Get insider knowledge on hot tips and tricks from the associate director of Engineering Career Services on this episode of Just a SEC. Our student hosts are joined by Roland Block as they discuss what employers look for in a resume and how to be successful in an interview.
Get insider knowledge on hot tips and tricks from the associate director of Engineering Career Services on this episode of Just a SEC. Our student hosts are joined by Roland Block as they discuss what employers look for in a resume and how to be successful in an interview.
Howdy! I'm Bri, one of the two new student hosts for the Soundbytes podcast. So last episode, you learned a little bit more about me and my role in the SEC. So now we're going to be asking some questions for my co-host, Leanne.
Leanne Khashab:I really love public speaking actually. I wasn't the greatest at it by far. But after listening to some of the podcast recordings on Spotify, I was like, this is really cool. And I love podcasts. I've, I don't remember the name of it but me and my sister used to listen this one like murder podcast. And like, it was our favorite thing. And she's going kill me because I don't remember, but I loved it. And I was like, that'd be a really cool opportunity. So I, I talked to my like, family, and I was like, I think I'm going do it. So here I am.
Bri Navas:Well, that's awesome to hear. So kind of as a fellow computer science major, if you missed that, in the last episode, we're both comp sci majors, which is kind of exciting. What particularly made you want to go into computer science?
Leanne Khashab:My family is all computer science. Every single person in my family. My grandma always makes jokes. She's like,"Does anybody want to do anything different here?" But my uncle did computer science, Mom, Dad, then I took 102, which is that introduction class and I loved it. I was like, "Okay, I think this is for me." And um, it just kind of interested me more, because I was like, I can see that there's so many different paths you can take with it, you don't have to do just the same thing that everyone else does. You can go in so many different routes within.
Bri Navas:Yeah, I feel that there's a lot of different like routes you can take with computer science. And so particularly speaking, because you said your family all kind of does different things. So what field of computer science have you tried to go into?
Leanne Khashab:So right now I'm getting my minor in cybersecurity. I'm going to see how I like that. That's what my mom does. And we kind of think really similar in a lot of ways, and she's like, "You should try it out. See how you like it." So getting my minor in that. We're going to see how I like that. But also did some, we did the I don't know, you probably also did this for your class, because we're in the same classes, but a little bit of like data science and like working with databases was kind of cool for one of our projects we just did. So that also really interests me. But what about you?
Bri Navas:Oh my gosh. Me, I'm trying to go into UX design specifically. I really like, well, I'm a fan of marketing. Again, if you see in the last episode, I'm a fan of marketing. And I think a lot of the principles of marketing really translate into UX design. So when I found out about it, I was like, "Yeah, this is definitely a field that I would like to go into." Just because it's really interesting to see kind of like the psychology of like the way that people interact with different interfaces and things like that.
Leanne Khashab:It is cool. It's fun to think how people think and try to, you know, build off of that.
Bri Navas:Yeah, like watch them interact with your software.
Leanne Khashab:Yeah, exactly.
Bri Navas:I'm Brianna Navas.
Ritika Bhattacharjee:And I'm Ritika Bhattacharjee.
Bri Navas:And today we're talking to Roland Block, the associate director of engineering career services. We're going to be learning about the job application process, resume writing and connecting with an interviewer.
Roland Block:Oh, and who really knows what they want to do in their lives? That's for sure. So we have experts in the Career Center. Me personally, I was a mechanical engineer, did product engineering, R&D project management. Worked my way up to marketing product management up to director of global marketing roles. So it's never a straight line. It sort of looks like the lightning bolt that hits the sand and it goes everywhere. That's more like career paths typically are. We have different experts on staff. So we have people that are designed and, and their career paths are to help students figure out which way to go, you know, and helping them understand what are the different roles and what majors help them get there. So whether you have a great idea of what you want to go into, or you're just looking to, let's say, I have ETAM coming up, and I know I want this first major, but maybe I won't get it. So what are the other majors that help me get the career I'm looking for? We don't do academic related questions. That's the, the realm of the academic advisors who are the experts. But when it comes to what are the different roles and jobs and career paths that are possible, and what's out there in industry, we can definitely help that. We can also help if they want to go into professional schools, you know, if you want to be a lawyer, and there's a ton of engineers that are patent attorneys, or doctors, we have a lot of biomedical engineering students or mechanical or electrical that want to go up into different paths. So regardless of where your career path takes you, there are specialists within the Career Center that can help you figure out the best or the best ways of getting there.
Bri Navas:Wow, that's really great that y'all do that. I feel like that is especially one of the hardest parts of ETAM is just deciding where you want to go with your career. Would you say that's the most popular thing that students need help with from the Career Center, or are there other things that students come to you guys for?
Roland Block:The, probably the most popular things students come to the Career Center for are reviewing resumes. And what I always stress to students is if you just come to the Career Center for a resume review, you're totally missing out on the vast majority of what we can have to offer. When I talk to students, what I'll often say is finding an opportunity and the career that you're really seeking; it's very much a process. And the first step is understanding your brand. What makes you special and unique? Why should this employer hire you over the other 50 people they're interviewing, or the other 50 people they're looking at? And so it starts with a brand, then it goes to maybe the cover letter and resume. And then how do you perform on an interview? And then, when you do get the job, and you do great on all those things, what are the different job offers I have? How can I negotiate the best possible offer for myself? And then even as your career is going on, do you know the skills of networking, so that you can continue on and grow in your career. Ad so we can help you across the board in that entire spectrum. And then once you graduate, we have an entire department Career Center people that are dedicated to former students as well. So we're not just here for you when you're a current student; we're here for you when you're a former student as well.
Ritika Bhattacharjee:That's so much wonderful advice that helps us think critically about our career paths and where we want to go in the future. So one thing. I do know you have a son that's about our age, and you yourself graduated not too long ago. So is there a particular piece of advice that you would recommend or you wish your past self knew when you were college age?
Roland Block:Yeah, that's such a good question. Because that was some of the things that I had asked myself when I came on board. I've been with the Career Center for about five years now. And that's sort of where I was thinking about what were some of the pieces of advice I knew, or maybe I did some things just out of pure luck that ended up helping me in my career. And so for my son, who just had Ring Day on Friday. Whoop! So that was really exciting. There's a few different pieces of wisdom. When he was starting out, one of the things that I said was, it's really important to start building a community, a network. So what I would look for would be to think about joining one professional society. So you can find a mentor that's been there and done that. But then also join a social organization or something along those lines. And there's so many FREEs and FLOs and FLOCs, and all those type of freshmen organizations, that, that way you can relate to people that aren't engineers, because we sometimes are a little different than other types of majors. And when you go out into, you know, outside of college, you work with all different majors from all different spectrums of the world. So it's great to get those perspectives. The other advice that I gave him starting out was, you know, when you're not sure about something, ask for help. I was calculating. I've looked at over 2,000 resumes in my life, because I did a lot in industry, a lot for students, because I was an engineer that worked my way up in marketing. So I had looked at so many resumes, and then I get here and the students that tried to do it themselves. You can see it on their resumes a lot of time. There, it just, it's not as effective as ones, and you look at a really nice resume, and it'd be like, "Wow, this resume looks great." It's like, oh, yeah, well, I dropped by for for drop-in hours, which we have just opportunities throughout the week for students to drop in and get them checked up. Yeah, I've done it a couple times or I used VMock, your AI automated, you know, resume review tool as like, Wow, this looks fantastic. And then there's been a lot of creative resumes that we've seen. I mean, there, I've seen a picture of a puppy on a resume. So that was creative, but not necessarily the most effective approach.
Bri Navas:Right. That's really great that you guys cater that to the college experience, because I'm like, I feel like I definitely relate to that it's hard to find resources for students. And so with the like, resume review that you guys do, do you have any like quick tips for resumes that you maybe our listeners would like to hear?
Roland Block:I'll give you the, the two best tips, the, and it relates to the two biggest mistakes that I've seen on resumes, not just for students, but for experienced professionals as well. One of the biggest ones is when we write a resume, we typically think, "Let me tell you all about myself." Well, guess what? That is the least effective way to write a resume. The most effective way to write a resume is to think, think about how can I show this employer I'm a great fit for this job and their organization. What do I have to offer them? Because when you're an employer, you have a hole in your organization. That's what you're trying to hire for, And you're trying to see who's a good fit to fill in that hole. And a lot of times what the resume shows is just sort of like, let me throw all this stuff up against the wall and hopefully they'll figure it out. Well, the first person that reviews a resume and filters it is usually an HR person that's not a technical expert, or it's a robot. So when you have an opportunity, find two or three job descriptions for the role and industry you're looking for, and highlight the key terms that they're looking for and make sure you're using those terms in your resume. The second part that you'll see a lot of times are that bullets in the resume are very important. That's like the meat of the resume. It's close to Thanksgiving. And the way to think about it is the formatting of the resume a lot of times like the place setting. It can look great, and that's nice. But when you're reviewing resumes, you're looking for the meat, the turkey, the ham, whatever. You eat the side dishes. You want a nice meal out of it, and the bullets are the meat. A lot of times you'll look at somebody's experience, and it looks more like a job description. I did this, I did this, I did this, I did this. Well, that's not effective. So think about not just what you did, what did you accomplish? What were the results? What was the impact, the scale? How can you add in important numbers, dollars and percentages to it. And you'll be amazed at how much more effective your resume is.
Ritika Bhattacharjee:Thank you so much for those wonderful tips on resumes, and what content is important and critical for us to put in. So as we all know, resumes usually lead to, if it's a good resume, an interview. With the modern landscape changing to become more virtual, so you have Zoom interviews and phone interviews, how do you navigate that, and does it differ if you're applying for an engineering job versus a marketing job versus a job in HR? As you mentioned, you had had experience in all three.
Roland Block:When it comes to interviewing, the same fundamentals are in place no matter what. Now, it can be a lot more challenging when you're talking to a screen than when you're talking to a person, because you can't read the cues, you can't see how it's coming across. And it's much harder to be engaging. So what I'll start with is just sort of overall what you can do to have an effective interview. The most important thing to do is to start with preparation. Do you know about the organization? The next thing that you can do to have a great interview is to make sure that you have your stories ready. You want to, the most challenging type of interview questions are called behavioral interview questions, because they go, "Tell me about a time when." And if you're just trying to think about the answer to that, you're already behind the curve. So to prepare for those, it's great to Google behavioral interview questions and figure out what are the some of the common ones. When it comes specifically to the interview process itself, one of the first things you want to do is think about what is your goal. The, one of the greatest challenges I've seen for students is they think they have to be perfect. I say, forget about all that. Your goal in the interview is not to get a job. It's not to get the internship. It's how can you build a connection with the person that you're talking to? One of the most important thing is employers look for is is this person genuine? Because ultimately, when it comes to an interview, as somebody that's hired a lot of people, I'm trying to figure out is this person going to be successful. And with engineering, a lot of times your background is I know they're technically strong, I'm trying to get a feel for who they are and whether their personality will fit with our corporate culture and with our team. And the challenge is, if you're trying to be so perfect, you're not letting your natural, genuine self come out. And so it makes it harder for the person that's interviewing you to find out if you're a good fit. And so the, and that puts a risk on it. Well, I they were really stiff, I couldn't get a feel for who they were. So now if I had somebody that was genuine and I got a good feel for them, all of a sudden, they're less risky than the person that was trying to be perfect. When it comes to building a connection, there are certain things that you can do to really build a nice connection. When you're talking to somebody, look them in the eye. When you're talking to a screen it's a lot more challenging, right? So there's some tricks that you can do for that. Sometimes I'll have a little square post it note with a smiley face on it, you know, like, have a good day, right next to the camera. So I talk to the smiley face. I know my youngest son had to do a video interview. And as a teenager, that's really intense. And he was a little shy to begin with. And so what we did is we put a picture of his best friend right behind the computer where the camera was, and was like, just talk to your best friend. And all of a sudden, he did amazing on it, ended up getting the job.
Ritika Bhattacharjee:So final question to help close out the episode. How do you see students as well as yourself in your own life growing through challenges? And how do you overcome fear paralysis that often comes with these big changes and big decisions? Any advice?
Roland Block:Wow, what a great question. When it comes to large decisions, one of the most important things to realize is that there is no right or wrong answer. So when you're starting out your career, it can be scary. Your career path is not going to be a straight line typically. I've known almost nobody that has had a straight line career path, very rarely. Usually, you're working your way up to all different things and you think you got it going on. And then an opportunity comes out of nowhere. And you take it and go with it. So you're going to have that throughout your career. So what I would say is be open to opportunities that they present themselves and don't worry about the road that you didn't take. Because they're all leading to somewhere you want to go.
Bri Navas:Well, those were really wise words of advice. Thank you. I'm like excited to go start applying for jobs after listening to you, but I think that's really great that you're providing a lot of simple tips, but I think they do make a huge impact.
Ritika Bhattacharjee:For more resources on resumes, preparing for career fairs and interviews, visit careercenter.tamu.edu. Be sure to launch the job portal, Hire Aggies, to apply to over 60,000 different postings, including many from Fortune 500 companies. My name is Ritika Bhattacharjee, and you're listening to SoundBytes.
Hannah Conrad:Thanks for listening to the Texas A&M Engineering Soundbytes podcast. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Texas A&M University System. Soundbytes is part of the Texas A&M podcast network. To find more official Texas A&M podcasts, go to podcast.tamu.edu.