networking – Page 5

January 18, 2016October 26, 2016

Putting Your Skills into Practice: Spring 2016 Community Service Opportunities for English, CW, and ToE Students

CLL_graphic The English Undergraduate Advising Office is excited to announce a new partnership with the U of I School of Social Work’s Community Learning Lab (CLL) for Spring 2016.

The Community Learning Lab is looking for 10-15 English, Creative Writing, or Teaching of English students to get involved in community projects for the Spring semester. If a lot of students are interested in working with CLL, they can offer even more opportunities in future semesters. Some projects are open to 2 or 3 students, so you have the option to collaborate with a friend of classmate if you’d like. Each project will involve no more than 25 hours of work during a single semester.

To get involved, send an email ssw-cll@illinois.edu, explaining that you are an English department major interested in CLL opportunities. You will receive a list of available projects and a link for signing up for whichever project interests you most.

This partnership will give English, Creative Writing, and Teaching of English students the opportunity to acquire valuable professional experience and to practice real-world job skills by doing community service projects for organizations in Champaign-Urbana. By offering invaluable assistance to organizations that need their help, English students will develop connections to the local community and expand their college experience beyond the borders of campus.

To learn more about this collaboration and what it means for our students, I recently talked with Katie Shumway from the Community Learning Lab.

Can you tell me a little about the Community Learning Lab? What are its goals? How does it help connect the University to the Champaign-Urbana community?

The whole point of CLL is to create a mutually beneficial relationship between the campus and the community. Through our program, community partners (which can include non-profit agencies, fire departments, police departments, schools, and even some for-profit agencies) submit project requests to our online database. We examine those requests for projects and match them with courses on campus whose curriculum is in line with the needs of the project. We’ve seen that manifest in a lot of Continue reading “Putting Your Skills into Practice: Spring 2016 Community Service Opportunities for English, CW, and ToE Students”

December 2, 2015October 25, 2016

How to Prepare for the Chicago Arts and Culture Career Fair

Michele Plante, Coordinator of Career Services for the College of Fine and Applied Arts at U of I, spoke with students in Engl 199: Internship Seminar this week about how to prepare for the upcoming Chicago Arts and Culture Career Fair on February 5, 2016 from 12 to 2pm. Here are some of the tips she had to offer:

What should you wear?

Different career fairs follow different practices, so it’s generally a good idea to know your audience when you’re deciding what to wear to such an event. While you’d want to bring out your nicest black suit to attend the Business Career Fair on campus, you’ll want to leave it at home when you go to the Arts and Culture Career Fair. Women attending the Arts and Culture Career Fair should wear a blouse and nice skirt or a dress (that goes at least to your knees); comfortable, professionally appropriate shoes (flats or dressy boots); and possibly a memorable, colorful accessory, like a scarf. Men in attendance should wear a jacket and nice pants, but a tie isn’t necessary.

What should you bring?

You’ll want to bring 2-3 résumés for every organization you’re interested in talking with. Your U of I student ID is also required.

What kinds of questions should you ask employers at the career fair? Continue reading “How to Prepare for the Chicago Arts and Culture Career Fair”

November 13, 2015October 26, 2016

What is the Arts and Culture Career Fair? Do I really have to go to Chicago for it?

Why do thieves rob banks? Because that’s where the money is. Why hold the Arts and Culture Career Fair in Chicago? Because that’s where the art and culture is.

Big corporations and organizations that recruit large numbers of students at events like the Business Career Fair and All-Campus Career Fair can afford to pull staff members away from their regular tasks and send them down to Champaign-Urbana for a day of talking to students.

Arts and culture organizations don’t usually work like that. They have shows to put on, musicians and artist to represent, galleries to staff, donors to cultivate, events to plan, workshops and performances to organize, not enough people to do it all, and shoestring budgets to pay for it. But they need employees, too: dedicated, arts- and culture-centered people who want to make a living working with and supporting those who perform, create, teach, and inspire.

Therefore, we’ll bring you to them, at this joint venture with UIC. There’s even transportation available (see details at the bottom of the graphic).

Eager to work in the arts, but not sure how to make the case for yourself to an employer? Michele Plante of the College of Fine and Applied Arts will lead a workshop on resumes and elevator pitches on Monday, November 30, 4 – 5pm, in 149 English Building. In time for Winter Break, you’ll get tips on creating and polishing a perfect first impression, so that you’re ready to go on February 5.

November 6, 2015October 26, 2016

Demystifying Networking: The Informational Interview

by Valerie O’Brien

In his presentation for the Engl 199: Career Planning in the Humanities lecture series, Andrew Allen, Director of Illinois Business Consulting, offered UIUC humanities majors a valuable piece of advice: networking is essential for getting a job.

On the surface, this advice may seem obvious. After all, “networking” has become a cultural buzzword that we hear all the time. Most college students probably recognize “networking” as an important part of professional development. Yet, despite the term’s prevalence, precisely what “networking” means and how one does it may remain a mystery to many students. What does “networking” actually look like?

Allen recommended that students begin networking through informational interviews, which are brief, low-stakes conversations with individuals about their careers. This networking practice can help you to develop a circle of professional contacts, to determine what career options are available to students with humanities backgrounds, and to narrow down that list of possible careers according to your personal interests.

To conduct an informational interview, follow these steps:

Determine what professional field you’d like to know more about and who you already know within that field. It works best to start the networking process with a contact you already have – a relative, for instance, or a friend’s parent, or an alumnus you’ve been in contact with (perhaps through the English Department’s Alumni Mentoring Network).

Get in touch with your contact to ask if he or she would be willing to talk with you for fifteen minutes about their career.

Prepare a couple questions to ask your contact, but don’t simply read them – you want the exchange to feel conversational and natural. Let your contact talk about their job, what they do every day, what they enjoy about their field, and similar topics. Be respectful of your contact’s time, but also be aware that if the conversation is going well, it may last longer than the fifteen minutes you requested.

At the end of the conversation, ask if your contact could put you in touch with one or two of their colleagues who might be willing to talk with you further about their careers. It’s best if your contact emails their colleagues to make the introduction. However, if instead you’re going to be sending the email, be sure to ask your contact if you can mention them as a means of introducing yourself.

After the informational interview, follow up with your contact to thank them for their time. If you want to stay in touch with the contact, you might connect with them on LinkedIn, but you should always either send a courteous personal message when adding them as a connection or ask them about connecting on LinkedIn near the end of the informational interview.

Eventually, the connections you make through conducting informational interviews could lead to a job offer, since, as Allen observed, “companies would rather hire someone they know than a sheet of paper.” It will likely take a lot of phone calls for this to occur, but in the process you can learn a lot about what you’re looking for in your future career.

Networking will require intentionality and time. And it’s important to start early and network regularly! Make this practice a part of your regular routine: Allen recommended trying to conduct an informational interview once or twice a week. It’s also important to start networking long before you’re getting ready to graduate: it’s never too early to begin thinking about possible career paths, especially because as an English or Creative Writing major you have so many options available to you!