Interaction Is the Name of the Game
Students filed into rooms 611-612 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle and came armed with questions and prepared to interact. Speaker Barbara Black, MBA, SPHR, director of human resources with Care Communications Inc., Chicago, opened up the full day of Student Academy this morning and had students on their feet, sitting in as mock interviewees and participating in the first part of Student Academy, "Landing that First HIM Job: The Search and Marketing Component, the Interview Component and Follow-Up."
The students came to the AHIMA Convention from all across the nation, and all of those in the room were in their senior years. Black spoke of a soul searching that needs to happen before job searching. She encouraged students to examine their strengths and skills. Résumés, Black said, should always reflect a candidate's next job, as opposed to their current position. She encouraged students to come up with a résumé checklist to help decide what important elements should go into a résumé.
Along with a solid résumé, a good cover letter is also vital. "A cover letter is your earliest critical contact with an employer," Black stressed.
The cover letter, and the job search in general, is all about selling oneself, Black said, and she had students review a sub-par résumé. Students then critiqued the résumé and Black reviewed with them the issues that were wrong with the résumé. She also had all students in the room stand up and promise that they wouldn't include personal information, such as hobbies that don't pertain to the professional position, number of children or vital statistics, in their résumés.
Later in the morning, Black held some mock interviews, along with Gwen Hughes, RHIA, CHP, director of e-HIM© consulting services with Care Communications, and the pair invited students on stage to act as interviewers and interviewees. The audience then offered feedback on how the "interviewees" performed. Several different types of interviews were examined: behavioral, group and what Black called the meandering style with the devious conversationalist.
Later , Black reviewed what can and can't be legally asked during the job interview process, and she also went into the best ways to follow up after an interview and tips for Career Fairs. Most importantly, Black stressed that students get to know the culture and the values of the companies they're applying to during the career search process.
I enjoyed seeing how excited the students were at the session this morning. They asked insightful questions and stayed involved throughout the morning. Many of the students there have held various fundraising events to earn their way to the convention, and their determination to be here and learn as much as they can definitely came through in the first part of Student Academy.
I plan to write much more on Student Academy for the ADVANCE Student Center, so you can read more tips from Black and Hughes there. I'm off to grab some lunch and then to the second half of Student Academy, which Hughes will be speaking at. It's called "Introduction to Systems-based Thinking."
I hope everyone is enjoying the convention so far!