Tag Archives: CP&R

Hitting My Stride

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Over winter break, I took some time to reflect upon my first semester at Scripps. I had many accomplishments to be proud of such as getting a job on campus at the Office of Parent Engagement, being placed on the Dean’s List, joining the Scripps Economic Society, and meeting amazing and loving friends. Yet despite these accomplishments, I had a nagging feeling that I had stayed within my comfort zone, and did not push myself to my fullest potential.

Going into the second semester, I was on a mission to truly fulfill my potential. In my first week back on campus, I spent hours on Handshake looking at summer internships, applied to be a CP&R blogger, and applied and interviewed for the position of Development Manager at The Student Life (TSL). I was delighted to be chosen both to be a CP&R blogger and Development Manager for TSL. I was ecstatic that I would have more on my plate this semester but also concerned whether I could truly do it all.

With six weeks of the semester now complete, I am realizing that I am capable of more than I thought I was in my first semester, and that I can thrive beyond my initial comfort zone. This semester, I am busier than I have ever been, yet am truly passionate about the classes, jobs, and extracurricular activities that fill my hours and my days. Blogging for CP&R has given me a great outlet for self-reflection, fueled my interest in my future potential career, and connected me with CP&R staff. Working for TSL has enabled me to forge partnerships across the 5C’s with admissions offices, parent relations offices, professors, deans, and alumni. Searching for a summer internship has allowed me to connect with 5C alumni and CP&R staff in order to find, interview with, and receive an offer from the best possible internship for me.

Looking back at my first semester at Scripps, I realize that while I pushed myself in some ways, I was careful to stay in my comfort zone. I did not challenge myself to make connections beyond my everyday interactions, or take advantage of all that the 5C community has to offer. This semester, I feel like I have hit my stride. I am proud of my accomplishments. Most importantly, I feel truly immersed in the 5C community. Every role that I have taken has given me the opportunity to develop relationships with 5C alumni, faculty, staff, and students.  With each new relationship, I feel more and more a part of this amazing community. I realize that the more I contribute to the community, the more I get out of it, and the more I feel truly a part of it. Based on my experience this year, my one piece of advice for new college students is to take risks, try out, apply, engage, and connect. The more you do, the more you will feel that you truly belong.

What is one piece of advice you would give to incoming first-years?

Networking Hacks: CP&R Resume Book

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This week, I thought I would take a little time to highlight one of CP&R’s resources that I have found helpful in the never-ending search for internships.  As I have said before, I think networking is valuable no matter what field you are going into.  Not only do personal connections give you a leg up in the application process, but you have the chance to make real, meaningful connections with professionals in your field.  It’s hard to put yourself out there to “network”, in whatever form that may take, but I have found that people are inherently kind and genuinely want to help.  Without further ado, here is one of my favorite weapons in my (not so secret) networking arsenal!

The CP&R Resume Book

Every year, Scripps Career Planning & Resources invites members of the current graduating class (and alumnae 1 year out) to submit their resume for an online resource called the Resume Book. It serves multiple purposes:

First, it is a publicly available document that allows recruiters to see the accomplishments of the graduating class and contact them about job opportunities.

Second, for first years, sophomores and juniors who may be stressed out looking for jobs/internships, it provides some wonderful ideas of internships that our amazing seniors have landed, formatting examples and a way to build a list of companies you might be interested in.

The Resume Book is organized by career interests, so all you need to do is look up professions you’re interested in and BOOM! you can see where past Scrippsies interned, what their activities they were involved in on campus, and get good examples of what a resume in your field might look like.  While I’m not saying that you need to follow someone’s exact career trajectory, it gives you a good idea of how their budding careers have evolved from student activities to professional experience.

When we think of networking, we usually think of contacting real, professional adults.  But your peers are also a invaluable resource.  For example, last year I was panicking about internships and began digging through the resume book.  I found, and reached out to, a then current senior who had interned at companies I was interested in.  When I emailed her, she warmly agreed to meet me at the Motley, we had a delightful conversation, and she then connected me to a company she had interned with.  Through a personal introduction, and subsequent calls with employees at the company, I landed an internship!  Because I have had such success with and find the resume book a valuable resource, I thought I would share this insider tip.

5 Tips and Trick to Navigate the Internship Search

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Now that Spring semester is in full swing, I have begun the daunting yet exciting search for a summer internship. Through my research and experience, I have found many resources that can help students find their dream internship whether that be with a lab, startup, or Fortune 500 company. Below are my top 5 resources!

  1. Handshake

Handshake is an online resource that helps college students find jobs and internships. While I was first intimated by the website, I spent some time poking around this past week. By adding my interest, graduation year, and GPA, I was able to find many internships that I am qualified for in various employment industries. By clicking the “favorite” button for an internship that I want to apply for, I receive an email reminding me to apply and of the application’s due date.

  1. CP&R

Scripps CP&R has numerous resources to help students throughout any stage of the internship process. This past December, I attended a workshop on how to apply for Internship Grants through CP&R. Valinda, a member of the CP&R staff, guided the attendees through the application process and answered any of our questions. In addition, I have found the one-on-one meetings with CP&R staff to be very helpful. They can assist students with resumes, internship searches, and career searches. You can use CP&R drop in hours M-F 10am – 5pm without an appointment or simply schedule a one on one appointment with a counselor for a time that works for your schedule on Handshake!

  1. Glassdoor

Similar to Handshake, Glassdoor is a free online resource where students and adults can search for jobs and internships. The website has endless internship and job listings that it is almost overwhelming. Many large corporations such as L’Oréal, Spotify, and Red Bull have internships listed on Glassdoor as well. The application process varies by position but Glassdoor always redirects you to a website where you can apply.

  1. Contacting Local Businesses

This past summer, I knew I wanted to do something creative and productive. Because of my interest in photography, I decided to contact several local photographers to see how I could be of assistance to their company. I spoke with several photographers and loved hearing about their experience and their businesses. I ultimately decided to intern with Du Soleil Photographie in West Chester, PA as I really bonded with the owner and loved her photography style. I had a great experience with her and gained a lot of insight on what it’s like to run a local business. I strongly recommend contacting local businesses for summer internships opportunities!

  1. Family

Although family events can be boring, try to spice them up by networking. Who knows, your uncle may know someone who works in the same lab you would love to intern at or your cousin may be working for a chic startup.

What internships resources have you found to be helpful?

Beginings, Endings, and Reflections

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Hello Everyone! Welcome back for another term! Or if you are out of school, welcome to another day in the life. While it is that time of year where we excitedly look forward to what the future has in store, read for new adventures to begin, it is also a time to remember and reflect on the recent past.  Most notably the summer that came to a screeching halt with the introduction of new classes.  I think oftentimes as students we do not take the time to reflect on our summers because of excitement about what lies ahead.  But it is important to remember and digest our experiences because of the diamonds of knowledge we can glean when we reflect.  We are able to see the bigger picture now that the canvas is full of paint.  Because I had an incredibly jam packed summer where I was working on preparing for a career after college, I will spend the majority of my blog posts this summer reflecting on the experience as well as my thoughts on what lies ahead.  To start with, let me outline my experiences and how I got my internships.

Yes, I did get the grammar right.  I indeed had two internships this summer, both in the entertainment business at two small Film and TV development/production companies.  What scares people so much about the entertainment business is the idea that you need to know people to succeed.  And while it is true that connections are VERY important (as I found out) it wasn’t nearly as hard as I would have thought to start building them.  You just have to put yourself out there.  It helps that Scripps is in the LA area so there are quite a few alums working in the business but I bet that students of basically any college have gone onto working in entertainment.  And you never know, you family may know someone who knows someone and you can make connections that way.  But I found that once I started voicing my interest to people, they were more than happy to connect me on to people in the business.  After tons of informational interviews, mostly with Scripps alums, I managed to secure my internships.  First at Endgame Entertainment.  Last fall I connected with a senior who had done several entertainment internships.  I asked her to coffee at the Motley to hear about her experiences and she connected me to a Scripps alum there.  I spoke with that Scripps alum who encouraged me to apply to their intern program (they had taken Claremont people before).  From there I went through the regular application process, bolstered by that connection, and got the internship.  My second internship at Oddlot Entertainment, I got more directly through participation in CP&R events.  I went on the Media Networking Trek in Fall of 2016 and we visited the Oddlot office.  I stayed in contact with the Scripps Alum who actually runs their intern program.  I was eventually able to apply from there and got the internship.  I had a really fantastic time at both and I can’t wait to share more about my experience over the summer.  Hopefully sharing my experiences in entertainment can dispel some of the myths and mysteries about it as well as help anyone who thinks a career in storytelling might be for them.  Happy Fall!

Resume Anxiety

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“How have you never made a resume before?”

I have been asked this somewhat brazen question numerous times by fellow peers.

I’ve been an after-school teaching assistant, a camp counselor, and a barista, but none of those applications required a formal resume. I went back to my dorm room later that night, consumed with a new sense of panic and humiliation. All my peers seemed to be talking about their fancy LinkedIn head-shot photos, and how they just nailed an interview with a prestigious tech firm, and here I was, without even a resume to my name.

I called my mom (which is what I tend to do in times of personal crisis) and explainedlaundry-1that I needed to make a resume—a seemingly simple task—in order to begin my summer internship search, yet I was overwhelmed and wasn’t sure where to begin. Do I use an online template? Do I format it based off my friend’s resume? Do I include experience from high school? I can sometimes be a perfectionist, so I didn’t want to start the resume until I knew I was doing it the right way. After professing my anxieties to my mom, she reassured me that she would be happy to help me over break. Coincidently, she had just been looking for a new job about a year ago, so resumes and interviews were fresh in her mind. In addition to offering her expertise, my mom also suggested I visit Scripps’ Career Planning and Resource Center

Heeding my mom’s advice, I made an appointment with CP&R. I marked the appointment on my calendar, eager to finally have an initial resume so I could begin applying for jobs and internships over winter break. Unfortunately, my appointment slipped my mind, and I missed it entirely. It was a really busy time in the semester, and I guess I had just spaced out (it happens to the best of us, right? I was utterly convinced that if I scheduled another appointment, everyone at CP&R would somehow remember me as “the girl who was disorganized and forgot about her appointment,”  and proceed to typecast me as unprofessional and flaky. Even though this type of thinking is super illogical, it’s what I thought.) 

raw

Thanks brain for coming to illogical conclusions yet again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nevertheless, I made another appointment, determined to use it as motivation and encouragement to finally start internship searching.

The next week, I made my way to Seal Court, and met with Niah, CP&R’s career counselor and student-employment  coordinator. She was very friendly and helpful, and suggested that I look at the online Scripps College Resume Book to get some ideas of how I wanted to format my resume. It had never occurred to me that Scripps might keep copies of senior and alumni resumes. I was overjoyed that all I had to do was view the resume book, and pick a format or two I liked that could serve as my foundation.

Over break, I poured through the resume book, intrigued at the array of diverse majors, experiences, and activities that Scripps students had engaged in. It was really useful to see what majors corresponded to which careers. There were students who had gone into careers in various sectors, including education, law, finance, tech, medicine, environmental sustainability, marketing, and everything in between.

I picked a format that I found visually appealing, and then started writing. After completing a draft, I began the editing process, making sure to find any inconsistencies in grammar, punctuation, or format. This process took longer than one would expect for a page of writing. When most of us read things, we don’t read every single word, but rather skim, and let our brains fill in the rest of the information; thus, it was really easy to leave out a word or period. Once I finally had a pretty solid draft, I felt relieved to have completed a tiny step in my job and internship search process.

Dividing academic and personal goals into small, manageable chunks is always less overwhelming for me than trying to sit down and finish a resume, cover-letter, and three applications all in one day. In terms of work-habits, I’m more of a “marathoner,” rather than a “sprinter;” I like to work on things steadily over a long period of time rather than in intermittent bursts.UnknownSo even though all I had done was type some words in a document and call it a “resume,” I was proud of myself for finishing an important step that would make subsequent tasks much easier. Now that I had a resume, I was ready to begin the next step…the internship search.

In my next blog entry I will delve into my process of searching for summer internships, and what I learned along the way.