Q&A is a new column that will be featured every Friday with a member of the Dartmouth community. This week, Jenn, who was recently accepted an offer at Oliver Wyman in San Francisco as an Analyst, talks about her job search.

Jenn is an economics major from Hong Kong. On campus, Jenn is involved in Dartmouth Ends Hunger, Sing Compas, Women’s Ultimate Frisbee and the international mentoring program. 

1. When did you start your job search? Can you tell me about the process you went through?

I started my job search over the summer because researching jobs takes a LOT of time and I wanted to get a head start before fall term started. The two most important sources of information for me were the internet and people. Beyond company websites, I used Vault and Glassdoor, which are wonderful career-focused websites that provide a wealth of information about different industries, career paths, and firms. I also tried to talk to as many people as I could about their careers: parents’ friends, friends’ parents, friends… Even if I wasn’t interested in their particular fields, I learned a lot about general economic trends and about the huge array of career possibilities. On top of that, many people referred me to their friends working in consulting after hearing that I was interested in that field.

The Dartmouth Career Network was an absolutely incredible resource. I connected by phone or e-mail with several alumni – they were all really willing to help out a fellow Dartmouth person. Many of them helped me prepare for consulting case interviews, which definitely gave me a leg-up once corporate recruiting started.

2. How many jobs did you apply for? What was the range of the opportunities you considered?

After many conversations and intense research over the summer, I was confident that I wanted to work in consulting. In September and October, I only applied for jobs in consulting, but if those hadn’t worked out, I definitely would have looked into working in strategy or marketing at a non-profit. Non-profits tend to be more flexible, so you have more power to define your role and take on responsibility. (Also, if they’re not paid jobs, Dartmouth offers a ton of great fellowship opportunities to help fund up to a year of service work.)

I applied for seven consulting jobs through Dartmouth corporate recruiting, and another six outside of recruiting. I found most of those firms through the Vault guide. I applied to only thirteen firms because I’m not American and a lot of companies require that candidates have permanent US work authorization. However, I would suggest applying for as many jobs as you can as long as they are slightly interesting to you. It’s a tough market out there, and so many people are competing for each job that you can’t hedge your bets on only a few organizations. Besides, once you have your basic resume down, it doesn’t take much effort to apply for one more job.

3. Did what you want in a job change as you went through the process?

Throughout the recruiting process, I definitely became more and more aware of the importance of culture. Culture has a huge impact on your experience at an organization because it dictates your social interactions for the x hours that you’re at work everyday. And of course, that feeds into your general emotional well being.

I grasped just how important culture was when I attended one particular company’s presentation. I really didn’t click with the employees, and was a bit surprised by how they interacted with each other and with other people. I realized that this was simply part of firm culture – that was how things were done at the firm, and it made me uncomfortable. Even though the job description seemed perfect for me, the firm culture was so much at odds with my personality that it turned me off that job.

4. What was the most difficult aspect of your job search? How did you handle this?

Too many to count! But here are a few:

• finding firms that are hiring (and finding firms that are hiring non-Americans!)
• finding jobs that match your skill set
• following up with firms that don’t reply for ages after you apply

I think you need to be really assertive in your job search. It might feel uncomfortable to cold call organizations and ask about job opportunities, but there’s nothing to lose in asking. Unless you’re really baller (and I mean really baller), nobody is going to call you up and offer you a job. The onus is on you to show that you’re committed.

5. Any weird/funny interview questions or moments?

I had an early morning interview in Boston, so I stayed overnight at a friend’s place. An hour before the interview, I realized that I had packed mismatching shoes. They were both black, but the left shoe had a one-inch square heel and the right shoe had a two-inch round heel. I couldn’t find anybody to borrow shoes from, and I couldn’t come up with a convincing story to explain the literal fashion faux pas, so I jumped in a cab and made a beeline for the closest Target.

In their three aisles of shoes, there was only one pair of closed-toed black heels, and they happened to be 4 inches tall (very inappropriate for a job interview). I decided that those would be better than the mismatched shoes, so ended up wearing the skanky heels to the interview. I felt super self-conscious the whole time and was very distracted. None of my interviewers commented on them to my face, thankfully, but in any case, I didn’t get the job…

6. What advice would you give to other students in the midst of a job search?

• Talk to people! Most people love talking about themselves, so this shouldn’t be too hard. You can learn a lot about different opportunities and different industries or just get general life advice. I read somewhere that the vast majority of jobs are found through personal references/recommendations, so it never hurts to know people.
• Use the Dartmouth Career Network. Alums on the DCN are happy to give you advice on how to break into the field, tell you about what they actually do, and give you some insight into firm culture or career opportunities that you can’t get from HR departments or career guides.
• Prepare for your interviews. Look up typical resume interview questions; have your friends practice with you; reflect on your experiences beforehand so that you can communicate in a smart-sounding way how great you are to other people. Go on glassdoor.com to see examples of a firm’s past interview questions.
• Be assertive. A Dartmouth degree doesn’t guarantee you a job. You need to seek out opportunities for yourself. It will definitely be uncomfortable; nobody actually enjoys “networking” or cold calling strangers to get information. But it’s your career that we’re talking about, and that’s pretty important, right?
• Come interview day, make sure your shoes match. I think this goes for any industry…

“This is what we are about.  We plant the seeds that one day will grow.  We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.  We lay foundations that will need further development.  We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.  We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.  This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.  We may never see the end results but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.  We are workers, not master builders, ministers not messiahs.  We are prophets of a future that is not our own.”

– Kenneth Untener, often attributed to Oscar Romero

Thought for the week is featured every Wednesday. Want to share a thought? Email your favorite quotation to schewe [at] dartmouth.edu for inclusion.

Congressman Anh “Joseph” Quang Cao is the newly elected U.S. congressman from Louisiana’s 2nd congressional district.  A former Jesuit seminarian and Vietnamese-born lawyer, Cao was the only Republican to vote for the landmark health care reform bill passed in the U.S. House on November 7th.  Cao’s reasoning behind his decision provides an interesting example of how our educational backgrounds and our career choices form us.

Hat tip to James Martin of America Magazine.

Patrick Kennedy ‘11 in Hanover, NH

Many off terms take students around the country and globe, but Patrick writes about the opportunities he’s found without even leaving Hanover.

“I am researching full time at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in the Spaller Lab.  Its has been a busy term, each day is some combination of synthesizing peptides (small proteins), researching current literature for an upcoming journal article, and designing both current and future experiments. The job has allowed me to view science from a different perspective; I get to learn about experiments by actually doing them, rather than just reading from a textbook. Being on campus in Hanover also has been a great experience, I am able to enjoy activities that I wouldn’t normally have time for (and even got to be on campus for my sister’s freshman fall!).”

From round the girdled earth is featured every Monday. Send a photo and short update from your off-term to schewe [at] dartmouth.edu for inclusion.

Seth Godin on standing out

I thought this clip was really interesting — although Godin is talking about advertising and new products, it was striking to me, because during a job search you need to sell yourself. How you present yourself on your resume and in an interview makes a difference — do you present yourself in a way that makes you stand out?

The New York Times has an ongoing series that I love called “One in Eight Million” — in short video profiles, it opens up the lives of some of the many characters in New York — The Doorman-Boxer, The Green Thumb, The Bus Depot Barber, and The Type A teenager, among others.

Watch Henrique Prince, The Subway Busker’s story and more here.

Dartmouth, admittedly, is not much like New York City (and we’d have to call our series one in 4,000). But NYC and Dartmouth are both communities of diverse people, with diverse backgrounds, who have been drawn to a common place.

So what character are you?

MIT European Employers Career Fair

Event dates: January 29th-February 1st, 2010
Located at MIT in Boston, MA
Over 100 Employers!

A three-day event, the Fair is organized in close collaboration with The European Commission, includes interview sessions, personalized introductions, and showcases several seminars by leading industry executives and government institutions. The European Commission has partnered with the European Career Fair since 2007 to organize the largest summit of Europe’s leading companies and research institutions in the US. On the day before the fair, a panel discussion will be hosted by The European Commission and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI).

To Register:
No later than November 23rd, submit your resume at: www.euro-career.com. Registration is FREE.

The ECF’s searchable database will then allow employers to view resumes prior to the Fair and schedule On-site interviews with selected candidates for January 31st and February 1st.

Questions? Please email: career@euroclub.mit.edu.

U.S. News & World Report writes a helpful article about what job seekers can expect.

President Obama summed up the precarious nature of today’s economy and job market in a recent interview with ABC’s Jake Tapper. “Now that we’ve rescued the economy and the economy is growing,” Obama said, “businesses aren’t yet hiring.” Indeed, it’s strange to see a “rescued” economy in which nearly 16 million unemployed face a paltry 2.5 million openings each month. Employers have not stopped cutting jobs, and the unemployment rate soared to 10.2 percent last month.

With 2010 just around the corner, everyone is crossing their fingers for a better year. Here are a few things you can expect.

From the New York Times education section:

The food fight here started the way such bouts do in school lunchrooms most anywhere: an apple was tossed, a cookie turned into a torpedo, and an orange plunked someone in the head. Within minutes, dozens of middle-school students had joined in the ruckus, and spattered adults were ducking for cover. By the end of the day, 25 of the students, ages 11 to 15, had been rounded up, arrested, taken from school and put in jail. A spokesman for the Chicago police said the charges were reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.

Full story here.

There’s a cool article on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal called “Tinkering Makes Comeback Amid Crisis.”  Here’s an excerpt:

“Engineering schools across the country report students are showing an enthusiasm for hands-on work that hasn’t been seen in years.  Workshops for people to share tools and ideas – called ‘hackerspaces’ – are popping up all over the country; there are 124 hackerspaces in the U.S. … The financial crisis played a role in taking a nascent trend and giving it increased urgency, says Michael Cima, an MIT engineering professor. ‘I’ve been here 23 years and I definitely see this trend back to hands-on,’ he says.  ‘A lot of people are pretty disappointed with an image of a career in finance and they’re looking for a career that’s real.”

Read the whole article here. Does anyone know if there’s a hackerspace in Thayer or in Hanover? Leave a comment.