Office Hours and Why They're Awesome

This is mostly meant for you incoming freshman- but this still applies to all students.

Today I'm going to get up on my little soap box and preach about office hours and how awesome they are.

I get it- you might be that straight A student from high school who never needed to study, never asked questions, never needed help with anything.  I was right there with you.  There was so much pressure as one of the "smart honor students" that even when I did need the help, asking for it was downright embarrassing. 

When I got to college, that had to change fast. 

College courses are fast paced.  Things you used to spend an entire academic year on are now squished with even more content into fifteen weeks.  Most of the time, your professor can't cover everything in the classroom, and you're expected to do a lot of your learning on your own time outside the classroom.  Especially in the big introductory classes you'll be taking in giant lecture halls, you might feel really distant from your professor and the information being forced down your throat.  It's a lot to swallow at once.

Professors understand this.  Most of them will even admit the text book you're using for class isn't perfect (because they rarely are).  This is exactly why professors hold office hours.  For certain hours during the week, your professors are sitting in their office for the very reason of being available for you.  If you cannot make their scheduled hours, professors are always willing to schedule a special appointment with you if you reach out to them.

These office hours are an amazing resource.  Not only can you get help and clarification on topics you are struggling with, but having the one-on-one time helps your professor put a face to a name.  Now instead of being another body in the classroom, you have a relationship with your professor.

Establishing relationships with your professors helps in a lot of ways.  Many Virginia Tech scholarships require professor recommendations, so having your professor know more than "he/she showed up to class and did decent on my tests" will definitely make for a better recommendation.  Since Virginia Tech is a big research university, many professors have research they would love to have students help out with.  Even if their research isn't in a topic you're interested in, they might have a colleague who has something more up your alley, and once again a good recommendation can get you further. 

And who knows?  If your professor likes you, maybe they'll let you blow something up on the last day of chemistry lecture.  (I suppose personal experiences will vary, though.)

So freshies and upper classmen alike- don't pass up this amazing resource and visit your professors in office hours.  You might just find the hardass in the front of the classroom is secretly a big teddy bear.  Just don't say it to his or her face.

As I finish this up and step down from my box, I have one last thought to leave you with- who better to prepare you for your tests than the person writing them?

Calling all 20 somethings! Great advice for you!

Superman's Stunt Man: A HOKIE

You find Hokies in all kinds of places: Superman's stunt man. Great story about passion pursuit and Ut Prosim!

Looking for some tips for your job search? Hear from 3 experts who gave these tips on the TODAY show.

LinkedIn and Your Job Search: Easy as π

After you set up your profile and start networking using LinkedIn, the site is a useful job search tool in even more ways. How? It’s as easy as “π.” Here are 3.14 tips for job search using LinkedIn.

 

Go ahead. Hit the “Easy button” and make your job search "easy as π" by using LinkedIn. If these tips help you find your job using LinkedIn, let me know--maybe we can celebrate with a slice of pie! What questions do you have about LinkedIn and your job search?

Networking on LinkedIn

Last week we saw a great crash course on why you should be on linkedin.com.

I won't go over the basics again, but I will cover one important topic today: networking.

Many students don't think they have an actual network, or at least not a big enough one to "really count".  Networking is something for the "professionals".

I'm here to tell you that your network is a lot bigger than you think!

The Ripple Effect

Lets jump back into middle school English for a moment here and make a simile: your network is like a ripple effect.  You, dear reader, are the tiny droplet in the middle.  The first ring is your immediate contacts whom you know- friends, the manager at the restaurant where you might have waited tables one summer, a professor you took three classes from and really get along with, maybe even a second cousin or two.  The second ring is everyone in their immediate network.  The third ring would be the second ring's immediate network and so on.

So what's so great about having a connection that possibly reaches your neighbor's cousin's second son?  If, hypothetically, you wrote in your personal summary (that was talked about in last week's post) that you would love to work for a big wig animation studio and your neighbor visited your profile and saw it, they might remember that one cousin who has a kid who works at that one studio.  In general, people are usually pretty willing to help out.  If that neighbor mentions their contact with you and you follow up in introducing yourself to that contact and establishing a friendly relationship...well, who knows?  Maybe you'll be the next person putting the VT logo in a movie.

The First Contact

Continuing with this hypothetical neighbor and neighbor's cousin's second son, let's pretend your neighbor is willing to put you in contact with this animator.  Sometimes they will send the initial message for you, introducing who you are and what you're interested in.  This way, you get spoon fed your initial "in" and the pressure is taken off your shoulders.  However, sometimes they will give you an email and you will have to make the first contact yourself.

First off, I like to email people before I send them a connect request on LinkedIn.  You might not know if your neighbor has introduced or mentioned you beforehand, and getting a random LinkedIn request from a stranger can sometimes be a little off-putting.  No need to scare them right off the bat.

In this email, make sure you introduce yourself and explain why you are reaching out to this person first and foremost before you ramble.  You're probably overloaded with questions about what their job entails and what you can do to boost your resume and portfolio, but you don't want to drown the receiver in a sea of confusing and interweaving ideas and questions.  Make your point heard, then branch off.

Lastly, make sure you reread and reread this email again!  You want a friendly yet professional tone.  This means you need to pay attention to not only proper grammar and spelling, but word choice.  Make sure you are saying exactly what you want to say exactly the way you want to say it.  Once you click the send button, it's out of your hands.

 After you've made that initial contact and they have responded, you should send a connect request on LinkedIn.  By this point, your profile should have all the information someone could find on your resume, so your new contact can browse it to see what you know and maybe even refer you to a few other contacts! 

Many business have their information on LinkedIn.  On their page might be the company website URL, a list of the employees who have LinkedIn profiles, and possibly even job listings. 

Don't forget - you can network out of LinkedIn as well!

As I finish off this article, I want to remind people there is a world outside the internet!

Shocking, I know.

Trying to be more proactive about making more contacts without waiting for the ripples can be a little difficult on LinkedIn.  You cannot send direct messages with people not already in your network without both of you having an upgraded account.  Not everyone has an email listed on their profile.  Sending connection requests with only a short note to explain why you're reaching out can result in your request being rejected.  It's not impossible, but there are more ways to reach out.  There's no harm in networking in person and bringing your new contacts to LinkedIn!

LinkedIn does not have to be your only means of networking.  Career fairs, conferences, and university clubs are also great ways to get yourself out there, meet new people, and extend your network.  So keep a look out for other opportunities!

Your LinkedIn Profile: Resume with a Twist

Why should you be on LinkedIn.com? This site is the destination for you

• to ensure you have a professional online presence; 85% of employers say that a positive online presence influences their hiring decisions.
• to network with alumni and colleagues in careers of interest; 70% of jobs are found through networking. LinkedIn is the largest professional network with over 175 million members. And,
• to use as a tool in your job search. A 2012 Jobvite survey found that 93% of recruiters used LinkedIn as a tool for locating potential hires.

Like Facebook, to get started, you need to populate your Profile. Unlike Facebook, your LinkedIn Profile resembles your resume, with a twist. First, let’s talk about some of the typical parts of your resume to share in Linkedin, then we’ll talk about some twists in LinkedIn.

Your Resume and LinkedIn

For entry level positions, we recommend using an objective on your resume. In LinkedIn, this takes the form of a headline where you mention an area of study, and/or career ambitions. Who are you and what are you looking for? Your headline is the tagline for your personal brand. I really like this headline that was shared in a Forbes article on LinkedIn headlines: “Copywriter who knows how to craft web content that goes viral. Oh, and you’ll never beat me at Scrabble.” After reading the article, I revised my own headline!

In your Profile, also include typical categories of information you find on a resume: Education, Experience, Skills and Expertise, Honors and Awards. If you are just getting started with these, visit this site for more tips on what to include. If you already have a resume, you can upload your resume to start building your Profile.

The Twists

There are several items to add to your LinkedIn Profile that are not typical entry-level resume material:

Photo. No, you don’t want to use that picture of you cheering on the Hokies at the VT-Rutgers Bowl game that you used as your Facebook profile photo. A professional headshot is preferred for your LinkedIn Profile photo.

Summary. Write a summary that describes your skills and experiences.  Talk about skills you’ve gained in the classroom or from internships or soft skills gained from part-time jobs, like communication or time management. If you’ve written a cover letter, pull some of your text from that email for your summary. You can also use your elevator pitch as your summary. Don’t have one? Craft one here.

Recommendations. Although references are part of the job search, they are usually not listed in the resume, but in a separate document. However, in your LinkedIn Profile, you want to ask several people whom you would use as a reference to provide recommendations for you in LinkedIn. These could come from supervisors, professors, or advisors – people who can attest to your performance.

LinkedIn URL: As you are completing your Profile, make sure that you set up your LinkedIn URL as one recognizable with your name. After you create your URL, add this link to your email signature and to the contact information in your resume.

For more tips about getting started with LinkedIn, watch these videos. What questions do you have about your LinkedIn Profile? In our next post, we’ll share advice about networking using LinkedIn.