Amanda Althoff

Q1: Name: Amanda Althoff

     Degree from UMD: Graphic Design and Marketing

     Current Job: Email Marketing Specialist, Honeywell

 

Q2: As a senior at UMD, when did you start applying for jobs?

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Senior year of college, in the spring. However, i did informational interviews with various companies through high school and college, just to hear about what a real job even is. I connected with everyone possible. The job search process didn't get much easier because of that, though, but I'd still recommend it just to be able to feel out a corporate environment and a meeting with someone who knows what they're doing.

 

Q3: What websites or resources did you use when you were applying?

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LinkedIn at first, which didn't have many positions with under 8 years experience necessary. Indeed.com has a LOT of opportunities, and I got my first job off of this site. But the best way to search, I learned, was going to individual company career sites and checking them weekly. There are so many major companies posting new jobs daily, and they won't post them on third-party job search sites because they'd just get too many applicants. So basically, everywhere.

 

Q4:  If you could do anything differently about applying for jobs or the job market in general, what would it be?

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Lol, the job market. It's so frustrating. So many major companies use computer software to read applications, so even when you use every keyword you can think of in your cover letter or resume section, no humans will see it. I would have gone back and worked with a job recruiting company right off the bat to make sure I was doing everything possible to get myself seen.

 

Q5: Do you enjoy your job/profession at this time?

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Yes! I love Honeywell, I love what I'm doing, and I'm so glad I patiently job-searched for so long without giving up. I took a job with a small company where I wore a million different hats, figured out what hat I liked, and picked that hat to get specific with my job search. It worked!!!!