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Listra Lubis and her husband, Sulis, and their daughter, Pembayun.

If you’re like me, up until Duke, the word, networking, invoked mental images of electricity circuits more than anything else. Even once I got to Duke, it just wasn’t in my nature to take the sort of career-oriented steps that networking requires. If anything, I found networking unnatural and impersonal; I wanted to gain opportunities based on my merit, not on who I knew.

The Career Center wants you to be prepared and empowered for an offer discussion. Whether you’re in an internship now and seeking a return offer or gearing up for fall recruiting, the steps below will help you advocate for yourself in the process when it’s time for an offer conversation. 

1. Know what’s important to you

Whether vying for a job, an internship, a scholarship, or even admission to graduate or professional school, interviewing is likely to be part of the process, and for many, the most difficult part. After all, how can you prepare to answer questions when you don’t know what they are? Any interview will require a degree of improvisation, but that doesn’t mean you can’t prepare. In fact, preparing and finding the confidence to ace your interview is as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4.

You’re studying engineering–whether mechanical, biomedical, civil, chemical…the answer to that question has endless possibilities.  

Did you know that Roush Fenway Racing’s NASCAR driver, Ryan Newman, graduated from Purdue University with a degree in mechanical engineering?  While it wasn’t a direct line to his dream of becoming a race car driver, he is quoted in a Purdue College of Engineering News article “Educated racer” as saying, “Because of my schooling, I have a common language with the engineers on my team. We understand each other. So when we go to make a change on the race car, we are more likely to do it the right way the first time, and that definitely helps the entire team.”   

Both roles use data, coding, business acumen, and statistics to answer business related questions from the huge amount of data available. The major differences between the roles is:

1.  The way they apply the skills they have

2.  The extent of technical knowledge and education they possess

Data Analyst

CHALLENGE: Lack of understanding the U.S. job search.

H-1? Green card? Immigration? Intercompany transfer? Treaty countries? L-1?

Getting to the U.S involves enough paperwork, but what about if you want to stay? Just looking at the lists of forms and deadlines can be daunting enough! Luckily for those who attended the CLG workshop this week, we got an expert to tell us all the information we need to know.

Interviews…

So you’ve got that great G.P.A? You excelled at your internships? You are a born leader and great communicator?

Awesome – how about you tell me all about it. No really, sell me on you.

That’s the tricky part isn’t it? Making sure a future employer or benefactor gets to really see what makes you great and unique. Your résumé may look good, but what happens when it is interview time? That is what this weeks’ C.L.G workshop, led by Anita Stockmans, assistant director of counseling and programs at the Career Center, investigated.

The workshop examined how to make your interview experience the most productive and enjoyable possible. We looked at effective preparation, research, techniques for answering questions and much more! Here are the top tips from the workshop.

Written by Vivian Tan, Class of 2017