University Recruiting Topics Studentzone

As recruiters we read several resumes on a weekly basis. A lot of the resumes that we read may not have all the skills and qualifications that the hiring manager is looking for. What typically happens is recruiters will place the pool of candidates for the job into tiers. Tier one being a close to perfect match. There are a handful of resumes that do not have any of the skills and qualifications for that position. Thought is that a lot of applicants hope that if they at least apply to any job that the recruiter we take their resume and match it up with the recruiter and the job that they do have a fit in. Recruiters do try very hard to pass those types of resumes along but to be honest the process for those the resumes to make it to the matching positions and recruiters could be longer then hoped. I recommend really taking the time to preview the updated jobs that are posted as many times as you can and apply to those jobs you feel you have the background that matches the postings. It will help with the time waiting and hope that someone has seen your resume. The call for an interview will happen a lot faster too.

I have to say, I was a little hesitant when adding my managers and other folks that I work with as my friends on Facebook. It is a social site and I think a lot of college students would agree that Facebook is really personal. College students don't want to worry about how they're being judged on things they do in their personal time and some companies do use Internet content to evaluate potential interns and employees.

I'm proud to say that Sun is not one of them. Everyone here is extremely open and honest and employees here use Facebook in a positive manner. Facebook is used to help interns, like myself, get involved with events on and off campus. Sun encourages us to network through Facebook and meet as many people as possible. While at Sun, I used facebook to organize intern events and post pictures from these events. I also used it to communicate with my peers at Sun. As the summer comes to a close, I plan on using this avenue as a means to keep in contact with my fellow coworkers and to meet other employees at Sun. I would encourage everyone to join this social networking site and to take advantage of the unique opportunity it provides! Check it out... www.thefacebook.com

You can also look at some of the Sun-specific Facebook pages!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/pages/New-Hires-Sun-Microsystems-Inc-Grads-and-Interns/18820766500 http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=8560407829

I know we've all spend a little time watching Stacy and Clinton rip apart someone's closet only to reveal a more confident, self-assured person underneath who is ready to conquer the world. I'm just not sure this message is reaching the business casual workforce. I think there is a gray line as to what is appropriate and what is not when you work in a casual environment with engineers who are at their desks at crazy hours. If you don't see anyone and you're stuck in an office all day is it ok just to wear jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt...maybe, probably. But what happens when you step outside that office and you have to present to your group and they don't know you - what does that ensemble say about you? Are your nightclub clothes appropriate for the work environment? Probably not.

I've compiled some tips which I hope people find helpful and appropriate.

Rule of thumb: You can never be overdressed but you can always be under-dressed for certain situations. This is true of the workplace as well as social gatherings. This guide is meant to be for the business casual work environment.

Questions to ask yourself:
-What do I want my clothes to say about me?
-What message am I hoping to convey in my clothes?
-When others look at me are they able to focus on what I am saying or are they distracted by what I am wearing?
-Is this something I would feel comfortable in a job interview?
-Do I have any doubts about the appropriateness about what I am wearing?

Some options for clothing that is appropriate to wear:
-Button down shirts or blouses
-Slacks or trouser pants that aren't inappropriately tight fitting
-Tea length skirts or dresses
-Appropriate work shoes that are clean and don't show bare feet

Things to Avoid:
-Low cut blouses or shirts
-Blouses or shirts that show bare midriff - really now, do people wear this to work?!
-Skimpy tank tops / spaghetti strap tops
-Pants that ride low enough to see undergarments - Is this appropriate at any level?!
-Sneakers or flip flops

I think a lot of this is obvious but I'm telling you - I have seen Stacy and Clinton around shaking their heads. Just wait, you might be next on the show, "What Not To Wear." I hope you have found this to be helpful and fun.

This is my first post here at the student zone blog. Ive been interning at Sun here for almost three weeks and I love it so far. I was hired to produce a promotional video aimed at students to get them excited about Sun's internship program. I was really excited about the project for about 3 days. That excitement quickly vanished when I started watching videos like this. Technically I think it's an awesome video. It's got some great animation and it's really well edited. Other than that, it sucks. Not only would a video like this be a gigantic challenge for one person to create over summer break but the video is really just all style and no substance.

Thankfully, to my surprise and delight, the other interns agreed with me. I showed the KPMG video at an intern focus group and it was booed off the stage. Nobody liked the flashy, corporate, over produced style of the video. Most of all, the interns hated the fact that the video didn't actually say what KPMG does or what you, as an intern, will do there. So what do students want (or not want) to see in a video from a large corporation?

-Be real. Show what life is actually like at the company.

-Show what the company does. Companies should try to get students interested in a company even if they don't know what they do.

-Don't go crazy with flashy animation and loud music. It's the same stuff you see and here when ever you turn on the TV and eventually just turns into background noise.

-Show students what they will be doing when they become an intern. Don't just say they will have "responsibilities" and "feel important".

If you have any other suggestions of what should be in a promotional video or any examples of good videos from other companies, let me know.

I have had the pleasure of working with colleagues, who are, also, my friends. This camaraderie has lead to more fun and support for me at work. Through our friendships we have built a stronger network of colleagues and friends. Not only have we bowled together, taken our breaks and eaten many sushi lunches together, but, we've also cardio kickboxed, snowboarded and shared life's blessings and challenges (marriage, children, job changes) together. Recently, we have attended a networking session and ran into a former colleague! Will I refer my friends for future opportunities at Sun? ABSOLUTELY!!

Many students have asked about the purpose of a resume. Well the purpose is to present something about you and your background to potential employers that you are interested in interviewing for. “A good resume won’t get you the job but a bad resume could prevent you from getting the interview.” The appearance of your resume is important. Make it easy to follow or it could be the end of your chances of interviewing for that job. A resume should not be more the one page. You should stay at 10pt or higher. It is a good idea to have multiple people proofread your resume. You may miss a few human errors when reading it yourself over and over again. The essential parts of a resume is the Heading (name, and contact information), Career Objective (a concise statement of what you want to do), Employment History (company name, date of employment, and job titles), Responsibility and Accomplishment Statements (tells employers about your key professional experiences), Education, Professional Development and Training, and Memberships. It is a good idea to accompany a resume by a cover letter. A cover letter is a personalized introduction about you, your resume and why you’re the best fit for the job. Last a resume is a living document. It should always grow with you. Get in the habit of updating your resume every six months.

... was a success! Twenty-two interns located at Sun's Broomfield location came out to meet each other. They had make-your-own ice cream sundaes and even got a free t-shirt! I talked for about ten minutes reviewing the Intern Council and the roles of the different positions available to the interns. Many of them stayed to socialize for the remainder of the time and there seem to be some good ideas for social activities floating around. I'm excited to see what this team will pull together! I'm hoping for a hiking trip or laser tag! REMINDER: Executive Speaker Series: Jon Benson, Senior VP of Storage will be speaking on Wednesday, June 18th @ 2pm in Conference Center #1 BRM01. I hope you all can make it!

It was great to meet some of our interns who attended the opening event for the Sun Microsystems Intern Program. Our first of three Executive Speaker Series this summer featured Marcy Scott Lynn who spoke about her role in Sun's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Marcy has a big job as Director - she's the only person in this group and has a summer intern. She has an inspirational mission: to get everyone at Sun thinking about how their job can be eco-friendly. I remember reading an article by Dave Douglas (Marcy's manager)about how he gets many people asking him how they can get a job in the CSR space. Dave wrote that we already have a job in the CSR space. We all have to take our role in making our job more eco-friendly. If it means working from home to save gas and emissions, to not printing that 30 page report or by making sure Sun parts are shipped from local resources then hooray, you have contributed to Sun's Corporate Social Responsibility!

Marcy's spoke about Sun's CSR strategy which is driven by three key initiatives: "Innovate, Act and Share. Sun innovates to create responsible technology solutions for our customers. Sun remains committed to acting in accordance with the highest principles of business conduct. And Sun shares insights, knowledge and technologies as well as learn from the work others are doing to create positive change."

So what's the "Big Idea" from this Intern Executive Speaker Series? Sun doesn't just care about creating technology. Leadership is driving its employees to think about the big picture. In other words, our jobs are influential in impacting the environment. Act on making your job more eco-friendly in your own way and it will catch on to others. It's contagious. Imagine if we all participated in one small way...oh the possibilities. I am inspired to do so myself as I hope you are too. I'm working from home more, driving less, reusing my grocery bags, turning on less lights and not printing out that 30 page report even though I really want to! Let's face it, being eco-friendly or green is not that difficult, it just takes a conscious effort and then becomes second nature.

To learn more, share comments or collaborate about Sun's CSR go to Marcy's blog: blogs.sun.com/csr or send an email to csr@sun.com Thank you for sharing your knowledge and stories Marcy!

I hope to meet more interns as we have our Intern Council meetings and two more Executive Speaker Series. The Sun Intern Program provides support to interns by providing events to interact with one another as well as exposure to Sun Executives. The Executive Speaker Series is a perfect way to increase knowledge about Sun and overall business acumen. Our next event for the Bay Area Interns is in Santa Clara where they will hear from Exec VP, Steve Wilson from Sun's xVM group which resides in the Software group. What's that all about you ask?? Check out Steve's blog: http://blogs.sun.com/stevewilson/

Interns - don't be shy about asking your manager to attend. Let them know it is something of interest to you. Recognizing that your business group is just a part of the big pie at Sun and showing you want to know the bigger picture says something.

Can't wait to meet you!

I recently attended a conference in New Orleans with an organization called NACE. NACE is the National Association of Colleges and Employers. So picture folks that work in University Career Centers, you know the ones trying to help you get a job/internship and University recruiters, you know the ones trying to hire you!

First off if you have never been to New Orleans that city is very unique. I think many folks (my self included) have some preconceived notion of New Orleans whether it be Katrina related or better yet Mardi Gras related. I am happy to report there was a little bit of time to play tourist. You can’t go without sampling the food. Although I am not fan of Cajun cooking I did make the attempt to eat the local offerings (Soft shell crab PO boy, Gumbo, Dirty rice, shrimp Creole, beignets, bread pudding etc). Of course any trip to New Orleans would not be complete without a trip to Bourbon Street.

But enough about me….There were lots of great workshops with people offering what their company, vendor or University does that others might learn from. Some were great, some were ok and others well lets just leave that alone. However, what all these work shops had in common was an attempt to help each other figure who the student is today. It is clear that even the so call experts still don’t have it all figured out

Till next time……

WHAT DOES NEIL YOUNG HAVE TO WITH SUN? I get the RSS feed from CNET and was recently treated to an extremely cool story about a project Neil Young has been working on. He presented his collaboration with JAVA and Blu-Ray at the recent JAVA One Conference. Imagine how to categorize and create an interactive experience of your life's work! Neil Young has had this idea for years and was never able to make it happen....until he began working with JAVA and Blu-Ray. Watch the video to see the incredible file system that allows you to look at photos, search for information while listening to his great music. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-9937142-80.html If you're a fan of Neil as I am this will blow you away. If you're new to Neil Young's music and work, I hope you become a fan. ENJOY!

It's June 4th which means the school year is over and our interns and recent graduate hires are starting their employment at Sun. This time of year is always fun, the new hires bring enthusiasm, fresh ideas and invigorate the campus after a long winter. Many people have already commented about the amount of new faces they've seen over the past few weeks and how happy they are to see so many students choosing Sun.

The first week at any job is never easy, a new environment, meeting co-workers, setting up passwords, and just learning your way around campus. Fortunately we have a strong support system in place to make this transition as smooth as possible. And it seems to be working great....I know this because the interns that started last week are now taking advantage of Sun's "casual" dress code and are no longer dressed like financial analysts.

We've had a successful recruiting year, one thing I'm most impressed with and proud of is the number of countries our interns represent. This year myself I've hired students from Canada, India, China, Australia, Germany, Scotland, and Japan....this diversity is exciting and educational in itself.

That's all for now...it's going to be a great summer. I'll be in touch! -Brendan

Advice of the week: if you're in need of a nice, relaxing vacation after a long winter....don't go to Las Vegas.

When recruiters and hiring managers are reviewing resumes, they are reviewing the resumes for relevant, current, demonstrated experience as it relates to the requirements of the position that the selected applicant will need to possess in order to be successful in the role. Relevant, current, demonstrated work experience to the job, in the same sector/industry, and skills (required and preferred) are used to identify the most qualified Applicant for the position. The most qualified applicants often possess both of the skills listed in the required and the preferred skills on the job description.

As you are reading the job postings, you will want to pay special attention to the skills listed underneath the required and the preferred skills on the job description. If you possess the skills listed underneath the required and preferred skills, ensure that these skills are listed in your skills section of your resume and then discussed in your experience and mastery of those skills in one or more of the jobs in which you used these skills. If there are skills listed underneath the required and preferred skills that you do not have listed on your resume and you possess, I recommend you list those skills in your resume underneath the skills and work experience sections of your resume. In other words, tailor your resume to the job description. Tailoring your resume may also include customizing your objective on each resume. (Be careful not to send a resume to an employer with the resume naming another employer!)

Before submitting your resume against a position, ask yourself the following questions: Do I possess some or all of the required skills listed on the job description? Are the required skills listed on the job description listed on my resume? Of the skills listed underneath the required skills on the job description, does my resume discuss my experience to these skills as it pertains to the job in which I used these skills?

I am one of approximately 55% of Sun employees who work remotely. I have the distinct privilege of participating in Sun's Work From Home Program. Sun is really pushing forward this concept of Open Work.

Our technologies enable you to work effectively from anywhere, anytime on anything. This was brought "Home" to me in my recent relocation to the Central Coast. I unplugged my Sunray, put the contents of my desk in a box, packed/moved/and plugged it all in on the other end. It was a beautiful thing. No glitches. No stress. Just smiles from yours truly.

Recently I received a notice from the local power company that I will be without power for three days (not consecutive, Thank God!) in the coming weeks as they replace a local power grid in our community. Sigh. Once confirmed, I started checking into alternatives. I stumbled upon a very ECO friendly, conducive environment. It has wireless access AND air conditioning (this means I'm not using MY A/C - spare the air- and consequently, I'm not paying $ for it either!). It's also conveniently located near great food and more people that I'll see at home on any given day. :) When the weather gets warmer, I may be grabbing my laptop, forwarding my phone to "cell" and working from a local dive...instead of home.

While it was initially a "pain", I'm now thankful for the "encouragement" I received to consider other locations to extend my Open Work practices to.

I feel VERY privileged to have hosted 17 students from various universities at the Women of Vision Awards Banquet last week in San Jose, CA. This annual event is hosted by the Anita Borg Institute and it honors women who are making significant contributions using engineering and technology.

Sun's Distinguished Engineer, Dr. Susan Landau was honored for her exceptional work in the area of security,cryptography and wiretapping. She was recognized for a book she coauthored with Whit Diffie (of Diffie-Hellman key exchange) entitled, "Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption,".

The accomplishments of the three women who were honored was truly inspiring. Their acceptance speeches were even more so. They shared about who inspired them as they embarked on "the road less traveled" (ie., successful careers as female engineers). They spoke to why we all need to use the gifts we've been given to make the world a better place. Truly, it was an opportunity for all in attendance to revisit who you are and how you are "giving back" to the world around you.

As I was attending this event, JavaOne was creating a lot of excitement at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Here is an interesting article for students by Mary Grush, Campus Technology

It is events like these that make me so proud to be a member of the fabulous team of people that make up Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Hope all is well in Blogosphere!! No one said which company to work for was an easy question for interns and college students to answer. Take a poll yourself; if you ask 10 people you get 10 answers as to what the most important things are. For me one of those answers is the ability to work some place where having fun and giving back is part of the equation. So to that end I thought I would share an event that happened last week at Sun’s Colorado headquarters which is in beautiful Broomfield Colorado. Last Thursday the 8th of May we celebrated our 11th Sun Microsystems Colorado -- Annual Chili Cook Off! Now what does Chili have to do with having fun? Well the Chili Cook-off had a fantastic showing with twenty-two teams of employees brewing up a special pot of their best recipes. Although there were prizes in five main categories (Best Overall, Best Vegetarian, most creative team, Most Exotic Team and most likely to start a fire) the main motivation was to get out and have some fun with colleagues and peers and of course just a little competition never hurts either!! Not to brag but I was able to correctly identify 4 of the 5 winners but the Duck Chili just through me for a loop!!! I don’t know about you but I don’t think of variety when you say Chili but you have to see it to believe it….. So with team bragging rights secured for another year here and the Tums back in their cabinets we are all anxiously looking forward to next year’s event. Thanks to generosity of Sun employees, during the event we raised a total of $5,000 to a local charity. So although you may be inclined to just look at salary information or stock grants, take a look at the other intangibles a company offers and find the right fit for you and while your at it, try and have some FUN because “Work should be Fun”