From Andie Maret:
“Interview Strategies: Do I Fit the Company
& Does it Fit Me?” --- Hosted by 3M
Here are some general bullets on how you might interview
a company as they are interviewing you. The most useful advice I received in
this workshop was to think about what is important to you (what are you
priorities) and ask the company about how they will support them. For example,
I realized in this workshop that during my interviews I should be asking the
company about their support for SWE and if I would be able to continue my
involvement in my professional career if I was hired by that company.
·
Ask about the number of female executives are in
the company
o Be
careful to consider thought diversity versus physical diversity
·
Support of higher education
o What
is the companies support mechanism for continuous learning? Are there mentoring
programs or conference attendance support? Graduate school isn’t the only way
to continue education.
·
Career Mobility—what is a typical career path
like for a person in this company?
·
Ask about support of volunteerism/community
Involvement
·
Compensation philosophy -- constant competition with coworkers or a
system that promotes teamwork
·
Are there training and development programs for
new hires?
·
Ask to talk to someone who is a new hire
o Gain
insight to whether there is a competitive or collaborative culture
·
Ask yourself: Will I learn something from the
role? Am I excited and enthusiastic? Am I prepared to do this for 2 years?
·
When do you know if you fit?
o Stick
to it for 6-9 months
o Try
to move within company- maybe it’s just the role.
·
Think about what is important to you
o Allow
priorities to change
·
Lifestyle considerations
o Where
are the customers located—conference calls with Asia (time zones)
o Where
does work take place? At home?
·
Ask who held the position before you
o Promoted
or left the company?
From Ashley Vassell:
- My favorite part about the SWE Conference was the career fair, I liked it because it was a lot bigger than the RPI career fair and it was really good for networking. I feel like I learned a lot from it.
- My favorite program that I went to was on Cloud Computing, I really liked it because it covered the basics on cloud computing and it was kept at a level that even a beginner could understand.
- Overall I really enjoyed the conference I learned a lot about networking and how to improve RPI SWE!
From Sammie Garrabrant:
- Recruiters use social media such as Twitter and Facebook to look for new hires
- Suggested two separate accounts: one personal and one professional
- Develop a 60 second sell and practice it so that it becomes “second-nature”
