Winter Blues

The past few days have been quite...well, let's just say that it hasn't been as enjoyable as the past few weeks have been. I think that the stress of the term so far has finally taken its toll on my overall cheerfulness. It doesn't help that the job hunt (or rather, then internship hunt) has started in full swing, and the stress about that is overwhelmingly high.

The key to getting a job or an internship here lies in one word - networking. Well, that's 99% true. The other 1% is consulting type jobs where networking doesn't hold as much value as does a strong resume and great grades. In addition to the networking, one needs to write a really impressive and distinctive cover letter (which ideally should be based on information gathered during networking). Only then, will one have a chance to even interview at most of the companies.

Sometimes I think back to when I interviewed out of grad school in Cinti and remember fondly how easy that process was. It consisted of three steps. 1) Send resume by email (preferably in text format so that MS Word is not needed to read it. 2) Get called for a phone interview. 3) If you impress in the phone interview, it's free travel and lodging for an on-site interview. Of course, the implicit assumption here is that your resume is getting read by someone! :) And of course, that means that you ought to have had a network to begin with.

It's clear that the more people you know, the better your chances for a successful career. This is probably true for almost any profession. So much for grades, right?