diaries of the candidates - joshua
Profile | Resume | Diary

| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 |

Week 9

Dear Diary,
Well this is semester wrap up for The Candidate. First off I would just like to say what a wonderful experience this has been. I’ve learned techniques for job searching that I can take with me and use throughout my entire life. I would also like to just say thank the career center staff and William for being extremely helpful throughout these past 9 weeks.

I concluded this last week by having a meeting with my career counselor. We discussed what my goals are now and what new techniques I can take for finding a job. We both decided that I need to start branching out from the memployment link and start using other sources to search for a job. After all, as most of you know who have been following this I have not found a job yet. I’ve learned from this experience that job searching is an extremely difficult and tiring process. When I first started off I thought that it was going to be very easy for me to get a job. I thought I would just go to a few interviews and then that would be it, and I would have a job. Except, it does not work like that. I’ve learned that in order to be successful with your job search you really have to be proactive about it. You need submit your resume to many sources, make follow up phone calls, conduct informational interviews, network with as many people as you can, and, lastly, practice your interviewing skills, in order for you to optimize your chances of having a successful job search. Well, that about wraps it up, maybe you will hear from me again next semester in a follow up on how my search is going. Thank you all for following us through our job search.

‘til next time,
Joshua

Week 8

Dear Diary,

Throughout my job search I have used many strategies to find out information. First and foremost I used the Career Center. This is probably the single most important resource that I have used in my job search. They have given me resume tips, interview suggestions, and tips in general on how to contact employers. The Career Center has been the fundamental resource for providing my job search with direction.

I have also used the MemploymentLink a ton. This has given me the opportunity to submit my resume to many different types of companies. It has also helped me identify some of the companies that will be hiring for the Fall of next year.

The main tool that has been instrumental in my job search is the internet. I have used the internet to research many different companies. I have both found industries that I’m interested in and that I’m not interested in. I have also found many tips from networking to informational interviewing on the internet. Throughout these past two months, the internet has helped me narrow the industries I’m looking into.

At the beginning of September I was interested in many different industries, now I’m just interested in a few industries. All in all, though, the internet is a very valuable tool, when used for your job search.
The last source I have used for information on my job search is friends and family. I’ve found that between all my friends and family, they all have worked in many different industries. They have many contacts and a ton of useful information for whatever industry I am looking at. They have also helped me a lot with my resume and cover letter writing. I feel if it weren’t for my friends and family I would definitely not be as far along as I am now in my job search.

‘til next time,
Joshua

Week 7

Dear Diary,

This week I did an informational interview with a corporate banker. At first I was pretty nervous about just cold calling someone, but once I made the call I was fine. First, I got a secretary, and I asked her to direct my call to the human resources department. Once I got human resources on the line, I told them that I wanted to speak with a corporate banker that would be available for 10 minutes, so that I could conduct an informational interview. At first the lady I was speaking to was unsure of whom to direct my call to, but finally she did direct me to someone.

When the man picked up the phone I introduced myself and told him what I wanted to do. He actually seemed a bit flattered, that I wanted to talk to him about his position. He told me all about how he analyzes companies to determine their borrowing power. Then he went on to talk about how it is very necessary in the type of position he is in to have very good communication skills. This is because you are constantly dealing with clients and you need to be able to help them understand the results of your analyses. He told me that you need to have some quantitative skills, but the job does not involve any difficult math. We talked for about ten minutes and then we said good-bye to each other. I really felt that our conversation went very well, and that I learned a lot about a particular position in an industry that I’m looking to go into.

Other than the informational interview, I’ve been continuing to submit my resume. I’ve also been trying to decide what companies I want to bid on. Other than that, I haven’t done much else.

‘til next time,
Joshua

Week 6

Dear Diary,

This past week has been very hectic. I’ve been having all of my midterms, so I haven’t had time to do much other than studying. But I have been moving along with job search. I had my mock interview. I decided not to dress up for it. I felt that my dress attire was ok and that I did not need to see myself on tape with it on.

Anyway, the mock interview was held in a back conference room in the Career Center. The interview began with interviewer asking me to walk him through my resume. I felt I answered that question well, because I knew my resume very well. Then he began asking me, " Why would you be a good candidate for this position?", "What are your career goals?", "What bothers you most (In life, in general)?" I answered all the questions quick and intelligently, so after 15 minutes it was time to review the tape.
Upon my first glance at the tape I felt I did ok. The counselor told me that I had wandering eyes, and that when I interview I need to make sure that I make good eye contact whenever I speak to an interviewer. Also he said that where most of my answers were very good, I need to come up with concrete examples for my answers. The way he explained this was that anyone can say anything about themselves in an interview (for example they are hard working), but if you can back that up with a concrete example (like last summer I worked 60 hour weeks at Wal-Mart) then you will be much better off. At the conclusion over our meeting, he recommended that if I do one thing in preparation for my interview it should definitely be to make a list of everything that I have done, so that I can back my statements up with examples. Anyway that’s about it.

‘til next time,
Joshua

Week 5

Dear Diary,
This week I continued submitting my resume on the recruiting site. Much to my dismay I have not heard back from any employers yet. I hope that this is a result of them just not having made up their minds yet, rather than my credentials not being good enough. In any event I have been submitting my resume to some different types of industries lately. I think the job fair from the previous week helped open my eyes to other opportunities other than just banking and consulting. Anyway, I hope I start hearing back from some of these companies very soon.

Also this week, I attended a case workshop sponsored by Capital One. The workshop itself was fairly informative, if you did not know anything about case interviews. I did not feel that I got much out of it. They spent most of the time going over one case interview question, which I felt was very easy. I originally thought that they were going to have you individually go through a case interview question on your own. For me, that would have been much more beneficial. All in all though, the workshop reaffirmed what I already knew about case interviews.

On a positive note, I found out that someone in my family knows a Department Manager in one of the consulting companies I’ve been looking at. I guess networking really does pay off. I’m planning on writing this person a letter to see if there are any positions available for someone with my credentials. Hopefully this will turn into some sort of job opportunity.

One thing I forgot to talk about in the previous week was my strong interest test results. The meeting with the counselor went very well. The results showed that I should be looking for a career in a financial field. This was good to hear, because that is exactly where I am looking for a job right now. Also, for some reason, I showed a very strong interest in cooking. Maybe that is because of the wonderful macaroni and cheese dishes I cook up at my apartment. In any event, that was a very funny result. Anyway, that’s all for now.

‘til next time,
Joshua

Week 4
Dear Diary,
I decided to go to the job fair in a shirt and tie, no jacket. I had a bit of anxiety when I first arrived there, but that shortly passed. I began by making a few rounds through all the rooms and checking out what companies I might like to visit. However, after making my rounds, I came to the unfortunate realization that there were some recruiters there that I was not going to be able to talk to, due to the horrendous lines. I saw a friend of mine waiting to talk to a recruiter from company XYZ, and he said that he had been waiting in the line for 30 minutes. Unfortunately, he was only half through the line. I found it to be a bit ridiculous that to talk to some recruiters, you had to wait 30-60 minutes. Also, I found it ridiculous that some people would wait 30-60 minutes to talk to some recruiter for 2-3 minutes, who was almost definitely not going to remember that person and would probably just throw their resume on a very large stack. So, I pretty much avoided all the consulting and financial service firms being that those were the most popular of the people attending the fair. I did, however, talk to a couple of recruiters while I was there. I found my conversations with them to be very informative, because they were able to devote much more of their time to me since they weren’t being barraged by a long line of people. The ones I talked to were in fact very happy that I was showing an interest in their company, and, as a result, I got a couple of job leads out of the fair.
Overall, I was very pleased with the fair. I would have liked to have seen some more non-consulting/non-financial firms there, but that is ok, because I did get to explore a couple opportunities that I might not have normally explored. Anyway, that’s all for now.

‘til next time,
Joshua

Week 3

Dear Diary,
This past week I got most of the preparatory stuff done for my job search. I went to the mall and got a dress shirt, belt, ties, and a pair of dress shoes. Also, I dropped my dry cleaning off, and I’m getting a few things tailored. All of this is so that I will be ready for the job fair and any interviews that might arise.
I finally finished my resume. After three weeks of daily revision and having numerous people look at it, I am proud to say that I probably won’t be making any more revisions on my resume for the next three months. If I’m lucky that is! However, now that my resume is done, I actually get to use it. I started submitting it on the career site, and I’m very excited to see if company recruiters will call me in for some interviews based on the resume in which I have put so much labor.

Right now though, my biggest concern is preparing for the career fair. Basically what I am trying to do is go through all the companies that will be there and pick out the ones I definitely want to visit. I am very happy about the selection, because it seems like there will be many companies offering finance related careers. Anyway, I plan on doing some research on probably about five or six of my top choices. I’m a little unsure of how to approach the recruiters, but I expect it will go something like this, "Hi my name is Josh…I’m a Senior and I’m looking to start my career as soon as I graduate…I saw that your company is involved in (Blank)…Would you mind discussing some of the career opportunities available that your company might have to offer me?" Hopefully, this will lead to a productive conversation. If not, hey, you win some, and you lose some. The biggest thing I’m hoping for from this fair is to possibly get a few new job search ideas and make a few contacts, but only time will tell if I will achieve those goals. Well, that’s about it for now.

‘til next time,
Joshua
Week 2
Dear Diary,
Wow! This past week has been extremely hectic. All of my classes have finally started assigning massive quantities of work, so I have been basically living in the library. Along with my workload, I’ve been trying to manage my time so that I can put a solid effort into this job search. After all, I need to get a killer job so I can make millions of dollars someday.

The main thing I’ve been working on this past week is getting my resume into shape. The one I had, I felt, had a lot of unprofessional things on it. I went to the Career Center for walk-in advising to have one of their counselors give me some suggestions on what I needed to do with my resume. One of the main things I agreed with the career counselor on was that I needed to do something with all the summer jobs that I had. For example, I was giving a job description for what I did at Wal-Mart, and I did not think that someone hiring me for a full-time position was going to care whether or not I rang out customers using the cash register. I chose to focus more on skills and accomplishments in my resume more than my prior summer-time work experience. Another issue with my resume was the way in which I was explaining what I did. The words that I was using in it weren’t exactly jumping off the page at the reader, and saying, "Man this Josh is an awesome candidate. We should hire him." I needed to find more powerful words to express myself. The only other thing I fooled around with in my resume was the format, so I can only hope that my new and improved resume will catch the eye of recruiters everywhere.

Another thing I’ve been working on is getting my dress attire together, which is a whole other issue. When I moved back to Ann Arbor I forgot my dress belts and ties, so right now they are being mailed to me in a manila envelope. Why aren’t they being mailed off in a box you may ask? Well, it is because they won’t deliver boxes to my apartment, so the whole mail delivery thing has been one giant pain in the neck.

To finish the week out I’ve just been thinking a lot about different networking strategies and what places I will want to apply to. Right now, I’m looking at a lot of commercial and investment banks. I’ve basically been compiling a list of all the big banks in the country, so in the future when I have everything all set, I can start applying to them.
Well that’s about all I have to say.

Week 1
Dear Diary,

Let me just kick this off by introducing myself. My name is Joshua, and I’m an economics major here at U of M. I, just like many students at U of M, spent much of my time here jumping from one major to another. I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted as far as a degree goes, and am really not sure of what I want to do with the rest of my life. Some people have the next twenty years all mapped out. Not me. I know I want to be rich and powerful, but how I get there is another story.
Since my senior year in high school, I have been very interested in investing. I’ve read a ton about the stock market and real estate investing. My all time favorite investor is Warren Buffett. Hopefully, I will be just like Warren when I grow up.
Anyway, all this interest in making money has led me to believe that I should try and get a job in an investment field (i-banker, broker, etc.) I mean if I have to get a job, it might as well be in a profession with which I am somewhat familiar and would enjoy doing. Putting all that aside, though, in realty, I’m not that picky. We all have our dream jobs and those are mine. I’m pretty much interested in any business-oriented job.
So to start things off on the right foot, this past week I went to the career center website, and took two self assessment tests to help me find out what types of jobs I might be interested in. The two tests probably took me about an hour to complete and now I’m just waiting to hear from a career counselor so I can discuss the results of my assessments. Well, that just about sums it up for this week.

‘til next time,
~Joshua~