Building a Professional LinkedIn

Our Favorite Super Bowl Ads – Happy Job Searching!

Our favorite Ads from Super Bowl Sunday? They’d have to be…

CareerBuilder.com – Casual Friday

Monster.com Fiddling Beaver

Why? Because it doesn’t matter where you search for a job. It’s just that you do.

MySpartanCareer – LinkedIn – TwitterJobSearch – Monster – Career Builder

Happy Job Searching!

HOW-TO: Use LinkedIn to Find a Job

View more videos from Brett Kopf

A Breath of Fresh Air

It gets pretty tiring hearing about the depressed, jobless market that all of us college students are soon to be a part of, eh? Here, here! Fret no more- good news is on the way!

According to a CNN report, the number of unemployment claims made this week were the lowest since last January. Cool, right? Simply put, this means more job opportunities for all of us soon to be graduates. It gets pretty discouraging hearing about all of the downfalls of the current market, but we could have something going for us here. So strap on those career searchin’ boots, get inspired again, and check out the article for more details!

& now, every job that gets posted on myspartancareer also gets posted to their twitter account: follow myspartancareer & be in the loop on all job postings

Top 5 Free iPhone Apps for College Students

Most students own an iPhone, Blackberry, or some phone of smart phone. The latest craze about these phones is the ability to run apps on them. I compiled a list of the best iPhone apps for students. The best thing about the list is all the apps are FREE!

1) Career Builder – Offers the full capabilities of the career builder web site.
2) LinkedIn – Leverage your professional network on the go.
3) BigWords – Allows users to compare price of textbooks being sold online.
4) Evernote – One stop shop for note taking. Allows you to create text, photo, and voice notes
5) myHomework – Helps students stay organized by creating a calendar of assignments and when they’re due. Assignments are color coded, so you’ll know when due dates are coming and when they’re late.

Have another iPhone app that you feel has helped you as a student? Post it in the comments and let other students know about it so they can benefit too!

HOW TO: Use Twitter in your Job Search

Career Gallery is over…

Career Gallery is over! We all have internships, jobs and a positive outlook on the future!

Well, career fairs are a great way for people with practical ambitions to search for their after college employment, those of us with on the artsy “find-your-own-way-to-work-and-hope-your-not-a-waiter-for-life” route have to take a different approach. There are a variety of ways to make the connections you need and get the recognition your hard work deserves. These concepts can be used by anyone in any field.

When you meet someone that can help guide you in your career, make sure they remember you. This doesn’t mean you should strip naked and commit arson, make a positive impression. Have a, business card not one that is too simple and blurs together in the pile of prospective candidates, but one that shows your personality and is not something that is easy to throw away (cover it in glue! They’ll never lose it). Be careful that your card is not too flashy for your industry. Make sure you know the climate and appropriateness of your interactions with professionals.

Another thing to consider is a website. If having a portfolio is something that aides your job search, having a website to put it on is a great way to do it. Get a domain and use one of the various resources online to author your web page. You can also include a blog, this allows employers to get to know who you are. (make sure you don’t talk about your drunken escapades, remember employers will look at it) Believe it or not, employers want to hire a person who is compatible with their company, not just a lemming to do their work and go home.

Looking to Jet? Top 10 Best Countries for Business in 2009

Career Gallery has ended, winter is approaching, mid semester pressure is kicking in, and there are still tons of MSU students feverishly interviewing around campus in search of career opportunities for next semester. Is one of the Big Four accounting firms calling your name? More interested in marketing work somewhere on the East Coast? Hell, perhaps you want to go out of the country?

If that’s the case, Forbes has an article that I found to be particularly interesting. With informative statistics, beautiful pictures and a clear breakdown of each ranking countries the Top 10 Best Countries for Business in 2009 have been established as:

1. Denmark
2. United States
3. Canada
4. Singapore
5. New Zealand
6. United Kingdom
7. Sweden
8. Australia
9. Hong Kong
10. Norway

Now could be an opportunity to snag that international position you have been looking for! To find more details on each country check out Forbes Top 10 Best Countries for Business in 2009.  And remember there are tons of of resources through MSU where you can further your global research, like globalEDGE & Going Global.

Facebook Dilemma: Recruiters & Future Employers – “Add as Friend”?

Social networking sites are clearly the latest craze, everything from Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn to Twitter. Everyone seems to ‘plugged in’ somehow…maybe even your boss? Which is exactly why you should be extremely content conscious with what you post!

It also poses the question should you friend request your recruiter in the first place? Answer: NO. We all love to post photos from that wacky party the other night or tweet about how much we abhor or obsess over one thing or another, but is the constant censoring worth it?

BUT there are ways you can use Social Media to further your career search. Find that company you’re interested on Facebook and become a fan of their page. Find them and follow them on Twitter.

Even if you don’t add recruiters as a friends, doesn’t mean they can’t find you. Make sure you adjust your privacy settings so your profile is closed to those who aren’t your friends. (Settings > Privacy Settings > Profile) & that includes hiding even your profile picture if it’s going to be unprofessional!

The risk of losing or not getting a job based on your Facebook profile is a major bummer. Who wants the stress!?

For more, check out our CASHtip clip from Nestle recruiter on Networking.

Lights…Cameras…Action! Jobs in the Film Industry

Let’s go to the place where filmmakers instinctively flock like the salmon of Capastra, I’m talking about a little place called Michigan!  Ever since last April the film industry has infiltrated the great state we call Michigan.  It’s a wonder why Hollywood never tapped into the beautiful coastlines of our mitten, but all it took for it finally to happen was the generous film tax incentive that passed last April.  Since the bill’s passing roughly 2000 film related jobs have been created throughout the state along with over $100 Million spent on production related costs.  In 2007 there were only 2 movies filmed in Michigan, in 2008 the number jumped to 35 and so far in 2009 there are 85 movies that have either been made or have pending production applications!   So how come all the sudden Michigan has become the place to be for film?  It all roots back to the tax incentive.  This incentive gives the companies up to a 42% tax credit on production costs.  This tax credit is so attractive because it is in competition with Montana’s 12%, New Jersey’s 20% and New York’s 35%.

There couldn’t be a better time for the movie business to make a presence in Michigan.  Ever since the auto industry took the groinal blow not too long ago, we have had plenty of restless working hands that are perfect for manning movie sets.  Not only that, but the city of Detroit alone is perfect for the movie business because it has the big city feel with a small town population.  Because we have so many abandoned homes in the city filmmakers will be able to close of city blocks for their movies without disturbing anyone.  A few movies such as “The Irishman” starring Val Kilmer and Christopher Walkin and “Whip It” starring Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore have already filmed in Detroit along with many other locations throughout Michigan.

So what can you do?  Instead of just sitting around and reading about big changes that are happening in a town near you, do something about it and get involved.  For information regarding jobs check out websites such as http://michiganfilm.com , http://www.productionhub.com, and http://www.michiganfilmproduction.com/jobs.  These are only a few that can be easily found through the web.

And remember, there’s no business like show business.

MSC – Account & Profile Setup

Struggling to get into MySpartanCareer? We’re here to help.

1st Time Login

• Go to www.myspartancareer.com
• Select MSU Student Log-In
• Enter your NetID & password, the same one you use to get into your email (your MSU Net ID for students – note: not your PID)
• Select

Welcome to MySpartanCareer! (screenshot)

Create a profile

• Select Profile
• Enter Profile Information: “Personal Information“

Key information that is crucial you enter correctly & keep up to date:

• MSU e-mail listed under ‘Personal Information’
• Prospect graduation date (Academic Information)
• Year In School (Academic Information)

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT! If any of these categories are out of date or not filled in, you might not be eligible for a position that you’re dieing to get…

Once you’ve filled in all the required fields, start searching for jobs.

How To: Change your password

• Click on the Password/Preferences tab
• Enter your old password & new password

Easy enough? Make sure you ‘Save Changes’ when you’re done filling in any info, it will save you from having to start all over again.

OK, what is the deal with Twitter?

Who would even follow me? I don’t need to update everyone on my every move! Sound familiar? I hear it all the time.  But here’s the thing – don’t look at twitter as a way to give out your personal information (unless you want to), instead think of it as a way of getting information from others.  One thing is for sure, Twitter is blowing up…at a rate of 1,382% to be exact (as of March).  One thing is for sure, it doesn’t seam to be going anywhere anytime soon.  So it’s time to stop wondering, and start utilizing twitter for everything it can do for you.  And yes – there’s lots it can do.

Don’t know where to start? Well you’re in luck – mashable (a great resource for online social media) has just released a Twitter Guide Book for those who are new to Twitter.

The best part about Twitter? The external sites that people have developed to utilize the information flowing through tweets…even for your jobs search: www.TwitterJobSearch.com a job search engine for twitter.

There are tons of twitter’s you can follow that strictly post job postings. How to find them?  Once you make your twitter account click “find people” search “[city] jobs” [replace city with the city of your choice] and see what job twitterers are out there.  For example, want to live in Chicago? I just searched Chicago jobs & these are just the first 5 that came up: chicagowebjobs, jobschicago,  jobchicago, Chicagocareers, GreenJobChicago all posting job openings.  Think about it – instead of you searching everywhere for jobs, all you have to click is “follow” and a constant flow of job postings will come to you!

Leave it up to our generation to come up with the most lazy way possible to have information come directly to us! But hey, who’s complaining?

& for those of you who still want to hate on twitter…enjoy….