Career & Internship Guide
Career & Internship Guide

How can you possibly choose among all these options at Rutgers to craft your own amazing college experience? More importantly, what do you want out of life after Rutgers? If you’re wondering how to weave together what fits, what is doable, and what will truly be meaningful, design thinking can help.

Personal branding helps you identify and communicate your unique strengths to differentiate yourself from your peers and stand out in a competitive job market. Furthermore, creating and managing your brand ensures you stay focused on your individual goals to become the kind of person you want to be and achieve the specific things you want to achieve. Without this vision for yourself, it’s very easy to take classes and engage in work experiences and other activities that aren’t aligned with your goals.

Two of the biggest decisions you will face at Rutgers are deciding what to study and what to do once you graduate. These are important decisions that require thoughtful consideration. Some students identify their choice of major and/or career early on, while others need more time to explore and research various options.

Making plans for your future can be challenging. You can begin by gaining insight into your personal attributes, values, skills, and interests through the self-assessment process. Once you have clarity around the values, skills, and interests that are most important to your professional future, you can begin to research regions, employers, and organizations that might create environments where the values identified through your self-assessment process can thrive.

Social and career networking sites are critical tools for job/internship seekers and employers. LinkedIn reports that recruiters’ use of social networking increased a phenomenal 57% over the last four years, which means that you cannot afford to ignore this trend. When you consider that 46% of US companies source talent via social networks, it becomes imperative that you boost your social networking skills and the amount of time you spend on networks like LinkedIn. When using social media, think about your goals and how to present a professional image. Remember, many employers check profiles on popular networking sites before making interviewing and hiring decisions. In fact, employers have been Googling job applicants for years to learn more about their online career brand.

Read responses to frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) from our student population. Meet with a Career Advisor or share your experience or individual question here.

Based on feedback from our employer organizations and our experience we want to provide you with a few pieces of advice for approaching a career and internship fair. Remember, our staff is here to help you! You can make an appointment with one of our career advisors for additional guidance and support.

The Office of Career Exploration and Success (CES) at Rutgers–New Brunswick views the health and safety of our students and employer partners as a top priority. All recruiting services and programming will be offered virtually in the fall semester. This includes the creation of a new series of virtual career fairs segmented by the types of recruiting opportunities and functions of each role. Below are some tips on navigating a virtual fair experience.

Career Exploration and Success offers Rutgers Handshake as a resource for employers to connect with Rutgers-New Brunswick students and alumni seeking internships, co-ops, and career-related jobs. Nationally, career services departments are reporting an uptick in fraudulent employer postings to online platforms. CES strives to keep fraudulent and scam postings off the system; however, it is impossible to ensure that every posting is legitimate and impossible to keep track of every position after submission.

The first interview is a key exchange of information between the employer and the applicant. The employer’s main purpose is to determine if your education, experience, and personal attributes fit the organization’s needs. Your main purpose is to emphasize your ability and interest in the job and the employer and make it to the second round.

“Tell me about a time when you were on a team, and one of the members wasn’t carrying his or her weight.” If this is one of the leading questions in your interview, you could be in for a behavioral interview. Based on the premise that the best way to predict future behavior is by past behavior, this style of interviewing is common.

“Tell me about a time when you were on a team, and one of the members wasn’t carrying his or her weight.” If this is one of the leading questions in your interview, you could be in for a behavioral interview. Based on the premise that the best way to predict future performance is by past behavior, this style of interviewing is common.

Your resume is a marketing tool representing a very special product: you! It is a succinct outline of your knowledge, skills, abilities, experience, and accomplishments relevant to your employment goals. Resumes are used to screen applicants for interviews and determine which candidates most thoroughly match the employer’s needs. This is done through a combination of human and electronic screening methods.

Whether you are following up after a career fair or applying for an internship/job, your correspondence with employers creates an impression and illustrates your communication skills. Always use a professional tone and polished language. Adhere to the 3 Cs Rule: all correspondence must be clear, concise, and compelling. You must state very clearly who you are and why you are writing. Your message must be concise and get to the point. Finally, your goal is to compel your reader to take further action, such as arranging an interview or extending a job offer.

Personal branding helps you identify and communicate your unique strengths to differentiate yourself from your peers and stand out in a competitive job market. Furthermore, creating and managing your brand ensures you stay focused on your individual goals to become the kind of person you want to be and achieve the specific things you want to achieve. Without this vision for yourself, it’s very easy to take classes and engage in work experiences and other activities that aren’t aligned with your goals.

Making an impact in your internship or first full-time position comes down to simply understanding and following work-place etiquette. Workplace etiquette is nothing more than the behavior and manners that are acceptable at your work site. The tricky part is that each place-of-work is different and the rules are different from the rules that apply to you as a student. People don’t expect you to be a student. They do expect you to act the way they do, as a professional in their line of work. If you don’t figure out the rules, you may have a poor experience and a poor evaluation. So what do you do? Here are a few guidelines and ideas to help you get on track.