At our third Coffee Hour of the Semester, President Josephine Wray and Vice Operations Officer Megan Smith discussed general tips and advice for career success. We kicked off the meeting by watching a video from The Intern Queen about making an effective 30 second elevator pitch. Elevator pitches are a great way to demonstrate your professional strengths and skills when connecting with people in person, and can also be used on LinkedIn!
We then talked about cover letters, which are required for many job applications. A cover letter is the perfect place to go beyond your resume and highlight experiences tailored to a specific job that you are applying for. You can use a similar structure for multiple cover letters in the same industry, but should try to personalize each one. Colgate Career Services has a very helpful Resume and Cover Letter guide that can help you craft a cover letter that will strongly highlight your experiences. Colgate students can also turn to Career Services advisors to help them plan and refine their letters.
Another important way to enhance your professional profile and to expand your network is through LinkedIn . Make sure that you are updating your page with new important information with your achievements, such as internships, dean’s list recognitions, or club promotion/involvement positions. Not only will this look impressive for people that view your page, it will also serve as a way to stay connected with your network. You should connect with everyone your can: friends, family, family friends, classmates, and alumni most importantly. When going through the internship and job search process, you can also use LinkedIn to reach out to people at companies where you have applied as a way to make connections and learn more about their roles.
One of the biggest takeaways for our aspiring women in business: Use your experiences to show off your personal skills and make yourself a memorable candidate! Whether it is crafting your elevator pitch, writing a cover letter, or building your LinkedIn presence, you can talk about your experiences to make connections and highlight your strengths. Experience can come in many forms, so don’t worry if your resume doesn’t look as “loaded” as some of your peers– your experience is not as much about what you’ve done, rather how you talk what you’ve done.
Colgate Women in Business 