What are the most important parts of the guide your group constructed? What do you know now that you wished you knew earlier? What is the best advice or guidance you’ve received?
Jumping into the job search process can be absolutely terrifying. As undergraduate students, we are not given any unsolicited training on the matter. The only advice I received freshman year either came from my friends (most of whom were also inexperienced freshmen) or from my siblings. If I hadn’t known from the experience of my older siblings, I wouldn’t have had a resume ready, and probably wouldn’t have known to attend the Career Fair in the fall. Therefore, I think that the most important part of the guide my group constructed was the segment on how and where to begin. Seemingly simple tasks, like the ones I mentioned above, aren’t as common-sense to someone who has never been through the process of job/internship searching. I believe its extremely important for freshmen to start practicing these skills early, and a little guidance in the right direction could help a lot.
I wish I’d had a better concept of how to present myself at the Career Fair, and on a broader level how to talk to company representatives. I wish I had known what an elevator pitch was and how to give it well. I wish I had known how to give someone your resume in a way which isn’t painfully awkward. I wish I had understood that the more companies you talk to, the better your chances are of finding a good fit.
The best advice I received that first year was to put myself out there, and not worry if I made a complete fool of myself.
College traditionally has been viewed as a place of learning, not necessarily job training and yet students are spending more and more time preparing for the job interview process. Should colleges adjust their curriculum to face this reality?
In short, no. I don’t think colleges are obligated to change their curriculum to prepare students better for the job interview process. Teaching for the test isn’t beneficial in the long term. Obviously I believe that preparing for an interview is incredibly beneficial for success in an interview situation. Students who are more prepared for an interview might have a greater chance of getting a job initially. However, students who instead focus their efforts on educating themselves in their respective fields are more likely to keep said job, and to perform well.
This being said, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that ND CSE already provides all the support necessary for students to succeed in job and internship interviews. Most of my preparation thus far has been independent.
If Notre Dame CSE wants to help students prepare better for interviews, the department should be more upfront about the resources available to students. From my perspective, there doesn’t seem to be a central location with resources for the job search. Instead I rely on random emails with details about company visits or mock interviews. Perhaps the process could be made more smooth if students knew of a specific advisor or peer mentor whom they could go to with specific questions or career advice.
Programmer's Paradox 