By Anna Kenney, Assistant Director, Internships
As a society, we are conditioned to assign value to things
based on our experiences with them. Ex: “That restaurant on South Beach is
great, because I saw a bunch of celebrities there. “ Or “The Grove is horrible,
because I got a flat tire once.”
We also associate value, very often, by what others have
told us about that particular thing. Ex: “That professor is amazing, my brother
took his class and it changed his life.” Or “The staff member working at the
dining hall is so nice; my roommate told me they gave her candy the day before
her biggest final.”
All of these examples can be tied back to the reputation of
an establishment, location or person. This reputation could be the deciding
factor on how you perceive that person, place or thing forever. The same can be said for us as individuals.
One interaction can change a person’s opinion of you, change their perception
of how capable you are and change their ability to see you as anything but that
one interaction.
Developing a strong professional reputation is incredibly
important and in the long run, as it relates to your career, it can prove very
rewarding. A great reputation could mean multiple job offers, higher salary and
better project assignments. And guess
what? You don’t have to wait until you have a full-time job to start working on
your professional reputation. You can start NOW!
In the classroom
Show respect to your professors by being attentive in class.
Visit them during their office hours so that they get to know you outside of
class. Not only are they a huge wealth of knowledge, you never know who they
know. They can be great resources for internship and full-time opportunities.
They can also write some pretty amazing letters of recommendation!
Outside the Classroom
Get involved and work hard! It will make you stand out from
the people who don’t. Take on leadership opportunities to master those “soft
skills” such as communication skills, teamwork and problem solving.
Online
Monitor your online presence! You’ve heard it many times before,
but it is a reality. Raise your hand if you Facebooked your first roommate when
you found out who they were. You probably determined in about 45 seconds
whether they were your new best friend or whether you needed to find a new
place to live ASAP. I can guarantee that
there are some companies/organizations that will do the same thing to you the
day they get your resume.
Get a LinkedIn profile! Start building connections today to
help you get that J-O-B! Use it along the way to get advice from professionals
in your intended industry (or to explore them if you haven’t found it yet).
Involve Toppel
Utilize the Toppel Staff to polish and market that wonderful
reputation that you’ve established for yourself. Attend our workshops; come in
for walk-in advising to tweak that resume. Sign up for a practice interview to
secure that internship. Participate in on-campus recruiting to land that
full-time job!
