ClickNSmart Team

Interview is one of the most important part toward your career path. The purpose for an interview is for a prospective employer to know more about your skill and knowledge.

How can you best prepare for a job interview?
1. You may want to check the company’s website (if there is one) in advance;
2. You should know your own interest and skills;
3. Prepare for an opening statement that tells a profile of who you are and your interest in the position;
4. Don’t forget to ask for the recruiter’s business card;
5. Dress appropriately in interview attire. You want to give a good first impression and look like one who can be an asset to the profession;
6. Don’t forget to ask questions to the interviewer about the position and the requirement to succeed in that position. This will show the interviewer that you’re enthusiastic about the job.

What you may want to do after an interview?
1. Be sure to send a formal thank you letter to the person that interviewed you. In the letter, you may want to share with him or her about the project discussed during the interview.
2. Continue to maintain contact with the person you interviewed;
3. When you decide to pursue the career field, you should send a letter by stating something like ” if you hear any job opportunities, i would really appreciate hearing from you. Thank you so much for your time and consideration.”

FYI: We also have an article on how to write a good resume as well at: http://topuniversity.clicknsmart.com/2010/05/how-to-write-a-good-resume/

“Preparation is the key to career success”

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

When attending multiple career fairs at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) and University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), I found out about the following information:
* What a graduating student can expect from the job market
* Which college degrees present the most job opportunities in the current time.

If you are a high school graduate and/or a college freshman, who is deciding what college degree you want to pursue, then you may want to consider the following 5 college degrees that are currently highly sought  in the workplace:

• Health Care Degree

Desirable degree : Nursing, Physical Therapy, and Pharmacy.

• Business Administration Degree

Desirable degree : Business Administration and Marketing

• Computer Science Degree

Desirable degree : Computer Science, Technology Support, and Information Technology and System

• Accounting/Finance Degree

Desirable degree : Accounting and Finance

• Engineering Degree

Desirable degree : Biomedical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering.

Note that the above 5 degrees are not in any particular order. If you would like to find out more about a specific demand of each of the degree above, please feel free to find out more at:

The US Bureau Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/oco/

We hope that this article can be beneficial for you.
Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

Resume is a powerful marketing tool to drive an interview. The objective is to communicate what makes you stand out as a job candidate. Your resume must be concise, appealing, and informative.

Why create a resume?
Good resume is the first step to get an interview. Your resume should summarize your skill, work experience, research experience, education, and accomplishment. Most employers spend 15 to 30 seconds on average to review your resume.

3 steps to empower your resume:
1) Take a stock of what you offer
such as : technical skills, personal abilities/attributes, accomplishments
and education (GPA)
2) Take an advantage of your skills.
such as : leadership, communication skills, computer, and team work
3) Take an advantage of your experiences
such as: internships, volunteer activities, research projects, and work
experiences.

Recruiters will be looking forward for your :
1) responsibility
2) strong interpersonal skills
3) ability to meet deadlines and handle high pressure situations

You must present yourself to catch the recruiter’s attention in about few seconds

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

Job Search Jump Start

Job search on the internet is a powerful tool and has grown tremendously for a professional necessity. I am writing this blog post to provide you information about what you can expect when conducting job search over the internet. In addition, I also share some top online resources that will be beneficial if you’re currently in between jobs.

From Internet job search, you can:
1. conduct online job search in relation with thousands of career/job opportunity.
2. research a company and network with current employees of that company
3. send & save your resume electronically before people know there is opening. The recruiters will review your resume anytime.

The Best 6 Internet Job Search resources are:
- America’s Top Internet Job Sites
- Recent Graduate Websites
- The directory of websites for International Jobs
- The guide to internet Job Searching
- Best Career and education web sites
- Job-hunting online

” It’s time to conduct job search and enhance your career opportunity”
Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

GRE or GMAT score can be very important to improve your chance of admission to graduate school. A GRE test is usually required if you want to apply to most graduate programs, whereas a GMAT test is required by almost all top Business Schools in the country. A low GPA and a higher than average score on GRE or GMAT test score can increase your chance for graduate school admission. The ideal case is a combination of high GPA ( >3.5) and high GRE or GMAT score. Top universities like UCLA, Harvard, Standford require high GRE or GMAT score and high GPA. Some of my classmates with a relatively high GPA were not admitted to top graduate schools just because of a low GRE/GMAT score. This is so sad. GRE/GMAT test is not as easy as SAT or TOEFL test. I took one myself and got a high score on the GRE test. A combination of average GPA and high GRE scores got me into M.S. in Material Engineering program at Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, UCLA. I want to share my success experience with you all.

Below are some advices on the GRE/GMAT test preparation:

1. You should train yourself with adequate GRE/GMAT preparation. You will be confident taking the test when you are fully trained yourself. Confidence will make a difference in your test score. That’s true!

2. Get GRE/GMAT practice tests inside the GRE/GMAT preparation book and spend lots of time to practice ( ~ 4 hours a day).If you have a discipline and motivation to prepare, you will be ready for the test.

3. You should practice at least 5 months before the test day. Last minute preparation does not work for GRE/GMAT test. A lot of my friends start study 2 months before the test and they all get low score. My experience, I started 4-5 months before and got a really good score. Practice! Practice!

4. Good preparation book is very important. Some of the test question will be similar with the book. Not all the books are helpful. The three preparation books I’ve used are: Kaplan, Official GRE/ GMAT prep book, and Barron.

Suggestion: study really hard, be confident, and prepare ahead of time.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

Variation earning distributions among engineers is extremely important. When we choose a major, we should care not only the growth employment but also the average starting salary.

Based on the National Association of Colleges and Employers 2009-2010 ( retrieved from www.bls.gov), the table below presents the average starting salary for bachelor degree among engineering specialty.

The update result 2009-2010 from the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that even though Chemical Engineering has the lowest job growth (what kind of Engineers are demand), but Chemical Engineering degree commands the highest salary among all engineering degrees.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

The economy today is different than the past. In the past times, an engineering graduate could easily get a job. However, nowadays Engineering graduates are tough to get hired. Therefore, It is important for those of you that are still attending college to choose a specific engineering degree that are in demand today.

Below are the tables that show the growth in employment and job outlook by Engineering Specialty, based on United Stated Department of Labor 2009-2010 (www.bls.gov).

From this update data 2010, Biomedical engineering has the highest job growth, whereas Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering are tied as the lowest employment growth among all fields of engineering.
Now that you have this information, it is important to carefully choose what kind of engineering degree that you ought to pursue for your future career.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

If you are looking for a job internship, here’s are the following to-do-lists you should prepare:

1) Prepare a resume in advance
If you need help in preparing a resume, here’s an article about tips on writing a good resume:
http://topuniversity.clicknsmart.com/2010/05/how-to-write-a-good-resume/

2) Go to career center at your university
Make an appointment with a career counselor and discuss about your interests and the kind of job internship you’re looking for. In addition, don’t forget to ask for career advices to your counselor. Some universities allow their students to have access to the online career center, so take advantage of this opportunity.

3) Sign up for career-related workshops
There are many career workshops available throughout the semesters, so be sure to attend these workshops: resume writing workshop, job-search workshop, etc.

4) Go to Career Fair
You should attend all career fairs available both on-campus and off-campus because the more company representatives you meet and talk, the greater the chance for you to get an internship. In addition, networking with company representatives may also help you secure a full time job offer once you graduate.

5) Use the Internet for job search
There are many career websites such as: Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, and others that you should explore. Nowadays, more and more employers are hiring many qualified applicants via online because it’s less expensive to do so. Therefore, you should also use online career sites when looking for an internship.

Good Luck and Be Confident that you will get an internship.

Written by ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

Life as an undergraduate is more organize than life as a grad student. As a grad student, hours spent in the classroom is much less, but research work is greatly increased. Good life as an undergraduate, such as joining sorority or fraternity, everyday party, and so on are long gone. Laboratory becomes your new home. Even though grad student has more workload compared to undergrad student, you will find your own excitement by doing something that you like. Be creative with your idea! You don’t need to study and follow the textbook, just do research you like about, get the result and then “Boom” (publish the paper and patent your result).

Graduate school gives you a new life and freedom. Graduate school is flexible and free. You can come anytime to the laboratory. Most people spend their time to do research around 8 hours. However, I spend an average of 12 hours/ day during weekdays and zero hour in the weekend (i.e. Have fun over the weekend!). Research is not easy. you need to be patient and work hard. You don’t always get what you want. Don’t be afraid of failing! Learning from failure is the best learning method possible.

In terms of courses, grad classes are flexible. On average you just need to take 9 - 12 classes. But the professors (and your research adviser) have high expectation on graduate students, unlike undergraduates. You really need to have more study hours for every class. No teaching assistant and sometimes no office hours available. A grad student is totally independent. They need to self-study and use your knowledge for your research. The basic idea to take class so you can use your knowledge(theory) for research purpose.

The Key : Research and Publish !!!

ClickNSmart Team

ClickNSmart Team

Going to college is becoming more and more expensive today than ever before. College education is also becoming more important than ever before as most high-paying jobs require applicants to have some college education in their resume. If you’re coming from a wealthy family, Congratulations! Your parent will pay for your college tuition and you don’t have to worry about choosing to go to public university or private university anymore because either way, you’re covered! However, if you’re like most of us that come from an average income family, then you need to find a way to pay for your college tuition. Below are some popular ways that students finance their own education:

1) Apply for Scholarships - It’s surprising that students sometimes do not take advantages of various university-sponsored scholarships or private-sponsored scholarships available to them. Go look for scholarships available at your college or university. Best way is to go to your school’s website and enter “Scholarship” in the search bar. This will direct you to various link related to scholarship search.

2) Work Part-time - some students choose to work in-school due to time-flexibility, whereas others choose to work outside for slightly higher pay. Either way, some sort of part-time work is popular among students to get additional income to pay day-to-day expenses. It would be great if you can work full-time while going to college in the evening simultaneously; however, some students may feel overwhelmed.

3) Apply for Government Grants or Financial Aids - Depending on the states of your residency, you may qualify for different government grants or financial aids. For example, in California residents with average GPA are qualified for CalGrants; however currently California cut significantly CalGrants due to state budget problem.

4) Apply for Student Loan - I put this the last option since student loan is one type of loan that is almost unforgivable, meaning it will accumulate during your lifetime until you pay it off; moreover, even if you declare bankruptcy, this student loan will stay with you. Some student loans, not all, are forgivable if you join some type of non-profit organizations like Peace Corp, Red Cross, etc. However, you should really consider your option before borrowing from student loan.

We hope that you find this article helpful when you are thinking of some ways to finance your college education.

ClickNSmart Team