in the Fall recruiting season.  Any student seeking an accounting internship during the Spring and/or Summer 2009 semesters should be ready to participate. 

Accounting “Meet the Recruiter” is a mini job fair.  Approximately 25-30 employers (accounting firms and corporations) attend this event in order pre-identify students to interview for their positions.  The employers come on campus to begin interviewing students starting September 22.  Many times, an employer will decide whether to interview a candidate based on whether they met them at the “Meet the Recruiter” event. 

Most accounting firms require a 3.0 minimum GPA to apply to their companies - if you are below that GPA, you should definitely attend this event because you will have the opportunity to sell yourself to employers face-to-face instead of on paper, where you may be overlooked if your GPA is not listed or falls below the minimum).    Employers have contacted us and asked us to add students with GPAs less than 3.0 to their schedules because they met with and were impressed with them at the “Meet the Recruiter” event and the student made an impression.  While there is no guarantee that you will be selected for an interview, your odds will be increased if you attend and make a favorable – and professional - impression.  What do you have to lose?  Visit our office for job fair tips on how to best begin conversations with employers at this event and other job fairs. 

Still not convinced?  Below is an email I just received from a student who just got a job with a large public accounting firm in Indianapolis despite a less than stellar GPA.  When I get stories like these, I am reminded why I gave up a high paying job in recruiting (a university is rarely the place to go if you want the big bucks) to come here and help students. 

Angie,

I recently graduated (May 2008) with a double major in accounting and finance.  I did not participate in the fall recruiting season because I had some things already in the works but they ended up not working out, so after graduation I needed to find a job.  It was hit and miss because many firms were not hiring at the time.  There were a few interviews here and there, but it was very frustrating because it seemed like I was the only person in a hurry.  I’d submit a resume, then 2 weeks later get a call or email showing interest, then maybe 2 more weeks before an actual interview would take place.  It was then that I set up a meeting with the KSB Career Placement Office (CPO), just to talk about my situation.  Up to this point, I had focused on using contacts I’d obtained through networking, but I was almost to the point where I was going to start submitting my resume in bulk to various job postings.  During my meeting with Angie Meyer, she stressed that I continue to be persistent with the firms where I had something in the works because networking usually provides the best opportunities.

I didn’t graduate with the best GPA in the world, it was under 3.0, and for most large accounting firms you are disqualified right away.  Sure, these firms want the best of the best, which is a big reason for this requirement, yet you have to remember that they receive hundreds of resumes and they have to have some criteria in place to bring that number down to a workable level.  To make my long story short, I was granted an interview with a large accounting firm here in Indianapolis through the use of contacts from networking.  I enjoy interviews and don’t feel much pressure because I don’t try and candy-coat anything and am always open and honest.  However, I felt that I could have performed better in this particular interview.  Afterwards, I was pretty hard on myself, thinking that this was the biggest interview of my life and I didn’t put forth my best effort.  I felt like Scott Sharp, who once qualified on the pole for the Indy 500 and crashed in Turn 1 on the first lap.  Well, after a few more talks with the firm and submitting some requested writing samples, I was offered the job.  I was stunned, couldn’t believe it.  This was a job at a firm where I didn’t even think getting an interview would be possible!

So, bottom line, I hope others can take three things from this:

1) In most cases, the interview probably didn’t go as bad as you thought, firms understand the pressure you are under.  Do not be too hard on yourself.

2) All of the things our CPO stresses throughout your education --- believe them.  They stress almost at nausea to use the contacts you have - family, friends, previous employers, etc .- as networking can provide opportunities that normally might not be possible. 

3) Don’t discount yourself just because you might not be at the top of your class. GPA is important, no doubt - if mine was higher the struggles to find a job might not have been there.  But realize it is just a number and you graduated (or will graduate) from a top business school, and that is something in itself that will open a number of doors.

The most rewarding part of my job is hearing success stories, especially when they are hard-earned.  Early this week I received an email from a former student detailing his own job search - which involved a career change - and offered some practical advice to current Kelley students.  I asked him if I could share it with you. I think you’ll be as impressed as I was. Here it is:

Dear JR,

About two years ago I came and made an appointment with you to discuss career options for my extremely unusual situation.  I don't expect you to remember this meeting, as it was only about 45 minutes and we only met on one occasion.  However, I wanted to update you and let you know my personal experience so you may share with anyone who has "unusual" circumstances such as mine.

I was a returning adult student (I am 33) in the Kelley School of Business.
I had just returned to college full-time after working in retail management for 13 years.  The odd thing about my situation was that I was not returning to study management - I was doing a complete 180 degree turn in my career and studying Computer Information Systems (with absolutely no real-world experience in the field).  The reason I had come to you was to discuss what you thought I could do to get myself ready for the job search process (I came to you about a year before my expected graduation of December 2007).  In a nutshell, from that 45 minute talk, I deduced I would need to do a LOT of legwork on my end to get a job - the implication was the field I was looking to enter was not very "cookie cutter" and I would need to develop some specific skills to market in order to succeed . . .   You prepared me for the cold fact that my career path was going to require a lot of legwork on my part.

With your advice in tow, I talked to professors and business professionals to try to determine what sort of IT positions my management experience would benefit.  One specific example, during a project with Pratt Corporation, I took an opportunity to pull the Vice President of IT aside and get his opinion on my skills and the sort of position he thought I would be suited for.  I also scoured the internet to try to find common denominators among IT jobs on skills that I could attempt to hone.  This information led me to begin self-studying for a project management certification (which I received in November 2007).  In addition, I began to do a lot of work on my own developing small/useful programs in Visual Basic.net that I could put into a portfolio to show potential employers (as an example, I created an eBay sales invoicing program I used to track my sales in an Access database and generate invoices).

I graduated "with distinction" from Kelley in December 2007 and began the job-hunt full force.  My personal goal was to have a job by the middle/end of February.  I had numerous phone interviews but the thing that was getting in the way was I had zero experience in the IT field.  I worked with two separate placement firms - both of which were telling me I was only suited for a level I technical support position (answering phones).

While working with the placement firms . . . both were telling me to kind of sit back and let them do the searching - not a good idea.  Frustration was mounting because I knew that if I could just get into a company for a face-to-face interview I could convince them I was the person for ANY job.  I soon abandoned the placement firms and resumed the search on my own.  I re-worked my resume (because obviously something wasn't drawing interest) and plastered it everywhere.

I also sent off copies to all major companies in the area.  Then it happened....

One day I received a call to interview as a Technical Assistant for Frank DeLisle and Associates (a contractor at Eli Lilly who found my resume on Kelley Careers).  When the job was described to me I was interested, but not to the point I was overly excited.  I met with the owner, Frank, and he was impressed with me.  I showed him my portfolio of programs and explained in depth my computing knowledge and project management abilities.  After that long interview (at Starbucks near IUPUI) I was called back a few days later.  He told me he wanted to bring me into Eli Lilly for half a day of interviews - but not as a technical assistant - as a Data Systems Analyst!

I cannot begin to explain how excited I was - this is job I went back to school for.  Shortly after, I went through a series of four interviews at Lilly with various levels of management and was hired on as a Data Systems Analyst making [a very competitive salary].

My story is one that many good things can be learned from:

1)  Drastic career changes are possible and can have excellent outcomes.  I was making $38,000 after 13 years in retail - after getting my degree I just started my new job in March making [significantly more].

2)  I probably studied harder on learning the job market and what I needed to do to bolster my resume than I did in any college course.  I recommend spending a LOT of time looking at job postings for your projected career well before you start looking for a job.  This way you can see what skills are commonly requested in your field and do your best to gain those skills or learn as much as you can about them.  A lot of IT jobs want project management skills - so I got a certification in project management.
     
3)  You don't have to know a specific skill they need - but show you can learn it!  My job requires SAS programming experience.  I have ZERO experience but did a lot of research on it.  In the interviews I explained that I knew what it was, had viewed sample code, and would have no problem applying standard programming concepts to the language.  I also explained that I realized how easy it is to learn a language - what is harder is learning how to properly program...which is what I was taught at IUPUI.

4)  Know who is interviewing you!  I was being interviewed by the head of the Epidemiology department.  I had NO IDEA what this was so I researched it.  Sure enough, one of the first questions he asked me was what I knew about Epidemiology.  I was able to blow him away with my knowledge of epidemiology because I prepared ahead of time.

5)  Interview yourself over and over!  I used to interview myself all the time in the car - asking myself questions I thought could be asked.  I was amazed at how many times I caught myself saying things that would definitely not help in an interview.  By hearing it out loud it gave me that opportunity to learn how to answer commonly asked questions without shooting myself in the foot.  "What are your weaknesses?"  I definitely learned how to answer this question in a very positive way that helped my interview.

I am sure you hear stories like this all the time.  However, I am extremely proud of how my situation turned out and wanted to share with someone at the school that helped make it all possible.  Thank you for reading this...and I hope knowing of my experience may be able to help you with someone else in the future in a similar situation.

It can be hard to line up guest speakers for evening classes during the summer and it’s hard to blame anyone for turning down an invitation.  After all, how can you fault anyone who would rather take full advantage of evenings when it’s light and warm (when it’s not pouring rain, of course) until almost 10pm, especially after a full day’s work?  Well, using my mighty powers of persuasion (and some much appreciated help from Molly Chavers at IndyHub and Jill Margetts at Young Professional of Central Indiana), the CPO managed to bring in an A+ lineup of professionals for a 3-week series of Thursday evening panels that concluded last Thursday.  Students in X320 – Career Planning heard from three panels, each offering a distinct range of voices and advice regarding the job search, careers, professional development, and every other topic students had questions on.  I wish I could provide you a succint list of takeaways from the discussions, but I have learned after a few years in the field that each student comes away from these panels with a different perspective, depending on their attitude and individual situation coming in.  Instead of giving you a summary, I'll instead invite you to join us for a future panel discussion (dates will be posted on the CPO website). 

Check out the Summer 1 lineups: 

Recruiter Panel – Thursday,  May 22 (6:00 - 7:30 pm)
Rocki Howard – Allison Transmission
Cathleen Litz – That’s Good HR
Bob Zurface – LM Henderson & Company

Professional Panel – Thursday, May 29 (6:00 - 7:30 pm)
Alex Fritz – Blue and Co.
Laura Henderson – Baker Hill
Jennifer Kirchhofer - ExactTarget
Brad Litz - The Litz Group
David Nie – Ice Miller
Jamie Ratner – Morgan Stanley

MBA Panel – Thursday, June 5 (6:00 – 7:30 pm)
Faraz Abbasi – Centerfield Capital Partners
David Ernst – Vertellus Specialties
Troy Hedge – BioCrossroads

I actually recorded the first 2 panels with the intention of posting them on the Kelley website, but after hearing how openly and honestly our panelists discussed their own lives, it’s easy to see how they might not want everything they shared to be broadcast to the entire world.  However, based on the positive feedback from students and the panelists, we are hoping to make this panel series a regular fixture in all of our X320 classes.  Again, all students and alumni are welcome to attend, whether enrolled in a particular section of X320 or not.

Also, if you have anyone you’d like to recommend for future panels, please let me know as we will be sending out invitations for Fall and Spring in the coming weeks.  I will be blogging about community involvement and professional development in the coming weeks as well, but I would encourage you to check out IndyHub and Young Professionals of Central Indiana in the meantime.  They are both excellent organizations committed to providing networking, social, and professional development opportunities for all young professionals across the city – and you don’t have to wait until you finish your degree to start getting involved.

My friends and family always drive me crazy right about now.  The sun (at least today) is finally out, graduation was on Sunday, and everyone keeps telling my how lucky I am to have the summer off. 

The only thing is – I don’t have the summer off.

Believe it or not, summer is my busiest time of the year.  It’s quieter, for sure, with fewer students on-campus, but this is when I have the opportunity to dig in and get everything ready for the upcoming academic year.  I’m an idea guy, so during the year I’m constantly coming up with new ideas for increasing student involvement with the CPO, innovative programming, employer development strategies, etc.  The summer is my time to bring the best of these ideas to fruition.  Just off the top of my head, I’ve got a new class to plan for the Fall (which I’ll write about later), a whole new set of online interactive resources to evaluate, and a strategic plan for the Kelley Honors Program to develop.

At that same time, this means that my schedule is incredibly flexible, as I am in the office just about every day.  Summer is a great time to begin (or to continue) a career conversation.  Most Kelley Indianapolis students are taking at least one summer course, which means you are likely to be on-campus – why not come in and talk about your career when you are taking one or two courses rather than 12-18 credit hours in the Fall or Spring?  I’m happy to meet with you in the Fall when you have a 15 minute window somewhere between classes and work, but I’d prefer to have a little more time to get to know you as an individual. 

So take advantage of my open schedule (and the availability of the entire CPO staff) by stopping by this summer.  We have formal walk-in hours 5 days a week throughout the summer (9:00-11:00am and 2:00-4:00pm), though there is almost always someone available for an immediate conversation whenever you have time to pop in.  If you are only here for evening classes and would like to meet after 5pm, just send us an email and we can make arrangements for an evening meeting at your convenience. 

And I won’t take it personally if you’d prefer to meet with Tim, Sherry or Angie – I’ll even link you to their contact information.

Well, sort of. 

I would be four years too late if I thought I would be on the cutting edge by writing a blog about the popularity of the iPod, but everyone once in a while it still surprises me how ubiquitous those telltale white earphones really are.  I was in full procrastination mode on Sunday afternoon as I sat down at mo'joe Coffeehouse to write my own term paper for a Master’s course, so I concluded that an unofficial count of the percentage of people at mo'joe listening to their iPod was of the utmost importance.  The results: 70% - 14 of 20 – had those white earphones in, and another 4 were listening to some kind of portable music device.  My naked ears were certainly in the minority.

Aside from a brief respite from my paper - for which I could still use a little inspiration - my little research project was of particular interest because I am currently planning two career planning courses as an instructor and I’m very interested in incorporating multimedia into the curriculum.  My first idea was to give students the option of listening to select chapters from the audiobook of What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson for the weekly reading reflections.  If you have ever listened to an audiobook, you know that the reader makes all the difference in the world, so I hopped onto the iTunes music store to listen to a sample – and the book, which is an entertaining read – is read by the author who is so totally, unbelievably, surprisingly dull that I knew I had to at least explore a Plan B.  So I digitally dug around in the podcast section of the music store and stumbled upon an entire collection of career-related podcasts hidden in the business section.  Who knew?

Many of the podcasts are entertaining and some are genuinely thought provoking - and it is worth your time to explore - but I think it is fair to warn you that just because someone recorded a podcast and put it on iTunes does validate their advice.  Everyone thinks they have unlocked the secret to the job search or teach you everything you need to know about a career real estate investing through a 10-step program.  Be sure to take it all with a grain of salt.  So, while no one can complain about surfing through the iTunes music store at work, I’ve had to listen to parts of hundreds of podcast to find even a few to include as part of my upcoming courses. 

Just for fun, I do think you might be interested in seeing a quick overview of what iTunes has included in their Top Downloads:

#1) The Project Management Podcast, including Episode 92: Ten Things You Can Learn About Project Management From Britney Spears

#3) Climbing the Ladder by BusinessWeek, with a focus on navigating the workplace

#25) Strategy and the Fat Smoker, and odd title for sure, but a podcast series covering careers and whole lot more. Read by the engaging British author, David Maister

#26) The Cubicle Escape Podcast, which explores the process of starting a small business

#29) MBA Working Girl Podcast, which combines b-school school with real-world business practice for women and men

We all define the term career differently, so you might find the sixth rated (labeled explicit) podcast an interesting inclusion in careers section.  And did I mention that these are all free?

I’m a self-confessed business news junkie.  It started in my undergrad days at Notre Dame when a group of friends and I used to print out archived copies of the Chicago Sun-Times crosswords puzzles to keep us occupied in some of our – shall we say, less exciting – courses.  After a semester we had exhausted the entire archive and, fortuitously, that’s when they started offering the Wall Street Journal free of charge throughout the business building.  Back in my day – which wasn’t even that long ago – the only way to read the news in class was by reading the paper itself.  It was an acquired skill, but after a couple of embarrassing moments, I quickly learned how to silently flip through pages in the back of the classroom – mind you, there was no Facebook and you would never be allowed to prop open a laptop during class.

While none of my professors – and certainly not yours – would have been too happy to find a student reading the paper in class – even if it was the WSJ – knowing what was going in the business world was essential in landing my first job as a financial analyst.  The first two questions I was ever asked were, “What impact will the terrorists attacks (9/11 was less than a month prior to my interview) on the economy?” and “If you were the President, how would you respond?”  It was my decisive response to this final question, not necessarily the answer itself, that I later learned landed me the job.

If you are business major, you’ve got to be aware of what’s making headlines in the business world.  The truth is that what’s going on in the business world is just as interesting – in my opinion, even more so – than anything in the world of television and entertainment.  Just look at the recent and ongoing story of the Bear Stearns collapse.  It’s a fascinating story on multiple levels.  You have:

    An 85-year old pillar of Wall Street essentially wiped out over the course of a week.
The government (your government) pledging $30B (yes, that is a B) of your money to secure risky loans.
    JPMorgan Chase buying a stock that was valued at $34 on March 14 and as high as $159 over the past 52 weeks for $2 (now $10) a share. 
    Several individual investors losing hundreds of millions of dollars
    Widely divergent opinions among analysts and the public, from “They saved the financial markets from collapse” to “We should have let them go bankrupt.  Those greedy b******s got what they deserved.”
This story examines some of the potential ramifincations of the recent turmoil in the financial markets: http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/17/magazines/fortune/investing/Tully_WallStIsBroken.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008031718

What happens on Wall Street in not confined to Wall Street.  The impact of the mortgage crisis and its ever-expanding fall out will hit just about every business, large or small.  Many will be hurt, some will benefit, and the more you know, the better you can position yourself as the candidate (or current employee) who can recognize opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis, anyone?) and help an organization navigate the changing economy.  And you are likely to be entertained.

I just wrapped up what I consider to be a very successful meeting with the President of the Indiana University Indianapolis (IUI) Accounting Club.  A couple of weeks ago he sent me an email asking if I would be willing to give a presentation covering the nuances of the accounting recruiting process, with an emphasis on finding internship opportunities and navigating the application and interview process.  This meeting was our planning session for the April 7 presentation.

I bring this up because I’m well aware of the fact that there many current and/or prospective students aren’t aware of the breadth of services available through their school’s career services office.  We give hundreds of presentations a year, speak at every orientation and dozens of recruiting events, but if you’re not ready to think about planning your career, finding a job, or advancing in your current position at the time, the message can get lost.  It’s worth noting – however many times are necessary – that our staff can help with everything from revising your resume to changing careers to customizing a presentation for a student organization.

So what I’m saying is that when you need (or want) something – just ask us!  It’s that simple.  You’d be surprised at the range of topics we can cover - and if the CPO can’t address your needs or the needs of your organization, we can help find someone who can.  We can also customize any presentation or develop a new one from scratch to meet the needs of any student or professional organization – all we need is a little information – and to be asked.

On a side note, check out the initial email I received from the IUI Accounting Club President inquiring about a presentation. Not only is this an excellent template for requesting a speaker from within the university, but it’s perfect for recruiting an external speaker – say, a local executive.  On an individual level, you could use this as a framework for crafting a personalized email request for an informational interview.  It’s professional, personalized, and gives the recipient enough information to respond intelligently.  Use it as a guide and you can expect to receive excellent – and prompt – responses.

*And you are, of course, welcome to attend the April 7 presentation – especially current and prospective Accounting majors*

-----------

JR,

The IUI Accounting Association was wondering if you would be interested in being a guest speaker at our April club meeting at IUPUI.  Many of our club members have expressed an interest in learning more about accounting internships.  Specifically, our members would like to get insightful tips on how to prepare and attain internships, the “do’s and don’ts,” and what to expect.  Naturally, we thought of you as our first contact.

The April meeting is tentatively scheduled to take place on Monday, April 7, 2008 during 4:30-5:30pm at the new Campus Center in room CE 305. This room is reserved from 4:00-6:00pm so there is plenty of time to setup for the presentation.  In addition, we have the media podium reserved (i.e., PC, DVD, Projector, Screen) in case you have a PowerPoint presentation.  You would have the majority of this time (i.e., 45 plus minutes) to give your presentation.

Moreover, I wanted to give you a little background information on our members/meetings. Our meetings are open to all the entire student body and we generally have a good turnout. Many of our members attend to learn about opportunities available to them with the major they are pursuing. In addition, the club tries to give students an informal, relaxed atmosphere for students to network and meet with accounting professionals. Hence, this is really our club's main function--to help students become aware of accounting opportunities and reach their career aspiration.  Therefore, any advice or experiences you can share with our members on ways to succeed as an accountant will be very much appreciated.

As Kelley Indianapolis prepares to launch a new version of its website and the BizBlog, the Career Placement Office has decided to diversify into digital content.  Over the course of the Spring semester and into next year, you’ll find a series of podcasts and online workshops that address career-related issues in a manner tailored to the needs of Kelley Indianapolis students and alumni. 

As anyone who has ever asked for career advice knows, there is rarely a clear cut, right or wrong approach and everyone - literally - has an opinion.  Acknowledging that there is no such thing as a one-size fits all approach to career coaching, one of our regular podcasts will address a series of commonly asked questions and instead of hearing only one answer, you’ll hear the advice of multiple members of the Career Placement Office staff.  Sometimes you’ll find that all of us agree while other times we will offer differing strategies, approaches, and advice.  It’ll give you the chance to select the advice that best fits your situation and personality.  So if you have a question, please submit it in the comments section or send us an email at ksbcpo@iupui.edu.  

Here’s a sneak peak at what you’ll find when the new website launches in February.

1) A KelleyCareers Quick Tip: Tough Interview Questions

2) A KelleyCareers Quick Tip: Cover Letter Conundrums

3) A KelleyCareers Conversation: Informational Interviews

Let me know how we can improve future podcasts and leave me any comments you have on suggestions for future topics.  Don’t be shy - I can handle some criticism (at least a little better than OSU Football Coach Mike Gundy).

A guest blog by: Sherry Zike, Career Counselor, CPO

Traditionally, the end of the year is the time to take stock of yourself and make resolutions for better behavior in the new year. Self-assessment should be a continuous process, but with school, work, and family concerns, few of us have the time to give it the attention that it deserves. With that in mind, I have some ideas for clearing your mind, evaluating your progress, and planning your next steps-not only in career development, but all areas of your life.

Network

Touch base with your family and friends and talk about lifestyle and career choices. Listen to the stories that people tell about their work environments and the choices that they have made. There is much to be learned about the world of work from those who have been in it for a long time. Ask questions. Most people love to talk about themselves and their jobs. Get some opinions about plans that you have. These are the people who know you best.

Research

What jobs and work environments are available in your major? A little online research can provide a wealth of information. Use Google, www.myplan.com, and Vault . Using the same principal as above, do informational interviews with people who are doing the jobs in which you are interested. People love to talk about their work.

Read

It’s old-fashioned, but effective. There are so many authors who have been where you are and want to share their stories. Some that I can recommend are:

Make a List of Next Steps

In the chaos of everyday living, this can be a great way to check up on your progress. Have you contacted all of the people to whom you have been referred? Have you done all of the follow-up on resumes that you sent out? Do you have a list of all of the people you know and where they work? Have you talked with them? Have you visited the Career Placement Office and spoken with a career counselor?

Rest and Relaxation

Get lots of sleep. Have some fun. Do nothing occasionally. It can be amazing how many good ideas are lurking in your head that need a chance to come out!

One of the worst enemies in the job search is timidity.  In the midst of a 24/7 barrage of communication - text messaging, IM, email, and the ever-present Blackberry - I have found that students and professionals alike can find millions of creative excuses for not calling or emailing casual contacts or acquaintances about job opportunities.  The most frequent excuses I hear are, “I don’t really know them that well,” and, “I don’t want to seem pushy or annoying.”  In my humble opinion, that’s mostly BS.  They are simply excuses for not doing something that may be uncomfortable and could lead to rejection. 

Get over it!  It’s true that over 80% of jobs are found through networking, but networking does not mean just your friends and relatives.  In fact, research has shown that weaker ties (i.e. friends of friends) are the most likely to help you in your job search.  There is a war for talent raging in the marketplace and anyone involved in recruiting or hiring will tell you that they are always on the lookout for potential hires.  Make it easy on them – give them a call or an email (but avoid the text messages if you can) and let them know you are looking.  How else will they know???

I’ll give you an excellent example.  A good friend of mine at the university decided that it was time for her to start exploring external opportunities, but was turned off by the impersonal nature of online job boards and company websites.  She was in a position where she worked with a number of private companies in the Indianapolis area, and one in particular, that she was interested in working for.  She was nervous about emailing one of her contacts about a possible position – after all, what would she do if he blew her off and she had to work with him again?  And she had only met him one time, for an hour.  But she took a deep breath, calmed her nerves, and typed out a very professional, but direct, email asking about a potential position.

What happened?  He invited her out to lunch that Friday to talk about the position – and then told her that they had just made an offer to someone else!  Ouch – talk about a letdown. 

However, they had a great conversation anyway and, unexpectedly, she got a call the next Wednesday asking if she could come in that Friday for an interview.  It turns out that the first candidate had accepted an offer somewhere else.  They were prepared to offer their backup candidate an offer, but after reviewing her resume decided to bring her in for a last minute interview – and she nailed it.  

The next week she was the one who got the offer and is now enjoying her third week on the job – with a healthy raise, better co-workers, and a ton of confidence.  All because she took a chance are reached out to someone she has worked with only once before.  It wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t put herself out there.

• The groups arrived and had lunch together, and heard a few words from Krannert’s Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research, Diane Denis.

• The students received the case around 2pm and headed back to their hotels.

  About the case: This year’s case centered on the $1.75 billion acquisition of IBM's PC division by Lenovo, China's largest PC maker, which was announced in December 2004. At the heart of the case was how Lenovo should proceed in developing and executing a marketing/branding strategy for its ThinkPad and Lenovo 3000 computer lines.  Read the full case here.

• They spent the next 12-18 hours sequestered in a hotel room - with a month’s worth of Red Bull and water - analyzing the case and putting together a PowerPoint presentation.
• The next day the 4 Kelley teams and the 4 Krannert teams were divided into separate classrooms in Purdue’s beautiful new Rawls Hall.  Each group gave a 20 minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of tough Q&A from a panel of judges with extensive experience in business and industry.
• The top 3 teams were selected to present again in the final round of competition in front of the combined panel of judges, advisors and fellow students.

Kelley Indianapolis students now have full (and free) access to Vault's extensive, amazing, incredible, magnificient collection of career and industry research tools.  Think I might be exaggerating how much quality information you can find?  Check out what's available with just a few clicks through the IUPUI website:

Career Profiles

Read about job descriptions, job titles, Uppers & Downers and Personality Matches & Misses for 53 careers including Management Consultant, Human Resources Assistant, Investment Banker and Accountant, just to name a few. 

Not so interested in traditional business fields?  Not a problem.  Check out what I do (Career Counselor), your instructors do (College Professor) or something out the blue (Chef, Art Dealer, Freelance Writer, etc.).

Industry Research

Like your major but not sure exactly what you want to do?  Vault’s industry research section identifies the most common careers/positions in 40 top industries.  For the business-minded, these include Accounting, Advertising, Financial Services, Human Resources, Supply Chain Management and many more.

Vault Guides

The Vault Guides are the real treasure.  You’ve probably see them before in any number of bookstores – Borders, Barnes & Noble, or my personal favorite Half-Priced Books (love that store!).  They have bright covers, range from 125-500 pages and cost around $30 - only now they are free (if you are an IUPUI student, that is).  

The 90+ guides are divided into 5 categories:

1) Interview/Resume Guides: Case Interviews, Finance Interviews & more

2) Career Topic Guides: Top Internships, Schmoozing, International Careers & more

3) Industry Career Guides: Accounting, Capitol Hill, Consulting, Environmental Careers, HR, Investments, Marketing, Real Estate, Venture Capital & more (33 in total)

4) Industry Employer Guides: Profiles of the top employers in 22 industries.

5) Employer Profiles: In-depth profiles of 30 top companies.

The most important part of the job search is research – and there is no close second.  While the Career Placement Office is a great place to start, it’s certainly not your only source for information.  We are an excellent resource, of course, but we are not human encyclopedias.  I can’t list the top employers in every field or adequately explain, in the amount detail you’d probably like, every one of the career paths you can take as an HR major.  But I can point you in the direction of some valuable resources so that you don’t have to spend countless hours searching through the vast Google universe – and Vault is at the top of my recommendation list. 

Directions on accessing Vault via the IUPUI Library:

1) Go to www.ulib.iupui.edu

2) Select Research – Find Articles – Article Databases A-Z

3) Click ‘V’ and link to the Vault Online Career Library

4) Explore the site

Let’s be honest - etiquette is mostly common sense.  You don’t chew with your mouth open, say please and thank you, return phone calls in a timely manner, etc.  These are basic things most students and professionals are expected to know.  The problem is, like it or not, there is a startling deficit of common sense in the world.  And the lack of common sense – and etiquette – is readily apparent in business and industry.  What does this mean for you as a business student or professional?  It means that practicing some everyday etiquette will set you apart from your colleagues and give your career a boost (it does help to be good at your job, too).

Business etiquette is a timely subject as the Fall recruiting season kicks into high gear.  Yesterday was the annual Career Placement Office Etiquette Luncheon.  It’s a fantastic event with a genuine English butler and a four course meal here on campus.  Students had the opportunity to sit at tables and learn about etiquette alongside representatives from Slattery & Holman, Simon Property Group, Somerset CPAs, Brightpoint, Cummins, Gilchrist & Soames, Target, Ace Holding Company, Blue & Company, BKD, Ameriprise Financial and Aldering & Company.  That’s an impressive list, in addition to the fact that the entire lunch was free for students.  It’s no wonder we pack the room with 100+ students each year. Our next etiquette related event is part of the CPO's growing Issues in the Workplace series. 

While yesterday’s luncheon focused on etiquette at the dinner table and formal social functions, it’s the everyday etiquette (or lack thereof) that gets noticed on a daily basis.  Here are 3 quick examples of workplace etiquette that regularly trip people up:

1) Email signatures.  If you have never worked in a corporate environment, this may not seem like an issue, but if you have, you know exactly what I mean.  All I really need to know is who sent the email, what company you work for, your position/title and a way to get in touch with you.  No inspirational quotes or personalized graphic are necessary.  The worst offenders: smiley faces (emoticons).  It’s always best to err on the side of professionalism and nothing screams unprofessional like a bright yellow smiley face.  Check out this Wall Street Journal article on the rise of what the author call “MeMail” and some examples of signatures gone awry:

2) Cell phones.  Cell phones are great - I can’t imagine leaving home without my Treo - but they have an off button for a reason.  When you are headed into a meeting, whether it’s with the board of directors or to discuss plans for the holiday party with two of your colleagues, turn off your cell phone.  In all honesty (excluding those individuals who use their phone all day every day for business purposes), how many phone calls are truly urgent?  A loud ringer going off in the middle of a meeting shows a lack of respect for others in the room, answering the call is worse, and having a conversation (though it happens) is the worst!  Would you believe that we have had students answer their cell phones during job interviews here in the office?  That’s right, students – meaning more than one.

3) Personal conversations.  A topic closely related to cell phones is personal conversations in a work environment.  Granted, it is impossible to completely avoid personal conversations considering the amount of time most of us spend in the office, but anyone who has ever had to work in a cubicle or shared office environment has a story of a neighbor who’s content to share her half of every phone conversation with the rest of the office.  While your cousin’s love life may be a soap opera worthy of a prime-time reality show on E!, remember that your co-workers don’t have the option of changing the channel.

Just know that others do notice these behaviors.  Your colleagues and supervisors notice them.  Your professors notice them.  And if you use some common sense and practice some etiquette, know that this will be recognized as well - and it’ll likely pay off in the long run. 

I don’t have any statistics to back me up, but I think it’s safe to say that most students (and alumni, for that matter) cringe when they find out they need to put together or update their resume.  While nobody really likes to work on their resume, it is still the most important document in the job search.  And when you consider the amount of time and money many organizations have spent developing sophisticated applicant tracking systems based on resumes, they look to remain essential for the foreseeable future.

One of the worst ways to build a resume is using a template available in Microsoft Word.  Microsoft is great at a lot of things, but resumes are not on the list.  These templates use unfriendly fonts in all sorts of sizes, are incredibly inflexible and difficult to edit, and have the look of a hastily thrown together document.  And the majority of resumes I have seen over the last year, despite my constant pleading to the contrary – ARE MICROSOFT WORD TEMPLATES!

So I set out to find a solution to this problem this summer and found OptimalResume, which is now officially up and running for all Kelley Indianapolis undergraduate and MPA students* (I am still working on fully customizing the software package).  OptimalResume is an online resume-builder that walks you through every step of the process, complete with suggested keywords and phrases, section titles and layouts, and overall resume formatting.  The software is web-based, so you can use it anywhere and at any time.  No more starting off by staring at a blank screen and wondering where in the world to begin.

Some of the features you can take full advantage of include:

• Alerting the Career Placement Office that you would like to have your resume reviewed and receiving your feedback online

• Publishing your resume as a webpage, so that you can simply email a link to potential employers or networking contacts

• Creating and storing unlimited versions of your resume

Access to OptimalResume is free to current Kelley undergraduate and MPA students*.  Kelley Indianapolis alumni can access the system for $25, payable to the Career Placement Office.  You’ll find the link to OptimalResume on the Student Resources page of the recently updated CPO website.

Once you’ve used the software, please let me know what you think.  Your opinions will help guide our future selections of student resources.

*MPA students must register with the CPO prior to creating an OptimalResume account.

About nine months ago I made a fateful decision – it was time to upgrade to an HDTV.  For years I had lived with a 20-inch RCA TV/DVD combo, which seemed sad for a guy in his 20’s.  I could never get anyone to come over for a game and, though my fiancé and I love movies, it’s hard to get excited watching a 2-inch version of Tom Cruise as Maverick or Cole Trickle ("Days of Thunder", remember? - Tom wasn’t always a crazy tabloid headliner more famous for his marriage and his baby than his movies, you know).  After some surprisingly easy negotiations with my future wife, we settled on a 50-in plasma with a built-in DVR, which is every bit as excellent as you would expect.  And that leads us to the point of this post:

Summer is, hands-down, the worst time of the year for television, HDTV or not.  Granted, there a few gems out there ("The 4400" – not in HD, for some absurd reason), but most of our favorites (“How I Met Your Mother”,  “The Office” and the always classic “Law & Order: SVU”) are on perpetual reruns.  The poor DVR has set virtually empty until last week when I discovered a new show – “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” on CNBC.  It’s a nightly talk show that focuses on new ideas, innovative products and entrepreneurship – which makes it a must watch (though maybe not on a nightly basis) for anyone with dreams of running a business or owning their own business, which, if my conversation with incoming freshman are any indication, include more and more Kelley Indianapolis students each year.

If you truly are interested in learning how to own and grow your future business, you could do worse than to supplement what you’ll learn in the classroom by listening to frank conversations with other successful entrepreneurs.  And the host of the show isn’t just one of the random guys you see when you guiltily watch VH1’s "Best Week Ever".  He just so happens to be the Chairman of Deutsch, Inc., one of the nations’ top 10 advertising agencies.  Check out his bio and then check out the show:

As Chairman of Deutsch Inc., Donny Deutsch implemented his "leaner, meaner, faster, smarter" philosophy to transform a small advertising shop into one of the nation’s top 10 agencies. The $2.8 billion full-service agency has provided clients with strategic marketing programs that are intrusive, effective and talked about. Prestigious clients include GM, Johnson & Johnson, DirecTV, Novartis Worldwide, and IKEA.

I’m a fairly young guy, and I’m as big a fan as anyone of today’s technological advances (though it looks like I might have jumped the gun a little early in electing to go with a Treo over iPhone, even though the iPhone is absurdly expensive).  That said, I arrived later than most to the blogging party.  Not only is this my first (and probably my only) regular blog, I hadn’t read a single blog before writing for Kelley.  However, once I started blogging, I started to check out what everyone else was up to and I’ve found that there is an incredible amount of information out there on just about every topic – including careers.

A quick Google search of the term ‘career blogs’ turns up 105,000,000+ results. That's where I started – and I clicked through hundreds of alternately boring, preachy, stale, inaccurate, and defunct blogs before I somehow found the 2 bloggers that I’d like to recommend you check out: Penelope Trunk and Jason Warner. 

The blogs written by Penelope and Jason have fresh takes on a variety of career-related issues and offer a steady flow of candid, easy-to-implement advice.  They have a sense of humor and provide some valuable insight into the myriad of issues nearly everyone is likely to encounter when job searching and/or advancing their career in today’s economy. 

It also just so happens that both are fairly accomplished in their day jobs:  Jason has recruited for Microsoft, CSC Consulting, Starbucks, and is now the head of staffing for Online Sales and Operations at Google.  Penelope is a career columnist at the Boston Globe and Yahoo Finance. Her syndicated column has run in more than 200 publications.  She is also the author of the book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, which I haven’t read yet, but I did have the office place an order for it last week (yes, these are the perks I get to look forward to working at a university).

Take a half-hour or so and read through some of their postings and I anticipate that you’ll come away impressed.  Let me know.

I am in front of the computer for a good portion of everyday, which means that information on everything from sports (fantasy football is just around the corner – don’t get me started on my playoff flameout last year) to business is only a click or two away.  But I get tired of staring at the screen all day, so I make a habit of keeping up-to-date on business news and trends the old fashioned way – by reading the newspaper.  My two papers of choice are the venerable Wall Street Journal and the Indianapolis Business Journal.  

Keeping up with what’s going on in the business community is essential for anyone – prospective and current students, professors, working professionals, even career counselors – associated with the Kelley School of Business.  And there is no better (or easier) way to keep current than by regularly picking up a copy of the WSJ or IBJ (or by checking out their respective websites if you can’t stand getting a little ink on your hands).

Plus, you get some insight into some incredibly interesting (if a little disturbing) local business news.  Check out these two stories that have unfolded in our fair city over the past month (excerpts from the IBJ) – both of them read like poorly written Lifetime miniseries:

1) Affairs likely behind ouster: WellPoint CFO's private life exposed by lawsuit, movie-rights deal. 
J.K. Wall - jwall@ibj.com

In this era of hyper-scrutiny of corporate ethics, even messy personal lives can fell the career of a "well-loved and well-respected" executive. Such appears to be the case with David C. Colby, whom WellPoint Inc. forced to resign as its vice chairman and chief financial officer on May 30 for violating the company's code of conduct in a "non-business" way.

Details seeping out since then suggest Colby was maintaining extramarital affairs, at least one of which had overlapped with his work life and was on the cusp of bursting into public view.

One woman in California was living in a house he owns and using his last name. Another woman in Indianapolis was doing the same. Colby, 53, is married but has had a divorce pending for three years.  Go to www.ibj.com and seach the title for the complete article

2) Fight puts print firm on spot:  Harding Poorman Group plans changes after incident between CEO, secretary
Cory Schouten – cschouten@ibj.com

A local printing powerhouse is trying to regain the confidence of its employees and customers after the CEO and his secretary were involved in a profanity-laced physical altercation at work.

Interviews with the involved parties and a police report seem to agree on several points:
Cries of “Help!” and “Call 911” came from the office of Harding Poorman Group CEO David Harding on the afternoon of May 18. The screaming was Harding’s secretary of two years, Susan Blair. The pair had argued in the office before, but this time it turned physical.

Hearing the screams, fellow employees rushed to the CEO’s locked door. One employee went outside and, looking through a window, saw Harding standing over Blair, holding her down. He was trying to retrieve his cell phone, which she had hidden in her pants.  Go to www.ibj.com and seach the title for the complete article

If you are already a student at Kelley Indianapolis, or are thinking of coming to school here, one of the primary reasons you are probably considering the campus is for one of the same reason that I chose to come to work here – our location in the heart of downtown Indianapolis.  And there is no better place to be right now than downtown Indy - especially in the summer! 

Not only is Indianapolis the economic center of the state – meaning hundreds of year-round opportunities for internships, job shadowing and research, not to mention professional job opportunites – it is the entertainment capital as well.  I’m the biggest proponent there is – I live, work, and play almost exclusively downtown (check out the award-winning revitalization in my Fall Creek Place neighborhood).

Here are the before and after pics of my house - it used to be a center of drug-related activity.  The transformation is almost unbelieveable:

If a pink house right on the corner isn't quite up your alley, there are an incredible number of more modern developments underway, all of which speak volumes about the growing Indianapolis economy.  And I'll be the 1st to encourage anyone and everyone to take the urban plunge (even if there is only one good grocery store).

DeSoto Condos

Lockerbie Park

Market Center (including a Target - proposed)

The Towers on Market (proposed)

The Maxwell

Meridian Arch Condos

Athletic Club Condos

Sunday’s graduation was the first graduation ceremony I have participated in as a member of the Kelley School of Business staff.  The entire auditorium at the Convention Center was packed not only with the graduates, but with parents, friends, grandparents, and Kelley faculty and staff member celebrating the graduates’ achievements.  It is no small feat to leave this school with a Kelley diploma and it was incredibly gratifying for me to share this moment with so many students that I have had the privilege to work with during their time on campus.

And of course, it was Mother’s Day – my own mom had to wait for a Mother’s Day dinner as opposed to our traditional family breakfast – but I cannot imagine a better way for the moms in the audience to spend Mother’s Day than to see their children walk on stage and have their diploma hand-delivered by the Dean.  (In the interest of full disclosure, students do not actually receive their diploma on stage.  It is purely ceremonial - the diploma cases are empty and just given out so that there are some picture worthy moments on graduation day.  The diplomas themselves are mailed out three months after the students have been officially certified for graduation.  Now you know the full story) 

Below is a great graduation story.  It’s a high school graduation story, but still both funny and applicable.  It was written by Rabbi Marc Gellmann in 2005 in his online column for Newsweek.  You can find the full article here (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8318170/site/newsweek/)

The Naked Graduate (an excerpt)

During graduation ceremonies seven years ago this week at a small private high school in Vermont, each of the 14 seniors was given a chance to address the assembled guests and speak for a few minutes on a topic of their choice.  Most of the graduates chose the conventional topics of what they remembered most about high school, their plans for the future, and the obligatory litany of thanks to family, teachers and friends.  A few of them even thanked God.  This was before the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional for anyone to invoke God's name for anything at any time during a graduation ceremony unless of course somebody sneezes.

One of the graduates, a young woman whom we shall call Molly Smith, began her speech. At its beginning, Molly's speech was just like all the others. She spoke of how the school had challenged and inspired her individuality, and then, as she explained later, in her attempt to express the spirituality of her graduation, Molly tossed down her mortorboard, slipped out of her white graduation robe and completed her speech about truth, wisdom, confidence and the road less traveled—stark naked.  Even though they were in Vermont, the audience of 200 went wild; then the local media went wild; and then the national media went wild. Molly was even invited to appear on the David Letterman show.

Bob told me that nearly every resident of his small Vermont town got a call from one of those tabloid TV shows asking them if they knew of anyone who had a photograph or a videotape of Molly Smith giving her speech naked.  There was one, and only one.  Apparently when Molly dropped her robe everyone was so shocked that they did not even think of taking a picture, except for a man named Jay Cavallaro. Jay was the professional videographer who had been hired by the school to record the graduation ceremony, and so he had the whole naked truth on high-quality professional videotape. He quickly became a very popular guy.

Let me tell you what Bob told me about Jay.  He had just opened up his video-production services company.  He was in debt, married and anxious to start a family, but he couldn't because he had no money and his wife needed some surgery.  Then, suddenly the tabloids were competing to buy the tape and the offering price soared to $100,000.  Jay was looking at manna from heaven.  It was, after all, a public event, and Molly had made absolutely no attempt to hide—anything.  It was a windfall and just the moment Jay Cavallaro needed some wind.  And this is what Jay did: he turned down all the offers—all of them.  He just said no.  Jay later explained the reason.  He said, “It wouldn't have been right.”  That was that.  It just wouldn't have been right.

So, to the class of 2005 I say—make two lists for yourselves.  The first list is the list of the things you will do for money.  The second list is the list of things you will not do for money because it wouldn't be right.  Then, throw away the first list, keep the second list with you at all times and go live your life.  Everything else is a cinch.  Just ask Jay.

One of the highlights of my job is working with students in the Kelley School of Business Honors Program.  The 11 students graduating with Honors this May have been the most recognized group of Honors graduates in the history of Kelley Indianapolis.  They have studied abroad, been named multiple times to the list of IUPUI Top 100 and Top 10 students,  had amazing internship experiences, and many are ready to begin enviable jobs when they graduate in less than a month.

On Sunday evening, April 22, the Kelley Honors Program, in conjunction with the IUPUI Honors Program, held a recognition dinner for the Honors graduates, their friends, and their families.  This was the first year that Kelley students have been invited to this ceremony and, of course, they stole the show.  Here they are:

From left to right:  Nodira Issamiddinova, Branden Harbin, Jaime Nieto Jimenez, Kim Donahue (Honors faculty), Drew Boyd, Alam Crumly, Amy Wright, and Danielle DeNise. 

Students unable to attend included: Wendy Hoffman, Jayna Kadel, Juliana Mattheis, and Tisha Talley.

The Kelley Honors Program has grown from a graduating class of less than 10 students two years ago into a program that now accepts a select group of 30 high-achieving Kelley students each Fall.  Much of the credit for this growth can be directly attributed to this group of students - Thank you.

If you are a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal, IBJ, Indianapolis Star or any of the dozens of other magazines and newspapers dedicated to business, it is hard not to feel a little discouraged at times.  It seems that every day at least one company announces the need to restate earnings due to accounting errors or another high profile executive is caught in the stock options backdating scandal.  Colleges and universities have not been able to escape the limelight either, with several of the country's most well know institutions having engaged in what appear to be, at the very least, questionable practices regarding student loans.  Imagine my surprise when I read that Notre Dame, my alma mater, was swept up in the student loan probe. 

I'm not as cynical as the previous paragraph may suggest, but I do believe that these issues highlight how important it is, even 5+ years after the Enron debacle, for every individual to understand the important role ethics occupy in the workplace.  Most of us can confidently say that we have a set of beliefs and follow our own set of moral and ethical guidelines in our personal lives, but what about when we are at work.  Do the same standards apply or are we a little more lax in our application of ethical standards?

Yesterday the Career Placement Office offered its 3rd workshop in our Issues in the Workplace Series (webasts of previous workshops).  Jackie Smith, the Network Privacy & Compliance Officer for Community Health Network, led an incredibly interactive and thought-provoking workshop entitled Ethics in Business.

Here is one of the many scenarios we discussed for you to consider:

Scenario: You are going on your first business trip for your company.  This is a 2 week engagement.  You decide to go out to dinner at Ruths' Chris (I would choose St. Elmo's, but it's not my scenario).  It is more expensive than what you would normally pay for dinner.  Should you charge it to your expense account?

Additional information: It is your last night and you are taking a client out to dinner.  How expensive of a restaurant should you select?  Is Ruths' Chris too much?  Do you charge both meals to your account?

Even more additional info: The client makes references to attending a strip club after dinner.  What do you do?

Most of us face these types of ethical dilemmas, or even smaller ones at work.  Very few of us are in the position to decide how to account for $12,000,000 in stock options.  Instead we wonder how we should feel about ourselves or colleagues taking home a few office supplies or surfing the internet at work.  The important thing is that we at least spend some time thinking about how we apply our ethics in the workplace. 

Jackie suggested that when confronted with an ethical dilemma in the workplace you should begin by asking yourself the following questions to determine if you are on thin ice:

• What would this look like in the newspaper?
• What would I tell my child to do?
• Will I sleep soundly tonight?
• How would I feel if my family and friends knew what I was doing?
• Am I being fair and honest?
• If you are still unsure, seek guidance from someone whom you trust and respect.

My blog is up a little late this time (and will be a little shorter than usual) simply because my schedule has been as packed as it has ever been over the past month. 

Why? It's getting closer and closer to the end of another academic year, which is, without fail, the busiest, most exhausting, and most fun time of the year for me.  There is never a dull moment around the office - just check out a small sampling of events from my calendar over during March and April and you'll see what I mean:

Everyday – All Day (almost)
Individual career counseling appointments

Sometimes it feels like I see more students in the last two months of the year than I do in the previous 8 months combined.  I've already met with dozens of students looking for help finding summer internships or looking to line up a job prior to graduation - and I expect to see dozens more during April. 

Tuesday April 3rd – 1:30-2:30
IUPUI Internship Council Meeting

Every month I meet with faculty and staff throughout the IUPUI campus who coordinate internship opportunities.  Some of the recent projects we have taken on have included planning and carrying out the 2007 IUPUI Intern Connections Fair and developing an employer guide that will help external organizations navigate the maze of IUPUI schools and departments.

Monday April 9th - 10:30-11:45; 1:30-2:45; and 3:00-4:15
Interactive Interview Presentation for X204 - Business Communications course

I will actually be in Kelley classrooms on a regular basis over the next month (along with the rest of the CPO) giving activity-based presentations on resumes and interviewing.

Thursday April 12th – 11:30-1:30
Employer visit to Brightpoint

I will be meeting with members of Brightpoint’s recruiting staff to discuss setting up a rotational internship program within their Finance department.  Additionally, there are over 150 jobs and internships posted on KelleyCareers - and I am constantly on the phone, emailing and visiting with employers interested in recruiting Kelley Indianapolis students.

Thursday March 1st and Thursday March 29th – 4:00-6:00
Finance Meet the Recruiter & Management/Marketing/Human Resources Meet the Recruiter events

During the month of March the CPO put on two on-campus job fairs as well as coordinating several on-campus interview sessions for companies hiring Kelley Indianapolis students   Finance Meet the Recruiter Event and the Management/Marketing/HR Meet the Recruiter Event.  There were over 50 employers on-campus recruiting for internship and full-time positions - and there were 100 students at the Finance event alone.

And today we just scheduled our 2007 summer retreat so that we can get a head start on next year!

While it may be true that universities don’t pay the best, they certainly encourage and support your professional development I am currently a member of at least five career services-related professional association and others outside of, but related to, the field

Check out this list of acronyms:

NACE – National Association of Colleges and Employers

MwACE – Midwest Association of Colleges and Employers

CDPI – Career Development Professionals of Indiana University

ICICE – Indiana Council of Internships of Cooperative Education

MCEIA – Midwest Cooperative Education and Internship Association

ChamberAction (not really an acronym, I know) – Volunteer arm of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce

Why do I belong to so many organizations?  To keep up with the newest trends and advancement in delivering career services to college students – so that the CPO can deliver the high level of careers services that you expect (and deserve).

So what the topic du-jour among career service professions? It’s the impact of Google and social networking sites (MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), on the job search.Do employers Google candidates – Yes.  Do they search profiles on MySpace and Facebook – Sometimes.  In a New York Times article over the summer a marketing manager at Microsoft said of researching candidates through social networking sites, “It’s becoming very much a common tool. For the first time ever, you suddenly have very public information about almost any candidate.”

What does this mean to you as a potential candidate? It simply means that you should be conscious of your internet presence. One step is to remove anything that may be construed as a negative by a potential employer. If you have inappropriate photos or references to questionable behavior, you should probably remove them. You also elect to set you privacy setting to the highest levels (though this is not fool-proof). Think about all of the illegal topics for an employer to bring up in an interview or when considering whether or not to interview a candidate:

•           age
•           arrest record
•           children
•           citizenship
•           financial status
•           disabilities
•           marital status
•           race/color/national origin
•           religion
•           sexual orientation
•           and the list continues…..

If this information is out on the web, suddenly it is public info. A company cannot technically use this information in their decision-making – but who’s to say they won’t?

A more positive way for you to look at this trend is to view it as an opportunity to begin building a positive internet presence on the web. If you are involved with an organization, get your name on its website. Let those of us at Kelley know what you are doing and we can profile you on the Kelley website. Start a blog and write about what you are doing, your career goals, etc. Or start a website of your own, even a bare bones one. You should at least consider reserving your name through a service such as GoDaddy.com (I reserved my own name a few years ago – though the page is still ‘under construction’).

Yesterday I was at Borders looking through endless shelves of wedding planning books and found myself (surprise!) a little bored. (Let's hope my fiance doesn't read this.) So I wandered off and eventually found myself in the career section. Did you know that as recently as the mid-80's most bookstores did not even have dedicated career sections? Yesterday I counted 7 shelves and quit counting after 200 books. If you search for "career" in the book section of Amazon.com, you get 305,077 results. It's overwhelming. How does anyone even know how to start when they are bombarded with so much information?

It can be even more disorienting if you take the time to read through the titles of some of the books out there. First up are the dozens of resume and cover letter guides with trumped-up titles such as "The Damn Good Resume Guide", "Cover Letter Magic!", and "Don't Send a Resume" (really? - don't buy this one). Then you find yourself looking at books that portend gloom and doom for your career. It's hard to walk away with a positive outlook on getting a job when more than half of the job search titles read like this (these are all real books!):

• "I Hate My Job Handbook"
• "Life's a Bitch and Then You Change Careers",
• "I Don't Know What I Want, but I Know It's Not This", and
• "Addicted to Unhappiness"

Do I have a point to make? I think so. In today's society, more than ever, what we do for a living helps define who we are. And while no one person - no author, professor, career coach, or Assistant Director of the Kelley School of Business Career Placement Office (yours truly) - can tell you what career is right for you, some resources are better than others. Books? There are some good ones - and even more not so good ones. The Internet? Great for research - not always so great for actually finding a job.

And this is precisely why we have a Career Placement Office here at Kelley. Career exploration should be fun. Really! You should take time to enjoy exploring your skills, values and interests and investigating the myriad of career paths available to you. If there is a particular book or website that might help you - we'll point it out. If you want more specific job search guidance - we can help with that too. Just want to talk about possible careers? Come in with or without an appointment. We are here because you will never find the book, "The Complete Resume and Job Search Guide for a Kelley Indianapolis Marketing Major Interested in Public Relations Who Wants to Stay in Indianapolis After She Graduates".

Have any ideas for future postings? Internships? Career Fairs? Thoughts in general? Let me know and I'll be happy to incorporate your opinions into upcoming postings.