Oct. 23, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- Lindsay Seaborn, a representative from Samford's Career Development Center, meet with Samford junior and senior student-athletes Thursday morning to talk about resume building and job hunting. The workshop was sponsored by Samford's CHAMPS/Life Skills Program.

Seaborn conducted a power-point presentation offering instruction and tips on out to create and/or polish a resume, prepare for job or graduate school interviews and stressed the importance of networking and getting work experience before graduation.

"It's really important for seniors to have a strong resume," Seaborn said. "We can help them critique that and make sure they are putting their best foot forward because the purpose of the resume really is to get an interview where you can really go in there and sell yourself. When preparing for an interview, you really should do your company research and practice your one-minute commercial so you know how to introduce yourself and demonstrate that you actually have career goals."

She listed six things are crucial to success in job hunting:
- Polish your resume. Make sure to include achievements that show leadership and teamwork, work experience and community service that set you apart from the crowd and grade point average, especially for graduate school interviews.
- Company research. Spend some time researching the company/graduate school that you are interviewing for. Know a little about the history, company standing and achievements, etc.
- Prepare a "one-minute commercial/elevator speech". Have brief (60-second or less) rundown prepared laying out what you bring to the table - who you are, why you are interested, why you are qualified in terns of strengths, experience, accomplishments and short-term and long-term goals.
- Professional appearance. Always dress appropriately for an interview. Wear a dark color suit with a white or other light color shirt or blouse. No trendy clothes or workout gear.
- Preparation. Be prepared! Have a portfolio with you that contains resumes, reference sheets, samples of you work. Do you research and practice you one-minute commercial.
- Networking. It is all in who you know. Make contacts with as many people as possible. Get business cards from people you meet so that you can send them a resume. Practice your one-minute speech on those people.

Seaborn also notified student-athletes of the website, www.samfordbulldogs.org. It is a site associated with the Career Development Center, where students can find out about and sign up for on-campus interviews as well as look for full-time positions. Jobs are posted there frequently. Students can also post a resume online and be included in resume books. The website has a list of companies that are hiring. Students can also search by employer or job type. They also have the option of setting up a job search agent that will narrow down position postings by job type, geographical location, etc.

"It was very informative," senior volleyball player Katie Luckman said. "I learned how to do resumes in high school, but there were some people in there that actually said that they had never done one before. You know, you kind of take that stuff for granted. I think it helped everybody get on the same page, and it makes us seniors realize that in a couple of months, we aren't going to be playing a sport and we are going to have to go out into the real world. I also didn't know about the website, www.samfordbulldogs.org, so it was neat to find out about it."

The Career Development Center will have their next career fair on March 2, 2010 in the South Colonnade at the Pete Hanna Center. Kraft Foods and Enterprise Rental Car will also hold open interviews for all majors in the next two weeks. Kraft Foods will be on campus on Oct. 30 while Enterprise will be at Samford on Nov. 7. Students can sign up for interviews or get more information any of these events going by the Career Development Center located in the University Center, by visiting their website, www.samford.edu/cardev, or by calling 726-2980.