Interning With Your Best Foot Forward – Julie Kantor

Jun 272016
 

Last week I spent some time meeting several Sidwell Friends students (my alma mater) in Washington, D.C. as they embark on their summer internships. My hats off to the students for electing in high school to seize an opportunity and work full time while their friends are in Costa Rica, Bethany Beach, Camp and many at family houses at the Jersey Shore.

I came back to the Twomentor offices and asked two of our awesome interns, Delia and Matt, to join in and share our top 15 pieces of advice to start interning with your best foot forward. Here are my top recommendations followed by Delia’s and Matt’s great insights:

JULIE’S TAKE:

1] Finding Yourself Professionally. An internship will teach you what you like and what you don’t like professionally. This is invaluable experience as it might give you insight to help inform your college major and the direction you might want to go in life. Having confidence in yourself professionally before you go to college (ideally) is equivalent to having keys for a new car. You will need it and an internship will give you merit-based self-esteem.

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Five Communication Skills That Make Good Leaders Great – Steve Olenski

Jun 202016
 

Comm Skills

Whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or a teenage entrepreneur just starting out, communication skills are vitally important. Great leaders motivate, encourage and inspire. They also train people, share new ideas and negotiate. These activities have one thing in common: They all require excellent communication.

Here are five communication skills that make good leaders great:

  1. Interpreting Body Language

In his book, Introducing Body Language – A Practical guide, Glenn Wilson writes: “Where body language conflicts with the words that are being said, the body language will usually be the more ‘truthful’ in the sense of revealing true feelings.” That’s why the most successful leaders are always paying attention to people’s unseen language and nonverbal cues.

When you’re able to read thoughts and sentiments that aren’t revealed by a person’s words, you have many clear advantages. Take interviewing, for example. By learning non-verbal signs, you can oftentimes determine how honest a candidate is being with you. You can also tell if someone is comfortable with what you’re saying, and whether the person feels confident in what they are saying to you. Reading body language also gives you an advantage during negotiations, selling, delivering presentations and speeches, and conducting meetings.

Also, when you know how to read body language, you’ll be able to master the art and science of projecting effective body language to those around you. Exuding honesty, confidence and leadership is just as important as being able to read these traits in others.

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  •  June 20, 2016
  •  Posted by at 10:48 am
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  •   Career Success, Social Skills

Tips For Getting A Job At Facebook, Google, Snapchat, And More – Lydia Dishman

Jun 132016
 
Tips for GettingWorld-changing companies are looking for very specific individuals as they grow their ranks. Here’s the scoop. 

We’ve reported that it’s a great time to be looking for a job. Unemployment is low, many companies anticipate adding more staff this year, and over 100 occupations have more openings than actual hires month-over-month.

For those looking to switch jobs, it’s hard to deny the lure of a big name company. This is especially true in the tech sector, where company names can be synonymous with big innovation: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google, and the like. But it’s also the case at other businesses where the focus on developing world-changing products and services can be just as laser-like.

With that in mind, we scoured Fast Company‘s current list of 2016‘s Most Innovative Companies to bring you the inside scoop on what it takes to snag a job at five of the top employers.

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These 3 Career Skills Will Make You Invaluable to Your Employer – Hannah Morgan

Jun 062016
 
Companies want workers with collaborating, decision-making and mentoring skills, according to one study.

3 Career Skills

Employers have raised the bar on what they expect from new employees. It may be due to the increasing number of college graduates. Or it may have something to do with the overqualified candidates who filled lower-level jobs after the recession. As long as companies can find candidates with the mix of hybrid skills they are looking for, you’ll continue to see these demanding job requirements.

The hybrid skills companies are requesting were once isolated to a specific department or role, such as social media skills as part of the responsibilities of human resources and marketing. But in fact, 71 percent of in-demand skills are required across two or more job categories, according to analysis by Bentley University and labor market analytics firm Burning Glass, which identified skills with the highest demand. This reinforces the cross-functional need and that employees “must demonstrate deeper and broader competencies to be marketable” said Susan Brennan, associate vice president of university career services at Bentley University, in an interview with Fast Company.

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