Jo Anne Cottrell

Role at the UMBC Career Center: Office Manager

Q:Where have you earned your college degrees?

A: Towson University

Q: What program(s) did you study? How did you choose your major?

A: I studied 3 languages in High School and knew that I wanted to pursue languages in college.  I graduated with a BA in Spanish.

Q: What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

A: Think for yourself

Q: Why should students visit the Career Center?

A: Students should visit the Career Center to explore the range of possibilities that they can pursue with their education.

Q: What is your favorite aspect about UMBC?

A: UMBC is a very supportive environment which encourages participation at all levels on campus.

Q: What is one item on your bucket list?

A: I have always wanted to live in a foreign country.  Someplace in Europe would be ideal for the travel opportunities it would present.

Want to connect with Jo Anne or any of our great Career Center team? Call our office at 410-455-2216 or check out our contact us page here: http://careers.umbc.edu/aboutus/

At the Fall Career Fair next week you are going to need a resume. You will probably find a company that will want to give YOU an internship or a job. The first thing they might ask you for is your resume. If you don’t have your resume updated, don’t panic. I have some tips on how you can show your already impressive accomplishments.

Your resume gives you 30 seconds to grab the reviewer’s attention and get into the yes pile.  You might be thinking: “That sounds impossible!”

It’s not impossible. There are actually a few easy steps that you can take that will place your resume in the YES pile. 

STEP 1:  Create a list of all relevant coursework, projects, work/volunteer experiences, and organizations in which you have participated. All of these things add significant value to your resume.

STEP 2:  Identify the important skills, achievements, and interests that you want to highlight on your resume.

STEP 3:  Develop descriptive phrases for your experiences. Qualify and Quantify what you accomplished on a daily basis. Develop statements like these for your course projects also. Start these phrases with strong action verbs.

STEP 4:  Put your resume into an organized format. Keep your formatting clear and consistent throughout the document. Your font can be between 10.5 and 12pt. and margins can be between .5 and 1 inch.

STEP 5:  Upload your resume to UMBCworks for review. Then come to drop-in hours or schedule an appointment with your career adviser.

Here are some additional Do’s and Don’t’s of resume writing:

Do:

Don’t:

The resume is not the only thing employers at the Fall Career Fair will be looking for. Here are some tips for Job Fair Etiquette. 

My last tip to prepare for this Career Fair is to start researching the employers who will be in attendance now. You can find the list at the bottom of the page HERE. Identify what skills you have that these companies need and make sure those skills are highlighted on your resume.

The Career Center has a lot more tips to resume writing. Check out the UMBC Career Guide for resume tips specific to UMBC students! If you are having trouble with starting your resume, have additional questions, or want to get your resume approved the Career Center has drop-in hours from 2 – 4pm Monday – Friday at the Career Center in Math/Psych 212, and 6 – 8pm Tuesday and Wednesday in the Library at the Writing Center. 

Name: Edgar Douanla Nzokwe

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: FINRA

Major(s)/Minor(s): Computer Engineering

Expected Graduation Year: May 2015

Briefly describe your internship, co-op, research, or service-learning opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.

Interning at FINRA has allowed/granted me the opportunity to participate in and undertake various different tasks. For example, one of my very first tasks was to update the department's wiki page, which I did using HTML, SQL, Javascript and CSS to display information on the web page. However, I also participated in some more challenging tasks such as rebooting FINRA's servers after an upgrade. Actually, participating in this reboot let me see just how interrelated the departments are and how much coordination is required to ensure all services get restored. One more task, in fact my favorite one, was writing a program that parses a 20000 line data file and stores the information in Microsoft Excel worksheets and workbooks. Currently, I am working on writing scripts to automate part of the deployment process (getting applications to run on the cloud so that users can access it through the FINRA website).

Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.

First, I got my resume reviewed by the UMBC Career Center. My resume was 2 pages long when I took it to them but they help me reduce it to a single page with very rich content.

Which of the following resources did you use to find your current experience?

Career Center, Career Fairs, UMBCworks, Networking Events (Corporate Visibility Days, Info Sessions, Arts with A Purpose,etc.) 

What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?

I had the chance to work with a wonderful team. Everyone was always happy to answer my questions. I also visited the server room and got to see servers and watch administrators troubleshooting them.

What have you gained from your experience that you could not have gained from another opportunity?

I had the opportunity to work on a variety of tasks which required me to learn new languages such as batch programming, SQL, and Jquery.

What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?

Get your resume reviewed by the Career Center. Go for a mock interview to learn about your strengths and weaknesses Apply for internships Before Career Fairs, check out companies you like and apply for their internship through their website. Visit them during the fair, talk more about the company and tell them you already applied. Do not get discouraged when you get denied an internship. Just keep applying for more.

Please provide a short quote about what you liked most about your position / earning internship credit / the internship placement process.

Never be afraid to express your opinion. It is better to say the wrong thing and be corrected than to never know if your opinion was wrong or right.