From the category archives:

Careers

2011 Career Fairs in Singapore

March 5, 2011

As I mentioned in an earlier post, March marks the beginning of the career fair season, so I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight 3 of the major ones that are free and open to the general public.


  • CAREER 2011 – March 3-6
  • JobsDB.com Career Expo 2011 – March 25-27
  • JobsCentral Career Fair & Learning Fair 2011 – August 13-14


    • All 3 take place at Suntec. More details here…



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    Job Fairs: 5 Tips on How to Get Noticed (Part 2/2)

    January 30, 2011

    The best part about a job fair is that you have an immediate opportunity to try again with the next booth. However, before you head over there, take a second to think about what went wrong and where you can improve. The opportunity to accelerate your job search is real, so before you decide to just ask the same standard and boring questions as everyone else, take the time to follow these tips in order to get noticed. The more practice, the better you will get.


    You’ve done your research, you know what you want, and now you’re prepared for the actual event. What do you do when you finally arrive? Here are 2 more tips to help you really stand out at the actual fair itself…



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    Job Fairs: 5 Tips on How to Get Noticed (Part 1/2)

    January 26, 2011

    Job fairs are becoming a popular way for large companies to not only attract and recruit a significant number of job applicants, but to also market themselves to the general public. Most people believe that their objective at these fairs should be to use the “machine gun approach” (i.e. hand out their resume at every booth present) or for them to only go to the booths of companies they recognize, ask some basic questions to fake some interest, then hand in their resume. Let me be the first to be burst their bubble; this doesn’t work!


    If you don’t already know this, when you approach the booth and have that first conversation, you’re having your first interview with the company. With that fact, job fairs are unique and a great opportunity. If you play your cards right, you may be able to accelerate your job search, so here are five tips to help you maximize your job fair potential.

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    Thinking of an MBA? A Recent Trend that will Force you to Start Planning Today!

    April 21, 2010

    Obtaining an MBA is becoming an increasingly popular step in a young person’s career. With competition even tougher than before, being admitted to a top program requires careful planning. New trends are also emerging changing what the “ideal” MBA candidate is. If you’re thinking about an MBA in the future, whether it’s applying this fall or years down the road, let me highlight a recent trend that will force you to start planning today.



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    How to Ask Good Questions? It’s Not About You, It’s About Them

    February 28, 2010

    Ideal interviews are ones where you and the interviewer(s) are carrying a normal conversation. Both parties take turns asking and answering questions within the flow of the conversation, and you don’t feel like you’re part of an interrogation. While you may not have the opportunity to ask questions in the middle of the interview, you will always be given at least a few minutes at the end.


    Most people now know that asking good questions is a key part of the interview. Asking the right type of questions can definitely leave the interviewer with a great impression about you. But what are good questions to ask? Here are 3 rules to keep in mind…

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    How to Introduce Yourself in an Interview

    November 7, 2009

    Interviews are won or lost in the first 5 minutes. Experienced interviewers can tell in your initial interactions with them if there’s potential here, or if you’re just not going to fit in. Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve worked with over 75 undergraduates conducting 1-on-1 mock interviews with them, and I can definitely tell you, after just the first few questions, which were the handful that stood out from the crowd.


    So what does this mean? You need to start your interview strong! Prepare for the typical introductory questions (e.g. can you start by telling me a little bit more about yourself? Why are you interested in working for us? Why this role?), and be ready to really impress the interviewer with your answer.


    Today I want to focus specifically on the introduction – what should you say and how much should you say if the interviewer asks you to tell them more about yourself?

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    Forget Networking, Start Mingling

    October 11, 2009

    Everyone has heard the importance of networking and building a personal network, and in today’s struggling economy that’s even more true than normal. While job creation is beginning to slowly pick-up, experts say that as low as 10% of all available jobs are ever posted publicly (i.e. in the newspaper or on the Internet). That means that potentially up to 90% of jobs form what we call the Hidden Job Market. With that in mind, letting people know what you’re interested in, what you’re good at, and what you’re most passionate about are critically important.


    Reaching out to your existing network is the first step, but that typically won’t be enough. You will need to re-connect with people you haven’t talked to in sometime, and you will definitely want to meet new interesting people. Well, there’s no better time to get going than right now!

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    The Best Places to Launch a Career in 2009

    September 17, 2009

    This week’s (Sept 14) cover story of BusinessWeek magazine highlights their results of the 2009 edition of “the Best Places to Launch a Career”…and $10 says you won’t be able to guess who it is. I’ll give you a hint. I know this company better than ANY other one in the world.


    First, a caveat. This article is heavily biased towards the U.S. job market, and while most of the companies on the list are MNCs (multi-national corporations), some of the specifics that are mentioned in the article apply only to certain U.S. office locations, and not necessary to what is happening in all countries of the same company.


    And the winner for 2009…

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    Advice for Graduates (from Ken Morse – MIT)

    September 3, 2009

    Blogging has definitely become very mainstream today, not only in our social lives but in the corporate world as well. CEOs maintain blogs, companies may have a recruiting blog, even Business Schools have admissions-based blogs. Last week, I happened to find the blog of Steven Sinofsky, who used to be the SVP at Microsoft in charge of Microsoft Office, but several years ago was promoted to President of the entire Windows Division.


    To try and stop some of the exodus of Microsoft employees to other up-and-coming technology firms (aka Google), Steven was asked to start a blog to reach out to potential Microsoft candidates and offer insights into what it’s like to work at Microsoft, the different roles, and generally the valuable contribution new graduates can make at the company on Day 1.


    As I was scrolling through, a short post from 2005 caught my attention that offered some advice I want to share with you today…

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    How to Impress at Company Presentations

    August 31, 2009

    As campus recruiting season kicks off, companies are quickly lining up to come onto campus to tell you that they are hiring, they are looking for the best & brightest, and why you should come work for them.


    Attending all these company presentations can be a tiring and time consuming process, but many students feel that if they don’t go, it will lessen their chances in getting hired. Is that really the case?


    Well, not necessarily. While making a good first impression can get you noticed and help you score some early points, the opposite can also happen. Being rude, too competitive, or asking the wrong type of questions can also get you noticed, but for the wrong reasons. In this post, I want to let you in on some of the secrets and the mindset from the company / recruiter’s perspective

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    Photo by Michael J. Leaver