 Okay, well, welcome to our first ever career services podcast in the age of coronavirus. And we are coming to you today from our humble abodes because we want to make sure that we're staying in touch with you folks out there at the iSchool and we're, you know, trying to help quell any anxiety that you guys may be feeling. I'm the director of career services at the iSchool, Christopher Porello, and I'm going to throw it over to my partner in crime. Yes, hello, everyone. I am the assistant director of career services, Jeff Fouts. Nice to have all of you joining us today. Thank you, Jeff. It's nice to see you. Nice to see you as well. We don't get to see each other anymore. So this is kind of nice. I miss you. I miss you too. Great. Now that we got that out of the way. Yes. So I wanted to first start off by an email I got from an information management student last night, and let me see if I could read you part of the email. Alma says, dear Christopher, I'm writing this email to inquire about summer internships for fall 2019 IM students. I have not been receiving any calls from companies due to my absence of professional work experience, and many of them have canceled their internship positions in light of the new coronavirus pandemic. Since it is mandatory for IM grad students to do an internship, will all of us who have yet not got internships get a position with iConsult? And if we do, how will I go about it if there are still lockdowns in place? No. So yeah. So look, I kind of feel like this is how a lot of our undergraduate students are still looking for internships, and our current graduate students who are looking for internships are feeling right now, especially our international students, which have already started off sort of with a challenge of, do these companies sponsor? Will I still be able to get credit? And that sort of thing. So Jeff, how do you suggest we handle this student's email response? Well, so it's very interesting. So a couple of things that I took away from the email was, first of all, they said, let's be clear that it's the fall 19 incoming class. So it's the first year, second semester students that he's talking about, or she's talking about. Second thing they said is, I'm not getting any internships because I don't have any experience. And something that I know that we talk about a lot with students, whether they're grad or undergrad, is when you're going for an internship, it's actually better that you don't have a lot of experience because the companies want to be able to give you that experience. So you don't need to have a ton of experience in order to land an internship. It's better to highlight what it is that you're studying and the skills that you're getting and the program that you're in, rather than trying to highlight any type of work experience that you're getting because your work experience isn't going to reflect what you want to do anyway. So the fact that you don't have any experiences is not really a factor on whether you're getting the internship or not. So that's the first thing that I would say to them. Yeah, no, that's a good misnomer, right? That these companies, they're looking for an intern because they're not looking for someone to have tons of experience or else you would be hired for a full-time opportunity there. They know, I mean, if they're not paying you a $100,000 salary and paying your health benefits, like obviously you're going to be fine as an intern. And so it's a symbiotic relationship. The company is going to get sort of a young, ambitious, someone who's been studying in the classroom to help contribute to the organization. And then the student or the candidate will get the practical real-world experience and hopefully a pipeline for full-time work. Well, and the other thing I wanted to say, too, is you're a student. You are a first-year, second-semester student. So how much experience are you going to have anyway? Exactly. So don't beat yourself up on the fact that you don't have a lot of experience. It's not that important when it comes to landing an internship. It's all about drive. It's all about interest. And it's all about enthusiasm for the type of experience that this company is going to give you. Yeah, personality, right? I think that personality shows through your drive and your resiliency and to not harp on, well, I don't have this. Well, I don't have for years experience, because once you start framing your personality that way, no one's going to want to hire you and no one's going to want to work with you. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly right. Good. So the other thing that I wanted to make sure that we talked about was the fact that this student had mentioned he knows or she knows of a lot of companies that are taking away their internship offers after they have already given it to them or offered it to them because of what's happening with this pandemic. So what do you think about that one? So, Jeff, please back me up on this. We have not. Our office is not heard of any high school student, whether it's an undergrad or graduate student, ADS, ADS, IM, get an internship offer or full-time offer rescinded. So what I have heard is I've heard of one case from the School of Arts and Sciences. She may have been a philosophy or history major, but in this day and age, our students are still pursuing the most valuable degree and skill on the planet right now. And so I understand that the rumor mills are probably very reactive right now. And I'm sure social media and on the news, you see a lot of rumors that just aren't true. And I feel like the anxiety that a lot of us are feeling right now could be contributing to this rumor that students are getting their internship or job offers rescinded because otherwise I have not heard of it other than the one case with the undergrad and arts and sciences. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And like you said, we are still in a very hot field. And look, everybody is working from home now. So it's even more imperative that these companies are looking for potential candidates that have the skills that we offer from the iSchool, especially when it comes to security, when it comes to how much work is getting done from their remote employees. And that's where data analyst comes in. Project management, product management, like all of those things are still valuable skills that companies are looking for even in this era of where things are starting to slow down and shut down. So, the opportunities are still there. Now, granted, you're gonna have to look a little bit harder, but they're there. And I was just talking to a student today, we went into Handshake. I'll use product manager as an example, because that's what they were interested in. There were over 2,000 jobs for a product manager, full-time jobs for product manager. And my point is maybe you don't wanna be a product manager, but the jobs are there. Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with you. I've had several appointments this week with students who are still getting interviews and they're just, they're virtual. So I have a student who has a super day with Amazon and she's doing it all virtually on Friday. She's a little bum, she can't be at their headquarters. But look, these companies are still hiring. Now it is true that there are sectors of the economy that are starting to slow. I'm not gonna lie, obviously the numbers are pointing towards a recession, but I feel worse for those students out there who are not in a degree program that's associated with the high school or with an engineering degree because these are skills that are inter-industrial. They go across industries. Oh, there's Jeff's dog. Hi, Coco, hi, Coco, sorry. Coco wanted to be in on the video. Of course, of course I can't blame her. But also that you just have to get a little bit more creative with your search as well. Yeah, right, and I was gonna mention that. Look, you guys are smart. You are bright students. So it's just a matter of you taking this creativity and the smarts that you have that you would normally apply in class and use that same ability when you're applying for a job or an internship. You know what to do. You know what you have to do in order to land that opportunity. So use that same drive to find that opportunity that you want. Yeah, and what I'll say, great point and what I'll follow that up with is use this anxiety you may have right now and channel it into being proactive, right? I mean, if you are home or you're back, maybe you're back in your apartment Syracuse, maybe you're stressed about your financial situation, take that anxiety and use it productively and channel it into connecting with alumni, researching other industries, trying to make use of this time because you're gonna be your own worst enemy in this situation. So that's a great, actually a great lead-in into what I was going to start talking about next Christopher. So thank you for that. You're welcome. I actually found an article online from a, his name is Marcelo Barros and he is a expert in OPT and CPT. And he has an article on nine job search tips for international students in the age of coronavirus. So I'm not gonna read you the whole article, I did share this on LinkedIn, so I encourage you to check this out. But to go along with what you were saying Christopher, about being proactive, one of the things that it talks about that I thought was pretty cool is proposing a virtual internship arrangement. So maybe when you're reaching out and you're doing your networking, looking for an internship, propose the fact that you're willing to work remotely. That way they don't have to worry about how they're going to accommodate you, coming into the office when we have these new requirements of the distancing with each other and a lot of companies are shut down. But if you are proactive and you come in with the look I'm willing to work remote and still have a good internship experience, they might be willing to work with you on that. So I thought that was an interesting idea. That's awesome, that's a great idea, Jeff. The other one I wanted to mention and I'll just say that there are nine of them is when you are networking, start asking for informational interviews now. So this is a really good time for you to start finding out more information about the field that you're interested in going in. So when you're networking with people, don't necessarily network with them about opportunities, but network with them about the field in general, about what's out there, what it's like to work in this field, what types of skills do you feel I need in order to be successful in this field? Oftentimes those types of relationships grow. And then when something like this pandemic goes away, the person that you are doing an informational interview with remembers you and a lot of times will come back and contact you and ask you if you're still interested in an opportunity. That's awesome. Yeah, no, and I think the one key point of those informational interviews is the insight and knowledge you gain. And along with that, you gain the networking rapport and the relationship building with the person that you're interviewing, but also the organization. It shows you're invested, it shows that you're knowledge seeking. So you're out there and you're trying to do research and you're showing your passion and you're showing your drive. And it's a tool that I think a lot of us forget and there's work that goes into it, it's not easy. And often a lot of times students will have to put aside some of their anxiety and their nerves about interviewing and speaking with people, maybe that they're not comfortable with or they don't have that previous relationship with. So fantastic article. I follow that guy too on LinkedIn, I think we're connected and he is a huge advocate for international students. And I think that it would be really amazing if some of our students out there are actually connected with him to chat with him. I agree. I think it would be great. And you actually said something that triggered something in my mind about like getting out of your box. And one of the things that we talk about with students is look, if you really want a job, if you really want an internship, this is no time to be shy. This is no time to be uncomfortable. You got to do things that makes you uncomfortable. And one of those things is reaching out to strangers and asking them for help. In this case though, a lot of times you're reaching out to Syracuse alumni. So they know what it's like to be in your shoes. They understand. And a lot of our alumni want to help current students, but they don't know to help you unless you ask. So you have to do the ask, right? And one of the ways of asking is establishing a relationship, doing an informational interview, going through the process of developing relationships first and not just coming out in the very first interaction and saying, hey, what internships do you have? Because no one's going to help you then. Nobody wants to help you. Or can you refer me? Can you refer me right now? Or here's my resume. Yeah. They don't want to deal with that. They would much rather give you advice or talk to you about the industry rather than going right in and telling you what's available. That's awesome. Yeah. Wow, thank you, Jeff. Yeah, thank you. So if you want more from that article, you can just go find Jeff's posts and just click on his post. Give him the profile views as if he needs them now. You know, too, maybe we'll send out a link to that article with this podcast. Well, let me try this and see what happens. We're doing this live, so we'll see how it works. Relax, baby. Can you see the 9-test? Yes, yes. There you go. Look at that. And here's the name. Arcello Barros. Yes, follow him on LinkedIn. It's very, very good advice. Nice. So, thank you, Jeff. So the last thing, because we're running out of time, the last thing I wanted to address was just that final piece in the email where, look, iConsult will still be up and running. You have to give them time, just as with anyone else. I'm sure that iConsult will have some sort of accommodation to continue online. But to be honest, we haven't even heard whether or not summer classes are going to be happening or not. So we have to let the other pieces kind of fit into the puzzle first before we worry about that. But I guess the one thing I want and sort of an in conclusion kind of piece with this is I wouldn't rely solely on iConsult. iConsult is great. And yes, they have amazing opportunities that can usually take the place of an internship. But look, the market is still working out there. Don't get bogged down into believing that no one is hiring right now for internships or full-time jobs. Just keep looking, stay resilient, stay positive. And book an appointment with us, especially if you haven't already, all right? We've already seen some of you same people eight or nine times. Give your other classmates a chance, please, unless you just miss us. And so I wouldn't settle for iConsult right this moment because there's still plenty of opportunities out there. Absolutely, well said. All right, anything else that you'd like to close with Mr. Fouts? Hey, we are open for business. Career Services is here to help you to deal with any of your frustrations, your angst. We're still there to support you. So even though we're remote, we're still here. So it's the same process. You go through Handshake, make an appointment with Christopher and myself, and we will get back to you with a link, probably using Microsoft Teams or Skype, whatever you prefer. We don't care. But we're still available to help you, as Christopher has said. So don't be afraid to reach out to us. Perfect. Well, thank you, Jeff, for all the help that you've been today. Hopefully this podcast is informative and helpful. Yeah, have a nice day, everyone. Thank you, you too. Bye.