Resume and Interview Seminar (AKPSI)

This was one of my professional enrichment workshops. There I went on with my highschool resume which I had not edited in around a year or two. It was…bad. I asked one of the brothers to review it and by the end of the review the paper was full of red marks. But I was happy about that. He talked with me about it afterwards and I got a lot of good pointers. It’s ironic really because to get into the frat you needed to include your resume, so I included my revised version after their seminar. In the end I didn’t get into the frat though but no stress. So anyway I learned about how I can even include my past internships, how to format the resume, and the 3 bullet point strategy. As for the interview portion, it was less one on one and more general information. I learned about how it’s fine to ask the interviewer for time to think, never knew you could ask that. While at the seminar I took notes, here are the notes I took:

1. Talk to yourself.
2. Doesn’t just have to be work history, can be personal projects.
3. Eat before interview, arrive early.
4. Tech interviews have like 5 rounds.
5. Go to Glassdoor for sample interview questions.
6. Memorize your resume.
7. Everyone is nervous, so always smile, don’t rush into answers, and listen, also be happy.
8. Ask personal questions, like seeing a fish photo, comment on it, try to make connections.
9. People don’t want to work with a wall, get their name and remember them. Ask about interest outside of work for example.
10. At the end, if they ask, any more questions? That’s your chance to ask a memorable question.
11. If blanked out, take a sip of water, make a story. 
12. Don’t be afraid to pause in between questions, even ask for a moment to gather thoughts. Or worse case scenario, say you’ll get back to them.
13. Questions get harder and harder as interview goes, sometimes they want you to say you don’t know. If you don’t know, you don’t know.
14. Good questions to ask at end, can you tell Me about yourself? Look at their LinkedIn maybe. 
15. How’s the company’s culture? Every man for themself? Or everyone together?
16. Can you show me around the office?
17. Can you walk me through a day to day process? Put yourself in their shoes and think what question you would like to be asked.
18. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give your college self? 
19. Overall, this is your time to take control, ask any question I want.
20. LISTEN TO THEIR ANSWER.
21. Apply to as many internships as you can. Start right now.
22. Know my worth, don’t take an internship you don’t like.
23. If you do take an internship you don’t like, use their interview for practice.
24. How to say no, respond and say like thank you so much for the opportunity, but I have another, I would love to stay in touch for future possibilities.
25. For cover letters, use a website template, as a brother for theirs to use as a template, use it to branch off a bit from your resume.
26. Show that you put time in your cover letter, but not too much.
27. Only put necessary things in resume, no fluff.

Nevertheless, it was an informative seminar which I’m glad I went to.