Posted 8:10 AM, Fri., May 29, 2020
Over the past several years, career services across the nation have seen an increase in virtual interviews for students. Given recent events and the ever-changing circumstances surrounding COVID-19, more and more employers are substituting in-person interviews with virtual interviews. Prepare yourself with these helpful tips below, and you’ll be able to log into your next interview, brimming with confidence!
When the world looks back at the year 2020, we will all reflect upon it with a different lens and remember different things from our personal experiences. For employers, they’ll remember how it impacted the economy, the talent pool, and their hiring practices. This change in economy and hiring practices is happening now – we are living it – so it’s important to be proactive and prepare now for what you’ll be faced with in the future.
The Employer Perspective
Employers know job seekers are having a hard time navigating today’s job market, and they’ll remember that in the future. They’ll know opportunities were limited and the market was more competitive than it had been in years past. So when looking at your future application materials, recruiters won’t necessarily just be looking for positions that utilized your technical skills, they will simply want to know how you filled your time and stayed busy. This is why filling your summer and fall with meaningful experiences is so important.
Your Meaningful Summer
Anyone can achieve a meaningful summer. A meaningful summer is one where you spend your time wisely, doing work or continuing your education to improve yourself and your skills for your future career. If you haven’t done so already, take a moment to read The Importance of the Backup Plan. If your original goals for the summer haven’t worked out the way you hoped, now’s the time to think of different ways to add value to your résumé. Again, when you go to apply to that next internship or full-time position, employers will want to know how you spent your time, how you built your skills, and what value that adds to your career development. Once you’ve decided what your Plan B and Plan C might be, create an action plan to achieve your new goals by breaking it down into actionable items you can achieve each day. If you plan to apply to positions outside of engineering, step one might be getting a résumé review by ECS for this new/different field. If you plan to take a course on a certain skill you’ll need for the future, step one will likely be registering for the class. Of course, if you need help with creating an action plan, schedule an appointment with ECS to help guide you and discuss your accountability options.
Communicating Your Experiences In The Future
Once you have completed your summer experience(s), it’s important to know how to communicate this to employers, both verbally and on paper. Whether your summer was filled with projects, personal development courses, non-engineering work, or engineering specific work, you’ll want to add this new information to your résumé. Depending on how relevant this experience was to the future career you want determines where it goes on a résumé. If you completed a personal or professional project, it could be added to your “Relevant Experiences” or “Project Highlights” section. If you completed non-engineering work, it will likely go into your “Other Experience” section. If you took a professional development course, it could be added to your “Education” section. After you have updated your résumé, submit it to VMOCK or schedule an appointment with ECS for a review to make sure you are appropriately communicating this new information.
During an interview, you may be asked how you spent your summer in light of COVID-19. This question may come in many different forms, such as “What is the most challenging thing you’ve had to overcome?” or, “Have you ever had to adjust your plans last minute? If so, how did you cope and adjust accordingly?” This is when you can share your meaningful summer of 2020. If you encountered negative career experiences as a result of COVID-19, don’t focus on what could’ve been; instead, focus on what you did as a result. Being able to communicate how you were flexible, proactive, and solution-oriented are things every employer is looking for. For tips on how to answer such interview questions, visit Big Interview.
In the end, everyone’s story will look different, but every story is worth telling at the right time.
ECS is available to students and recent alumni all year-round, so if you need a customized approach to telling your story in light of COVID-19, schedule an appointment today!