Graduates network to find city jobs

Just because a business degree says “Kelley” on it doesn’t mean graduates intend to stay in Indiana to pursue their careers. \nSome graduates dream of landing a corporate job in the John Hancock Building in Chicago, but don’t have the means to do it. One of the most crucial aspects of getting a job is finding contacts in the chosen industry or business. While it may seem impossible to get the attention of people like Bill Gates, IU faculty members and a graduate student shared their recommendations for finding contacts in a new city.\nFirst, they said it is vital for students to keep in contact with people they know today. Those contacts could someday be helpful. \n“If you can keep that relationship going, you never know what can happen,” said Christopher Rolf, a graduate student in the Kelley School of Business. \nRolf said he always had a strong interest in politics. After an internship at Capitol Hill, he needed another job to stay in Washington, D.C. He managed to get a position at a local tennis club through a contact he knew in his hometown of Cincinnati. By using a previous acquaintance and a niche he had in high school, Rolf was given the opportunity to interact with many prominent people in Washington who came to the tennis club and found something in common with him.\n“I had tons of contacts in D.C. because of that job,” Rolf said. “From there, you build these relationships with people.”\nBut it is not always necessary to resort to past hobbies and friends to get a career. Rochelle Reeves, director of alumni programs at Kelley, said IU’s alumni network offers plenty of opportunities to graduates. \n“IU students are very fortunate, because we have almost half a million IU alumni living around the world,” Reeves said.\nAlumni from Kelley alone number close to 85,000. Many of these alumni can be found at www.alumni.indiana.edu, which is accessible to all students, faculty and alumni. On the Web site, the alumni directory allows users to search for past IU graduates and their contact information. The Web site’s career service center allows users to post their resumes and search for jobs posted by IU alumni. Calendar dates are also posted for all alumni chapter events held in different cities and regions of the United States.\nAdditionally, the Kelley School of Business has its own alumni networking page that allows students and alumni to network exclusively with Kelley graduates and find prospective contacts in specified cities and companies. The Kelley alumni Web site can be found at www.kelley.iu.edu/alum.\nBut networking won’t do much good unless you have a strong resume. Resume essentials include education, leadership experience and volunteer activities, professionals say.\n“It needs to be accomplishment-based,” said Pamela Roberts, director of graduate career services at the Kelley school. “It is important to highlight what you have accomplished versus your responsibilities.” \nAlso, Rolf said it is important to make sure to personalize a resume, making it unique so that it stands out from the hundreds of other resumes employers see.\nHowever, the best time to start networking and getting involved is while in college, Reeves said.\nRolf said to participate in extracurricular activities and develop relationships with professors while making sure to keep in contact with them along the way.\n“It’s not as much where you went to school,” he said, “but it’s about what you did while you were there.”