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One of the Largest College Internship Surveys

Internship survey from Mark Dyson

What does the internship economy really look like? How many internship programs are paying, how much, and do internships actually improve a student’s chances at landing a post-grad job? These are all big questions, especially for college students weighing internship options.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

The Canada Job Hunt, and Can You Ignore Facebook for Your Job Search

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Many ways of writing a resume is principally the same for foreign countries like Canada, but you should become familiar with the culture. Are you using Facebook for your job search when there are about 8 million jobs are found? Those are our topics today in another “can’t miss” episode!

Daisy Wright (@CareerTips2Go) is founder of The Wright Career Solution, and the author of No Canadian Experience, Eh? A Career Success Guide for New Immigrants,” first-of-its kind book dedicated to skilled professionals moving to, or are already in Canada and finding it difficult to navigate the Canadian job search landscape. Her work has been featured in several renowned resume and career books such as Interview Magic, Expert Resumes for Baby Boomers, Same-Day Resume, No-Nonsense Cover Letters, the Quick Resume and Cover Letter Guide, Resumes for the Rest of Us and No-Nonsense Job Interviews.

Here a few of the highlights of our discussion:

Understanding the differences in culture and the job search approach to the job market in Canada. Canadians are much more reserved in sharing accomplishments, as Americans and more comfortable with bragging about themselves
Recent laws in Canada resulted in changes of how employers may not use a lack of Canadian experience against an immigrant
There are spelling differences that will likely not be used against a foreigner (e.g. U.S. spell ‘behavior” versus Canada spells as “behaviour.”)
Daisy offers some resources and websites that people can check out for job openings

Joshua Waldman (@JoshuaWaldman) is the founder of Career Enlightenment, and the author of the best selling book, Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies. He is frequently quoted by Forbes, Mashable for advice on using social media to find jobs. He is also a speaker that has given more than 100 talks and trainings to organizations such as University of Southern California, Texas Christian University, and DeVry University.

Here a few of the highlights of our discussion:

Facebook cannot be ignored in using it to connect with other job seekers and employers. Facebook has posted more than eight million jobs and has a billion plus users
Many of the apps that Facebook once advertised are gone and it is up to the user to connect through updates, introductions
Hashtags are a very effective use that Joshua discovered in experimenting. Listen to how he started using hashtags and how it increased his reach by five times of any of his posts

Please don’t forget to leave an honest review in iTunes, so the show can increase its visibility. And don’t forget to sign up for the updates. I will be increasing them to bi-weekly instead of every six weeks, so you don’t want to miss any of them.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Informational Interview or an Informal Conversation

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An informational interview is a business conversation with the purpose of gathering information. It is a tool useful for a job seeker, employed or not, for a variety of reasons. Most commonly for one person to find out gaps in experience, education, or more knowledge about an industry. In this episode, my bud, Melissa Cooley (@thejobquest) and fellow career pro and I cover some basic and often forgotten protocols of this networking approach.

Melissa Cooley is a contributor to the career book, Nourish Your Career, and founder of the blog, The Job Quest. Her multiple career articles and mentions have appeared in The Daily Muse, The Savvy Intern Blog, and Under30Careers. She is a Certified Advance Resume Writer and an Interview Coach.

In this episode, we choose to cover the do’s and don’t of having this type of business conversation. I will, on behalf of Melissa, give a shout out to our colleague, Hanna Morgan (guest in episode 23), who wrote an article that resonated with both of us in stating that the well-known informational interview is more of an informal conversation. We decided to create a short guide of do’s and don’ts for those who want to get started using this strategy:

DON’T: Cold call

DO: Develop somewhat of a relationship or have a connection introduce you to the person you want to talk with

DON’T: Wear sneakers, flip-flops, ripped jeans, etc

DO: Dress professionally

DON’T: Just show up to the meeting unprepared.

DO: Conduct some research on the company/individual you are talking to so you can make the most of the time that has been generously allotted to you.

DON’T: Forget your manners!

DO: Remember WIIFT (What’s in it for them), not WIIFM (What’s in it for me).

DON’T: Neglect to follow up.

DO: Send a thank-you note after the meeting, connect on social media as appropriate, etc.

Please sign up for our newsletter to get more job search strategies, and extended content all to help you with your career plans and goals. Starting in June, everyone that joins the community will receive an interview e-book filled with strategies for asking and answering interview questions, help with information interviews (business conversations), and how to navigate the preparation process.