Making Your Online Job Search Efficient

We recently received another question from a listener about finding internships in the US. It can be hard for international students to do so, especially because networking in-person is part of the job search strategy for those in the US.

Luckily, there are several online job boards that many top companies in the US use to post internship opportunities. As a first-year MBA student, I've explored many of these sites and can tell you what's worked for me.

Indeed.com: This site allows you to search for internships by location and keyword. You can also set up email alerts so you'll be the first to know when a new job is posted that meets your search criteria.

Simplyhired.com: This site is just like Indeed.com. I usually got alerts about jobs first from Indeed - Simply Hired seemed to be a bit slower to alert me. However, Simply Hired does send a nice e-newsletter every once in a while with some good job search tips, trends and articles.

Vault.com: Vault has a lot of good job search tools on it. Not only can you browse open positions, but it also has good company profiles, salary trends and interview tips.

Lastly, I also wanted to mention Doostang.com as another place to look. There is a monthly fee to use the site, but visit mbapodcaster.doostang.com for a great discount. It starts at only $9.95/month. Not bad!

My other piece of advice would not be to solely rely on these job boards. Some companies choose not to post their openings on external job boards and will only announce them on their company's career page. So if you have some dream companies you'd like to work for, visit their web site and look for the careers page.

Good luck!

Twitter: The MBA Job Hunter's Best Friend

Twitter is quickly becoming a powerful business tool and can be especially helpful during these economic times when unemployment is on the rise. For current MBA applicants, students and grads, it's now more important than ever to make sure your online presence reflects the value and skills your MBA degree brings to the table.

It's not uncommon nowadays for top MBA employers to tweet about new jobs available. If you are actively participating in the Twitter community, you could be one of the first to see and respond to those announcements. You can connect directly with hiring managers and CEO's on Twitter to introduce yourself in a non-invasive way to establish an initial relationship. In addition, it's very easy to learn about company culture and personality types by following employees and CEO's who work at your dream company. They'll be impressed when you enter the interview knowing you can reference some of their most recent tweets.

We came across 50 Terrific Twitter Tips for Job Seekers on MBAjobs.net. We thought we'd highlight the most important ones for you here:

Branding Yourself:

• Create an easy-to-remember Twitter name.
• Put your professional Web site or even your personal LinkedIn url on your Twitter profile.
• Offer valuable content. Avoid posting anything inappropriate.
  
• Don't tweet too often or too infrequently. 3-10 tweets a day is a reasonable amount.
  

Networking:

• Branch out. Start following and connecting with people with similar interests.
• Don't just use Twitter as a soap box for your own content. Converse with other users through @replies, direct messages and re-tweets.
• Tweet other people’s blog posts and links to spread the love and catch the attention of industry leaders.
• Post links to your work and don’t be afraid to promote yourself in a responsible, non-annoying way.

Etiquette:

• Make your words count: Since you only have 140 characters to share, make sure you use the right ones.
• Reply to friends who message you directly or indirectly. You’ll come across as accessible, helpful and friendly.
• Don’t get too casual: Twitter is meant to be an informal way to spread information but almost like e-mail, it’s starting to become a more popular way for even professionals to connect.
• Follow up off of Twitter: Don’t rely on Twitter to make all the connections for you. Network off Twitter or follow up with an e-mail when it’s appropriate.

And remember, if you are looking for an automatic friend on Twitter, follow us @MBAPodcaster and introduce yourself! We'd love to share tweets with you and give you daily insight and personalized advice on the MBA application process. Good luck!

Landing Your Ideal Summer Internship

Our latest show is all about landing your ideal summer internship, the first step in a successful post-MBA career.

We have a stellar guest list including:

• Brett Baumoel, Staffing Manager on Microsoft's College Recruiting Team
• Al Cotrone, Director of Career Development at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business
• Leila Johansson, MBA - Haas School of Business
• Ken Oyer, Senior Manager, Leadership Development, Vanguard
• Anjie Blindauer, MBA Staffing Consultant with Microsoft

A few days after our show came out, BusinessWeek ran an article talking about the decline in hiring for summer internships. Companies are expecting a 21% decline in hiring the summer students. Not surprisingly, financial services, manufacturing, and construction are expected to be the hardest-hit industries, while computer software and food and beverage companies have slowed the least.

If you think that's bad, prospects for graduating students are even worse this year. So be glad that you have an extra year or two before you go looking for a fulltime job and focus your efforts on landing a great internship. Settle for unpaid positions or positions a little outside your narrow career path. Just having the experience on a resume can really help come graduation time.

Listen to the show for full insight & good luck! http://www.mbapodcaster.com/MBA_MoreInfo/mbaInternship.asp?iEpisode=76