Spartan Daily

Students and employers stress importance of résumés at SJSU Fall Job and Internship Fair

Nick Rivelli, Spartan Daily

Senior Electrical Engineering major Alfredo Marcos looks at his resume and plans his next move at the Fall 2011 Job Fair in the schools event center on Tuesday, Oct. 4th. More than 130 companies showed up to give students the opportunity to present themselves for employment.

More than 140 employers were registered. 17 of which were Spartan partners or fair sponsors.

MaryAnn Shingai, the store manager of the Kohl's Department Store in the Great Mall of Milpitas, said they sponsored the event because SJSU students consistently show good preparation.

"Everybody who comes to our recruitment table every year leaves us quite an impression," she said. "The resumes people turn in are also quite impressive."

The SJSU Career Center held a job fair success workshop on Oct. 28 that featured discussion, a short video, and the "one-minute commercial," a marketing tool for students to better present themselves to an employer.

Asuka Miyano, a graduate student in graphic design, went into the workshop immediately concerned about a variety of factors, including what to say during an interview.

“I wanted to know plenty of things,” she said. “Like what to wear and especially what to say.”

Handouts were provided (which could also be found on the career center website) that answered her questions.

“As long as you don’t go into an interview or to the fair wearing a tux, you should be OK,” Rosenfield said.

Everybody that participated in the discussion was awarded with a rubber duck with the career center’s logo branded on it.

“We help students get all their ducks in a row,” Rosenfield said. “It’s a figure of speech we like to use to gather everyone’s thoughts.”

In addition to the discussion, a video about self-promotion was shown to further explain the “one-minute commercial,” the main lesson students were taught, according to Rosenfield.

“Employers can only remember so many names,” Rosenfield said. “So a good strategy is to properly market yourself with the one-minute commercial. A good one can leave a lasting impression with a recruiter.”

After the workshop, the career center also held its “Résumé Blast” on Oct. 29 at the Student Union where several recruiters critiqued students’ résumé.

Klarence Ouyang, junior management information systems major, said the event was crucial for job fair success.

“Events like these are essential, especially when you have a résumé,” he said. “I’ve had my résumé critiqued tons of times, and if taking a look at my first few drafts compared to the ones I have now I think I’ve really progressed.”

Ouyang said he thinks the résumé is an important tool when it comes to getting hired.

“The résumé is the first barrier when it comes to checking if someone is qualified,” he said. “As long as the information on that page is concrete and complete, I think it would be hard for an employer to ignore it, especially if it’s good.”

Junior finance major Ahmad Khokhar said he learned the most important thing on a résumé is the content.

“People got to realize that it’s important to target your résumé to specific types of jobs if not employers,” Khoklar said.  “If you have a lot of random stuff in your résumé, employers can get confused.”

Khoklar said that a résumé is even more important than your degree.

“It’s more important because experience is all that matters,” he said.

Luis Guerra, store manager of paint supplier Sherwin Williams, said that résumé are important because they are the only piece of information his store has on prospects.

“It’s the main thing we look for,” Guerra said. “When you drop it off, it’s all that we have. It allows us to look into what it is you do.”

Guerra added that even if a student résumé may not have a lot in it, it’s up to them to fill it with duties that matter.

“We get people without field experience all the time, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have a résumé,” he said. “We look at all sorts of factors in this piece of paper. We look at your degree; we look at previous experience and extracurricular activity. If you worked hard to pay for school, while being active and still able to graduate, then I can really tell your degree means more to you than others.”

Guerra of Sherwin Williams was one of plenty of employers from a list that included companies such as McAfee and Lockheed Martin that were at the résumé blast to critique resumes and listen to one-minute commercials, according to Anita Manuel, career consultant and program manager at the SJSU Career Center.

“We definitely designed the two events this week to really prepare our students for Tuesday’s job fair,” Manuel said. “We were able to teach the basics, teach people how to market themselves, and then have the confidence and first hand experience to do so—all while having your reviewed by professionals.”

Manuel said she doesn’t see the résumé being phased out anytime soon, even with the growth of social networking websites like LinkedIn, which allows its users to list their work experience and accomplishments with a network that includes business professionals.

“The résumé is still the number one way of marketing yourself,” she said. “People still ask for your résumé. It’s like your banner ad. If it’s successful, you’ll get an interview. It’s the face-to-face contact that will get you noticed.”

Katie Fitch, an SJSU alumna with a degree in business administration, went through the whole process and found herself in familiar territory recruiting new graduates to Target as an executive team leader in human resources.

"I was recruited in this very building at the career fair here a few years ago," she said. "I was very prepared.  I earned an 'early bird pass' from the career center for going to all the prep workshops which allowed me to talk to the companies I was interested in before everybody else."

Fitch said she had what a normal college student would expect to have on her résumé, but she also put an emphasis on the things she did on campus.

"I was very active in school as I was in a business society, and I worked full-time," she said. "Résumé are very important. It's your one shot to make a lasting impression free of mistakes and judgements. San Jose State has done a great job preparing students for this very moment. This is why we (Target) keeps coming back year after year."