Interviewing effectively is an acquired skill. Very few people are so talented that they can do it well the first time without much preparation. If you really want to be successful in interviewing, I recommend that you start by understanding that there are things you must do before you interview, there are things to expect during an interview, as well as things you must do to follow up after an interview. 

What to do before you start interviewing

RESEARCH YOURSELF AND THE EMPLOYER - Know yourself thoroughly: your goals, your interests, your values, your strengths and your weaknesses. Employers will be asking you questions on all of these topics to see how well you fit with the position for which they are hiring. Take time and write out lists. Start by listing your long-term and your short-term goals. Where do you want to be in 3 to 5 years? Where do you want to be in 7 to 10 years? What are your interests? What knowledge do you have that you really want to apply? What are your greatest strengths? What are some of your weaknesses, and what are you doing to improve?

Know the employer thoroughly before your interview. Research as much as possible through the web and by visiting the job site and meeting with current employees to gather information about the available positions. You will want to know as much as you can about what technical expertise you will be using so you can go back and study notes from past classes and read current articles on industry related topics. You will want to study as if you are preparing for a final. Successful candidates have told me that they spend about 6 hours studying before an interview.

Now put together what you know about yourself and what you have learned about the employer and figure out how you fit the needs of the position and the organization. You will be asked questions like "Why are you interested in this position?" and "Why do you believe you would be successful in this position?"

Interviews are not really a mystery if you understand that employers are looking for a candidate that fits with their organization. They are going to ask you some standard questions. After a few interviews, you will quickly discover that they all ask pretty much the same questions. You can prepare for standard questions by reading a book that I use for my classes. "Knock ’em Dead" by Martin Yate is a great book that will help you prepare for interviews. It has a great list of questions, and it includes some really good answers so you can see what makes for a good answer.

What happens during the interview

RELAX - Interviews are just like any conversation with a new person. Employers will size you up based on how relaxed you are, if you are dressed professionally, if you know how to shake hands and just how well you handle meeting new people for the first time. Little things like showing up a little early, smiling, being confident and being extremely well prepared make all the difference in the world. I recommend that you show up at least 20 minutes early to use the restroom, do breathing exercises and review your notes, your resume, and your portfolio before your interview.

You can expect that you may be interviewed by several people over the course of the day, so don’t double schedule yourself. Share all information with enthusiasm with each person even if you end up saying the same thing seven or eight times.

My absolute best recommendation is to walk into every interview with the following thought on your mind... "If this job doesn’t come through, something better will." That gives you confidence even when you have been interviewing for three months and you are just about panicked that you will never get a job. I promise you that you will get a job... Chances are that if you receive this newsletter you don’t qualify to be permanently unemployed! It is just going to require that you find the right company and be extremely well prepared. It will happen.

What to do after an interview

DEBRIEF AND FOLLOW UP - After an interview you will want to sit in your car and scream or disintegrate into a little puddle. Resist the urge... Instead immediately write down everything you remember about the interview. This will help you prepare for your next interview by allowing you to analyze your performance and do better in your next interview or salvage the interview with a plan. What questions were you asked? What did you do well? What did you do poorly? What do you wish you had done or said that you did not? 

Next, send a thank you note to each of the persons who interviewed you. Thank them for the time they spent interviewing you and tell them that you appreciated the opportunity to share your interests and career goals. Tell them that you would welcome an opportunity to work in their company and tell them why. If you feel you could have answered a question more effectively, tell them what your answer would be now that you have had time to think. Many people that I have helped over the years have told me that sending a thank you note was the thing that distinguished them from the other candidates and got them the job.

Always follow up after an interview with a phone call in 2 to 3 days. Tell them that you are checking on the status of your application and that you are very interested in the job. One employer told me that he waited for candidates to follow up with a phone call and did not hire anyone who did not call. Many people are afraid of being pesty. Very few of the people I work with are pesty. Technical people are much more likely to let the ball drop than to be pesty in this situation.

Luck has nothing to do with interviewing well. Preparation and planning are everything! 

_______________________


This article and a ton of other helpful career planning and job search help is available in "The Ultimate Career Planning Manual for Engineers and Computer Scientists" available at the Hornet Bookstore and on Amazon.com.

Company
Date
 
Time
Location
Majors

Oregon Department of Transportation
September 12, 2008
11:30 - 1:00 pm 

RVR 2018
CE CM

Kiewit 
October 14, 2008
5:30 - 6:30 pm
Riverside Hall 2018
CE CM ME

San Diego Gas & Electric

October 15, 2008
3:30 - 5:30 pm
Riverside Hall 3014
EEE(power), CE

SJ Amoroso Construction
October 16, 2008
12:00 - 1:00 pm
RVR 2018

CE CM

C. Overaa & Co.
October 21, 2008
11:00 - 12:30 pm
Riverside Hall 2018
CE CM

Meade Construction Group, Inc.

October 28, 2008
11:00 - 12:30 pm
Riverside Hall 2018
CE, CM, MET


Austin Commercial
October 30, 2008 
11:00 - 12:00 pm
Riverside Hall 2018
CE, CM

 		 	 	
NAVSEA Port Hueneme
October 29, 2008
12:00 - 1:00 pm
RVR 3014

EEE, CPE, ME 

OC Jones
November 06, 2008
11:00 - 1:00 pm
RVR 3014
CE CM

General Construction Co.
November 12, 2008

11:00 - 1:00 pm
Riverside Hall 3014
CE CM ME

Companies can now sign up for Career Day 2009 at http://www.ecs.csus.edu/career/.
We opened sign ups in November and the response has been very strong. Last March we had 130 companies attend the hiring event and we had to turn away 18 companies for lack of space. This is the biggest hiring event for technical professionals in Northern California. Students and alumni turn out in droves to connect with potential employers. It is our single most productive hiring day. PUT MARCH 6TH ON YOUR CALENDAR!!!

We now have 64 companies signed up to attend the CSUS College of Engineering Career Day 2009 which will be held on Friday, March 6th. This is amazing! We are seeing steady demand for our majors in spite of the economy. Companies are surveyed about their hiring plans in conjunction with the sign up. The 64 organizations now signed up report having a total of 1799 openings! Here is the breakdown by majors:

43 will be hiring Civil Engineering majors
31 will be hiring Construction Management majors
15 will be hiring Computer Engineering majors
15 report hiring needs for Computer Science majors
25 report hiring needs for Engineering-Electrical & Electronic majors
28 will be hiring Mechanical Engineer majors
10 report hiring needs for Mechanical Engineer Tech. majors

The FBI will discuss career opportunities today in RVR 1008 at 2:00.  All are welcome.  The FBI is particularly interested in hiring technical majors.  The FBI provides both analyst and agent opportunities.  Come and listen to what it takes to join the FBI and what the challenges are for the Federal Government in fighting domestic crime.

The Yolo County One-Stop System Presents the Yolo Contery One-Stop Job Fair

When:
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Where:
Yolo County One-Stop Career Center
Inside the Department of Employment and Social Services
25 North Cottonwood Street
Woodland, CA 95695

• Dress for success and bring your resume
• Meet and interview with employers
• Find out about job opportunities
• Holiday, Temporary, and Permanent Positions
• Part-time and Full-time Employment

The International Conference on Information Technology - New Generations (ITNG) is an annual event focusing on state of the art technologies pertaining to digital information and communications. The applications of advanced information technology to such domains as astronomy, biology, education, geosciences, security and health care are among topics of relevance to ITNG. Visionary ideas, theoretical and experimental results, as well as prototypes, designs, and tools that help the information readily flow to the user are of special interest. High Performance Computing, Computing Architectures, and Innovative Methods of Computing are examples of the related topics. The conference features keynote speakers, the best student award, poster award, service award and a technical open panel, and workshops/exhibits from industry, government and academia.

Submission Deadline: November 7, 2008

Author Notification: December 19, 2008

Advance Registration: January 30, 2009

Camera Ready: February 20, 2009

Awards:
The conference offers the following awards:
1. Best Student Paper Award
2. Best Poster Paper Award
3. Service Award

Consideration for Journals:
A selected set of papers presented at the ITNG 2009 will be considered for publication in a special issue of an international journal.

Social Activites:
Preconference Reception (Track Chairs to meet authors), Evening, April 26, 2009 Conference Dinner Reception, Evening, April 28, 2009

Position No. 1 :

Job Title : Unix System Admin/TWiki Programming INTERN

Description :
Looking for a Student Intern for Unix System administration and TWIKI programming (Minimum one year) Sun Microsystems ISVe team.
ISV Engineering, is responsible for providing engineering assistance to Sun’s Independent Software Vendors.

Key Responsibilities : Include Solaris system setup, installation of application, identity/directory and portal servers, development of demos, writing whitepapers.

• Solaris Administration and network setup
• Scripting Language : Shell Script, PHP or Python
• TWiki Programming and administration.
• Good Knowledge of collaborative content development
• Web 2.0 programming Technologies :Twikis, Wikis and Blog.
• Platform : Unix, Linux, Sun App-server, apache

• Work independently
• Good communication skills
• Programming Language : Java or C/C++

Position No. 2 :

Job Title : SOFTWARE INTERN

Description : Looking for a graduate Student Intern that has one year to graduate for Sun Microsystems ISVe team.

Key Responsibilities : Providing engineering assistance to Sun’s Independent Software Vendors. Key responsibilities include Solaris system setup, installation of application, identity/directory and portal servers, development of demos, writing whitepapers.

• Good knowledge of C/C++/Java(J2SE,J2EE). Web 2.0 Programming
• Servlets/Java Server Pages
• Unix usage

• Work independent
• Good communication skills

How To Apply : Send resume to: Prameet.Chhabra@sun.com Prameet Chhabra ISVe Engineering Sun Microsystems Menlo Park, CA

Hello Cici!

I appreciate your hard work earlier in sending out our Intel Job postings for your Masters and PhD graduate students. I may have missed the deadline for your newsletter, but I wanted to check with you to see if I can get this new Virtual Invitation out. I have a few more Intel Job Opportunity events here that I wanted to inform you about, to make sure your graduate students were aware of.

I have attached an invitation to several of our Virtual Chats and Virtual Career fairs. We have a PhD Virtual Chat/Career Fair coming up next Tuesday, October 28th where one of our Senior Fellows will be discussing PhD opportunities at Intel. On November 4th we have a Virtual Chat/Career Fair with technical female emerging leaders, and on November 5th we have a Virtual Chat/Career Fair with three Corporate Diversity managers at Intel.

If possible, could you please forward or post the attached invitation to the MASTERS and PHD students in your department very soon so they are aware of the upcoming chat on October 28th?

Thank you for your time and I appreciate your help!

Michael Gecan
GAM Staffing
Intel Corporation

Greetings!

Intel’s 2008 Fall Virtual Chats are open for registration!

Come learn more about Intel! We’re excited for the 2008-2009 academic year, and have published new upcoming Virtual Events. We’re including a brief overview; check out our Calendar of Events to read presentation topics, presenter biographies, and to register for each event, or select individual chat links below.

October:

• 10/28: PhD Opportunities at Intel *- Come learn about PhD Recent Graduate and Intern opportunities with Components Research and Technology Development, two leading edge groups of Intel’s Technology Manufacturing Group.

November:

• 11/4: Technical Female Emerging Leaders at Intel *- Hear the perspectives and experiences of three technical females at Intel who are recognized as “Emerging Leaders” by the Society of Women Engineers!
• 11/5: Diversity Initiatives at Intel *- Come listen to our three Diversity initiative managers discuss leading Intel’s strategic plans for attracting, developing and retaining a diverse workforce.
• TBD Late November: Greater Asia Region* - Find out about opportunities in China, Malaysia, Vietnam from three of Intel’s Greater Asia Region managers. Check the Calendar of Events soon for an official date!

* Denotes a corresponding Virtual Career Fair will be offered. To receive career fair access you must register for the related chat. Attendees automatically receive advance access at the conclusion of the chat presentation. All registrants receive the career fair link via email regardless of chat attendance.

Archived chats can be found at: http://www.intel.com/jobs/virtualevent/replays.htm.

Please forward this invitation to other students and faculty that may be interested in learning more about Intel or attending our Virtual Events!

Regards,
Intel Corporation
College Recruiting Team

Notes and pictures of the Quality Software Development Conference held on October 10th here at CSUS are now on the ECS Career Services Office web site. Kim Berry of the Programmer’s Guild put together a great summary of the event.

Marcus Wetstein, ECS Webmaster, is working on posting complete PowerPoint presentations and video of the conference on our Web site. We hope to have them posted soon.

http://www.ecs.csus.edu/career/CSUS_Quality_Conference_2008.pdf/

Employers are hiring from the resumes posted on our web site at http://www.ecs.csus.edu/career. If you have not already posted your resume on the ECS Career Services Office Web Site, now is the time!!!  Just click on the Post Your Resume button!

Managers from local companies, including HP and Intel report contacting candidates through the system.  If you are not on the system they cannot find you.  

Students are reporting multiple offers from using a combination of the resume posting service, the JETX job listings, and from Job Fairs.  

Employers are able to search your resume now with key words!

I also send resumes out to companies so send me a soft copy in MS Word at: cici@csus.edu

The College of Engineering and Computer Science Needs Your Data

Please report any offers that you have received to ECS Career Services Web site:

http://www.ecs.csus.edu/career - click on the "Just Hired" link.

If you got a student position we need your data.  

If you have graduated in the past few years or if you are graduating this semester we need your data.  

The information you share is used for ABET reports and to help me identify trends in employment and salaries.

I keep your info confidential.  I only report the data!  I use your contact data to confirm and to keep in touch with you.