Burgeoning Industry Means Jobs

Written by Andrew Morin

Even before its latest political move to become a city, Framingham has always been a hotspot for industries and jobs.  Now, making headlines in the area, Framingham is only going to continue to grow.  It has never been a better time to be an FSU student or recent grad, seeing that companies are setting up new headquarters and expanding all over the area.  While this applies to everyone, all you comm. arts and computer science majors will rejoice because the theme seems to be tech-companies…

For instance, the gaming company Disruptor Beam is doubling its size in Framingham, which means they will be hiring.  Never heard of them?  They brought you mobile games for shows like “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones.”  Or take the the human resources software firm Globoforce, as another example.  They work with many large clients, like Hershey and Jet Blue, to create innovative software for businesses to better recognize their employees.  The movement of their headquarters to Framingham, from Southborough, doubles their size as well as creates 17 new positions in the area.  A third example is the mobile-tech company Applause, situated in Framingham’s business park alongside speaker-giant Bose.  Applause tests softwares as well as provides user feedback and market research.  Boston Business Journal ranks Applause as the second largest mobile technology company in Massachusetts, based on the total number of Mass. employees.

And that’s just in Framingham.  The mobile-tech industry looks like its popping up all over.  Within the area, you might also want to consider ViziApps Inc. an online app builder and designer based in Wellesley, or Mobiquity Inc. a company dedicated to creating businesses’s online persona in Waltham.  Boston Business Journal reports that 3 of the top 10 largest mobile technology companies in Massachusetts are in Burlington, those companies being Everbridge a company that makes mass emergency response software for many businesses, Alpha Software Corp. who focuses on making reliable apps for businesses, and Qstream a company that works with many large clients making software for salespeople to be more effective at their job.

If mobile technology doesn’t make you warm and fuzzy, how about the fun and interesting world of robotics?  3 of the top 10 robotics companies in Massachusetts are right around the corner in Waltham: QinetiQ North America a company that has many facets and also works with the military, Boston Engineering who emphasizes in product development for an array of industries, and Corindus Vascular Robotics Inc. an industry leader in robotic-assisted vascular interventions.  There is also Barrett Technology LLC in Newton, a company that specializes in making robotic manipulators, such as robotic arms and hands for industrial or commercial purposes.  Or even more in our backyard, ReWalk Robotics Inc. in Marlborough which makes a robotic exoskeleton for those who have had a spinal chord injury.

In addition to these ones I’ve listed, there are many more mobile-tech and robotics companies flourishing in Boston.

While the tech-industry is not everyone’s thing, if it is yours, you should be happy to see that the industry seems to be growing in the state.  And more importantly, it’s growing right here in Framingham.  This means more job opportunities for FSU students and grads.

★Tech aside, a flashy media-related opportunity could be on the horizon in Needham.  NBCUniversal is planning on building a regional headquarters there.  According to Boston Buisness Journal, “The facility could span a minimum of 165,000 square feet—though the company is already considering taking on an additional 50,000 square feet beyond that—and house 375 employees.”  That means lots of jobs for media-industry students and grads.★

Jobs are becoming abundant in the area, so stay on the lookout!

 

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Further Insights into the Reverse Career Fair

Written by Andrew Morin

After attending the CSER Office’s Reverse Career Fair and following my own advice from my previous post Reverse Career Fair Preparation, there are a few tips I realize I can expand upon, as well as share additional things I learned along the way.  This post is to serve as deeper insight into the fair.

Before getting into the meaty points, the most important tip must be given: arrive EARLY.  There is a quick, intense atmosphere at the Reverse Career Fair, so you’ll want to get there early to avoid as much confusion as possible, and acclimate yourself.

And once you’re in the fair…

Poster Boards

• You notice them when you first walk in.  Make them clear, but a little flash doesn’t hurt.  With many poster boards towering employers, make yours speak differently.  Better yet, present a picture slideshow on a laptop alongside an informational (not too dense!) poster board.  Some employers are shy, but most don’t want to waste time.  A poster board is the most efficient way to pull people in.

Standing at your Table

• Amongst the poster boards, you’ll want to be visible.  That, and you’re much more approachable, standing at your table with a smile.  There’s an essence of confidence in this standing position, as well as attentiveness.  Plus, all the employers are walking around and standing, so show them you are their equal.  Sitting down may make you appear lazy, and can trick your mind into wandering when you want to be focused.

Eager Beavers

• Being eager will get you far.  If you are there, want to be there.  Stay alert and vigilant, making eye contact, smiling, and politely saying, “Hello.”  If you seem distant, employers will notice and also be distant.  This point cannot be emphasized enough.  The more eager you are to work for these people, the more likely you will get a chance with one of their companies.  Get comfortable talking to people about yourself: your strengths, goals, things you’ve made, things you’ve done, etc.  And don’t forget enthusiasm, for yourself and for the employers.

Swag

• Realistically, everyone loves to walkaway with swag.  From the employers perspective: it’s gratifying and makes you that much more memorable.  It can get to a point of being showy, but walking that fine line is what will make you standout from everyone else.  Whether its stickers you designed, business cards, candy with your logo on it, or just regular candy, having something to walkaway with leaves an impression that stays with employers beyond the face-time you already had.

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Pro Tip: Employers most likely already know who you are, so keep your head up if employers seem to walk by you.  Before the fair, you will need to send a short bio to the CSER Office, and this will be seen by the employers.  You will want to make your bio attractive to the employers you would like to work for the most, so that way when they see the list and are deciding who they are going to see, you are one of those people.

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Keeping all these things in mind will almost guarantee a successful Reverse Career Fair.

Reverse Career Fair Preparation

Written by Andrew Morin

This post is going to go over how you should prepare for the Career Services and Employer Relations Office’s bi-annual Reverse Career Fair.  What’s a reverse career fair?  Why, what a phenomenal question, old sport.  A reverse career fair is, as you may have guessed at this point, the opposite of a traditional career fair.  At this funky, futuristic, space-age, hip reverse career fair, YOU will sit behind the table and employers will come to YOU.  (The caps-lock on the you should not intimidate you, but instead express how much better it is; the pressure is on them).

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Some things to get in order before the fair:

• Your Experience

  • Examples
    • Get your best work together, academic and personal, to showcase to employers and build a relevant network for yourself.  This is one of your best opportunities to shine.
  • Resume
    • Have your resume polished to impress employers.
  • Get comfortable talking about yourself and your skills
    • Practice makes everything easier.  Get thinking about your transferable skills.  Taking part in this fair shows that you are a leader, by nature of the fair.  Show off these leadership skills and qualities, as well as your professional skills.

• Stop by the CSER Office

  • Room 412 in the McCarthy Center.  A Career Counselor would love to look at what you are going to present to employers at the Reverse Career Fair.  They will give guidance and insight to further refine your presentation and presenting ability, as well as endlessly help with your resume.

• Register

  • Click Here to Register
  • Registration is required but easy.  Register by yourself, or as a team or club at the link above.  There’s two different time slots: 12:00pm to 1:30pm, and 1:30pm to 3:00pm; pick whichever fits with your schedule best.

Once you have those essentials squared away, here’s some additional tips:

• Dress the Part

  • Dress professionally so employers see you as a professional at first glance. Don’t overlook the power of appearance!  Even business casual versus sloppy casual makes a huge difference and may just give you an advantage over others.

• Get Creative

  • Make a unique poster or an eye-catching slide show.  (Pro tip: the CSER office might give you a poster board if you ask nicely.)  Draw employers to your table. This is a way to standout from everyone else and show what you’ve got.                                          (http://i.imgur.com/dmNiHMQ.png)

• Don’t Forget to Smile

  • REALLY DON’T!  This is all about networking, so smile, smile, smile; you never know who will be around.  Always stay positive.  It helps increase your confidence (even if you don’t feel it).

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Save the date: Friday, April 7, 2017 in the McCarthy Center Forum

Employers range from ad agencies and marketing firms to management, I.T. and sales. There is something to accommodate everyone, so sign up and make some connections. Well, what if none of the employers are relevant to me?  Sign up anyway for the practice, plus the chance to meet someone who knows someone.

If you keep all this in mind, you should leave the bi-annual Reverse Career Fair with some great experience and maybe even some new contacts and opportunities.

A Beginner’s Guide to the CHOICE Internship Program

Written by Andrew Morin

You’ve heard of the CHOICE program…okay, maybe you haven’t really. Oh, whispers of it? Maybe?  Well this post will outline this amazing internship program for you, hopefully answering any immediate questions you may have.

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Basically, the CHOICE Internship Program pays you for your non-paid internship.  Simple enough.  The nitty-gritty?  The CHOICE program stands for the Community/Hometown Organizations Internships and Cooperative Education program.  Ultimately, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts funds the program, giving FSU extra money to pay students for gaining experience from internship sites that otherwise would not give out money.  The program impressively pays students up to $2,000.  So, it’s safe to say Massachusetts appreciates the cultivation of knowledge.  But there are requirements for you, the student, and for the employer who you want to intern for.

Student Requirements:

• Must have a 2.75 cumulative GPA or higher and be approved by the Office of the Registrar
• Be enrolled as a full-time student
• Meet the Massachusetts in-state tuition residency requirement
• File the FAFSA form and receive Financial Aid approval
• Earn academic credit for the semester that they participate, requiring prior faculty approval and faculty internship supervision
• Be registered on Ramtrack

Not bad, right?

Employer Requirements:

• Must be a Framingham/MetroWest-based academic center, governmental agency, nonprofit business or community organization
• Provide an educational internship experience
• Agree to abide by the intern’s departmental internship guidelines including supervision and evaluation procedures
• Be approved by the student’s Internship Faculty Advisor and the FSU Internship Coordinator
• Post the position on Ramtrack
• Confirm on a bi-weekly basis the intern-submitted actual internship hours worked by the appropriate deadline to the internship coordinator
• Agree to FSU Employer Internship Requirements

Once again, not too bad.  As far as finding an employer that fits the CHOICE criteria goes, you can always log on to Ramtrack and see the many employers already involved.  Though, as mentioned, if you have an employer in mind that you think meets the criteria, all you need to do is get it approved by the internship coordinator.

Since the start of the program in 2013, over 300 students have successfully completed internships from 141 unique sites.  You could do the math yourself, but that’s approximately $614,000 that the program has distributed to students.

It’s an alluring program with nothing but benefits for you, so if you’re interested, come down to the CSER office, room 412 in the McCarthy Center.  There, you can take advantage of all the brochures and many lists detailing the opportunities associated with the CHOICE Internship Program.  You can meet Jill Gardosik, our internship coordinator, who oversees the CHOICE Internship Program.  Plus, you can always schedule an appointment (508-626-4625) with one of the career counselors to answer your questions, and ease your worries.

When you’re looking for an internship, you’ll want to act as soon as possible: meeting with the CSER office and getting an internship in place a semester in advance.  The CHOICE program is competitive and students can only use the CHOICE internship once.  It’s first-come-first-serve because there are limited funds for the program.  Don’t wait, come down to the CSER office and make an appointment.

Fear Not the CSER Office

Written by Andrew Morin

Hello, all.  I am Andrew, the new writing intern for the Career Services and Employer Relations office.

This is my whirlwind of a first impression of an office that can be seen as frightening, but ultimately isn’t.  This office offers so much to students, and I am so new to it, that this post will barely scratch the office’s surface.  And this post isn’t meant to scratch the surface, but merely look at the surface, which alone is something that many of us students find difficult.

I, a commuter, had only been at FSU for a year when I stepped into the CSER office, so, in my naiveté, the office was as anxiety provoking as any other FSU office.

There’s two things you notice upon stepping inside the peculiar CSER office.  First, foremost, and any other extreme word for being the immediate and blatant thing one notices, the staff are exceedingly nice.  Exceedingly.  Amongst the—now, this is the second thing you notice—surely hectic atmosphere of students and staff swooping in and out, the constant closing and opening of doors, the feverish typing of emails, you’ll be kindly greeted by Wendy at the front desk, who will courteously help you in any way she can.  “Have a seat, want any candy? Water? Or Tea?”

And while you may feel as though this hospitality is a show, (and believe me, I also had had my suspicions), after being in this office for over a week, I assure you, it is no show.  And if you think the comfortability stops there at the front desk, I assure you, it does not.  Wendy is just at the frontline, the harbinger, there to give you your bearing for your travels across the calm seas that are the CSER.  From Wendy to the always-helpful career counselors, to the director Dawn Ross, everyone is astoundingly amicable and accessible.  So, as far as there being any reasonable intimidation that you might feel regarding a visit to the CSER, I stress, it is not reasonable.

Once you’ve overcome any fear of entering the office, it may be appropriate to check out the wall of various flyers and handouts to get a sense of the scope of what the office offers us students.  Resumes, internships, job search tools, etc.  This is where your mind may start to become a bit unhinged, perhaps?  Fear not the CSER office, for even this worry of pure “Oh my gosh” can be gently tended to by the caring career counselors.

Just like the rest of you, I have a lot to learn about the CSER office.  I will continue this blog, posting about the CSER office and its various facets.  This being my first post, I thought it fitting to address one’s first impressions of the office, first impressions which can perhaps leave us a bit unnerved.  There are questions many of us have that can be answered, or we can at least be guided to an answer, by just stopping by the CSER and making an appointment.  I implore you to drop by and see for yourself just how helpful and not-scary the CSER office is.

Endgame

Written by Jesse Sannicandro

As I’m coming to the end of my Professional Writing Internship at the office of Career Services and Employer Relations (CSER), I’ve been reflecting on everything that I’ve done and learned here. I visited the office during the spring of 2016 for help with my resume, but that was the extent of my experience with career services before I started my internship. I didn’t entirely know what to expect beyond my few brief meetings over the summer with the director of CSER, Dawn Ross.

As I wrote in my first post, I hit the ground running right away, attending the Employment & Enjoyment Fair. This was somewhat of a daunting experience, and I quickly learned that the office was always bustling. I spent the next couple of weeks familiarizing myself with the office, its inner-workings, and the major amount of job-searching resources that it has to offer. I’ve studied nearly all of the forms that are available and used all of the online resources, including Vault and CareerSpots, and I’ve only scratched the surface of everything that CSER has to offer.

Dawn also encouraged me (as well as all of the other students working in the office) to take part in the Suitable Solutions professionalism program. This was a wonderful experience that helped me gain confidence in my job-searching skills. The most beneficial part of the program for me was the mock-interview process. Local businesses collaborated with CSER and sent their employees to conduct the interviews.

This official blog has been my favorite experience in terms of work that I’ve done for the office. Early on, it was made clear to me that I would be doing primarily self-directed work. There were a lot of options of projects that previous Professional Writing interns had worked on that I would be able to continue. The blog was originally created by Arianna Miller in 2015 and I decided to pursue that with a goal of creating one post per week. Before I put anything up I made sure that it was appropriate and was approved by Sarah Falber, one of the office’s esteemed career counselors. Whenever I showed Dawn the work I’d done, I was always elated to hear her say, “love it!”

Since the beginning of my internship, Dawn has stressed that I should work on a “legacy project,” something that I can leave behind when I move on. What I’ve been working on is a workbook called “Cracking the Vault,” that aims to demonstrate how to easily use the online resource, Vault. I have been feverishly crafting this workbook for the past couple of weeks, trying to perfect it. I’m pretty happy with the results and am glad to be able to leave something behind that will hopefully help students in the future.

Working at CSER has been a great experience. I’ve learned to collaborate on writing, put myself on a schedule, and think of original ideas to create focused blog posts. I consider myself lucky to have taken part in this internship. I’m glad to have had the experience, sad to have to leave, and excited for my future with all the skills that I have learned and developed at Career Services.

Adventures in LinkedIn Part 3: Keeping It Focused

 

Written by Jesse Sannicandro

I’ve been using LinkedIn actively for a couple of months now and I’ve slowly been learning how to use it effectively.  Lately, an important idea I’ve been keeping in mind is making sure that my personal profile has a focus.  Many people are unsure of what vocation they want to pursue and there are certainly people who take nonlinear career paths, but, it’s extremely useful to have a general idea of where to start.

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Experience

The experience section of your profile should be somewhat of a trade-off between what you’ve gained in educational and professional environments.  Since I am a student, I focus more on my education.  My work experience so far hasn’t been entirely related to the field that I want to enter as a career.  Classes that I’ve taken may be more relevant to the industry I want to pursue, so they can take the forefront.  This can also be the case for recent graduates who still have yet to gain much meaningful experience.  Meanwhile, someone who has been out of school for a while would be able to put more of a focus on their recent jobs.  It’s really a matter of give and take between these two realms.

Skills & Endorsements

It’s good to have a lot of skills on your page, but it’s more important to include those that are relevant to the field that you are pursuing—you don’t want to have too many skills.  Things that are not related to your industry or future profession should probably not be included on your page.  Your first-degree connections can vouch for you by giving you skill endorsements.  When other people can verify that you have the skills that you say you have, this increases your credibility and helps to build your personal brand.  You are able to organize your top skills and should make sure that your most important ones are at the top so that they can be noticed first.  You can do this by putting them in order of importance.  It’s possible to hide others’ endorsements so that the skill that shows up first is the one that you feel is most important.  To do this, click the pencil icon located to the right of a specific skill and click “Manage Endorsements.”  Remember, highlight the skills that are most significant to your field.

Who to follow

You can follow companies and groups that you are interested in to see their posts.  You can add causes that you feel passionate about and join groups that pertain to your interests.  Not only will this let others know what kind of person you are, but because LinkedIn has an algorithm that tailors suggestions to you, companies that you otherwise would not have thought of can be recommended to you.  The more you put into your page, the more you will get out of it.

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Once your page has a focus you can start using LinkedIn to its full potential.  Based on your groups, connections, and experience that you have listed on your page, LinkedIn will suggest people with whom you may want to connect, and send you jobs that might be appropriate based on your previous jobs.  Currently, a lot of people who are suggested to me work at the same companies as me and, because I’m in retail, many of the jobs recommended to me are retail related.  I follow several companies and I get to see a lot of posts that interest me as a result.  The only thing I have yet to do is join groups and add causes to my page.  As I move forward, I’m hoping that my personalized suggestions will be more relevant to my future career goals than my past job experiences.  I hope to continue learning about networking and job searching as I continue to use LinkedIn.  After all I’ve learned, I have nothing but the highest of hopes for my future in networking on LinkedIn.