So you’ve applied, interviewed, and now you have job offers! Which is amazing. But once those offers are in, you have a big decision to make. A lot of people feel uncomfortable or unsure when making a decision about their future, and deciding which job offer to accept is a big choice. It would be easy if the decision could be made simply based on which position offers more money, but almost always, the situation is more nuanced than that. Follow along for a guide on helping you figure out which position you’d want to take!

The first step in evaluating offers is to understand what is important to you. There are so many different variables to consider besides salary, though that is an important one as well. Some additional criteria include:

• Location: Do you want to live in the suburbs, city, or country? Inside or outside of Maryland? High cost of living or low cost of living (this is more important than you think; $60,000 in a small town is very different than $60,000 in New York)?

• Benefits: Take a look at 401k and retirement plans, paid time off, health insurance, family leave, as well as other office perks like pet-friendly locations.

• Work: Does the work you’d be hired to do excite you? How big of a team are you working with? Are you in a customer-facing role? What are your opportunities for advancement?

• Office Culture: What is the dress code like? Are there non-mandatory (but actually mandatory) events? Do you feel comfortable existing in that space for most of your day?

Now figure out the relative importance of your criteria. While a casual dress code is nice, it might not be as important to you as location. If traveling is a goal of yours, maybe paid time off is higher up on your list of priorities. Take some time to evaluate what you want and why you want it, and it will help you see how important each of those things is.

Finally, apply this new knowledge to your offers. Use it to understand how well you could fit into a position. Ultimately, a large salary won’t be worth it for a long period of time if you spend every waking moment dreading going to work because you dislike what you do, where you do it, and who you do it with. Don’t be blinded by the numbers and make a careful, considerate choice about your future career path.

Name:Kene Modilim

Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Cummins Inc.

Position Title:Supplier Quality & Improvement Engineer

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

Work Term:Fall 2018

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

From a top level view, I support the components business strategy, evaluating supplier product quality & capability via production part approval processes (PPAP) and advanced product quality planning.

As part of the job description, part designs/process redesigns are reviewed to ensure conformance to specifications and ensure process capabilities for a reduced chance of product defects. I review plant manufacturing non-conformances via a manufacturing review board (MRB) while driving suppliers (using data analytics) to enact improvements and controls to processes, ensuring that business targets such as defects per million (dpmo), OEE, throughput etc. are reduced and/ optimized. In my spare time, I provide facility tours, educating middle school NSBE students on our operations as part of the NSBE initiative.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

NSBE Conference 2018. I joined the UMBC chapter of the organization for the conference in Pittsburg, PA. I had an interview with the company at the conference and was extended an offer a couple months after.

The process lead time between the first interview and offer extension was roughly  4 months as I had other obligations via a co-op with Johnson & Johnson. Constant communication with my recruiter was pivotal during this time.

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

I enjoyed the culture, relationships, cross functionality and flexibility while at Cummins. I supported unique roles which affected process and product quality and worked on developing KPIs to evaluate improvements.

In terms of culture, it was great, a good mix of work and fun. Outside my base business, I engaged in the EEEC (every employee every community) initiative for communities in Charleston, SC as an outreach program.

More importantly, I got offered a full time role so I guess I really enjoyed it.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

I worked on several projects geared at cost reduction, supply chain improvement and defect reduction. These projects were in line with our strategy for 2018 and adopted the six sigma approach to quality, minimizing process variation and improved line uptime. I also developed good relationships with functional leaders and plant leadership.

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

Be aggressive in applications to organizations of interest. Begin with the end in mind. Understand your role of interest via research and work on learning the skills required for that role. Perhaps you are interested in a Data science role, it would behoove you  to have a good grasp of DS and ML tools. In addition, apply to as many positions and tailor your resume to each position you applied for.

Lastly, follow up with people especially after discussions. This helps keep you in the conversation.

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It is interviewing season! You’ve all been working hard applying to jobs, and seeing the results of that effort can be amazing or stressful or both. Interviews are the time to build on the strengths of your application and get a feel for the kind of work you’d be doing and the kind of place you’d be doing it in, all while impressing your interviewer enough to secure your job offer. Thats a lot to ask from a conversation. Here at the Career Center, we know interviewing is an acquired skill, so we got Big Interview.

Big Interview is an one stop shop online platform to help you become the best you can be at interviewing. There are massive databases of questions, video lessons, answer builders, and more! Use the link on our webpage and sign on with your UMBC ID and password. The best part is, once you leave UMBC, as long as you have a valid UMBC ID and password, you can use Big Interview!

So, all these tools are great, but how can you use them most effectively? There are three main ways you can use Big Interview on your journey to becoming an interview champion:

1. Learn: Big Interview has a ton of resources you can use to learn about interviewing techniques. There are videos and worksheets to help you quickly learn about interviewing, mastering interview skills, editing your resume, negotiating your salary, and even performing well on the job. So sit back, grab a snack, and trade Netflix for Big Interview (for a while). You’ll learn a lot without having to leave your couch!

2. Practice: There are hundreds of sample interview questions on Big Interview, from industry-specific to admissions interviews. Take a stab at applying the skills you’ve learned and answer some! If you’re not sure where to start, check out their Answer Builder. Once you get really confident, why not try a few rounds of Interview Roulette!

3. Critique: Once you record yourself answering questions, you’ll have the chance to share those recordings. Feel free to send them to friends and family. At the Career Center, we have an inbox dedicated to reviewing your Big Interview questions! Just share your recordings with interviews@umbc.edu, and we’ll send you feedback.

If you want more interviewing advice, feel free to make an appointment with one of our Career Specialists! We offer interview prep appointments and practice interviews to help you prepare as much as possible before the big day.

Name:Ghazal Becker

Internship, Co-op or Research Site:Summers Lab, University of Maryland Baltimore County

Position Title: Research Assistant

Major(s)/Minor(s):Biological Sciences Major, Chemistry and Psychology Minors and Honors Certificate

Work Term:Spring 2018-Present

Tell us about your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day responsibilities.

I joined Dr. Summers lab in January 2018, right after I finished my first semester as a transfer student at UMBC. At Dr. Summers lab, each graduate student and postdoc has their own group. When I first joined the lab, I was able to shadow different groups and ended up being part of Dr. Joshua Brown’s group. Being a part of this group, allowed me to learn to become independent, work on a project on my own and train other students. This research opportunity has allowed me to improve my public speaking, critical thinking, communication and time management skills. Since I joined the lab, I have been able to present my research poster 4 times including at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Joining Dr. Summers lab has allowed me to learn and develop many laboratory skills such as Pipetting Techniques, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Trial Transcription, Large Scale Transcription Reaction, Gel Agarose Electrophoresis, and Bacterial Transformation. My day to day responsibilities in my group includes preparing samples, performing gel studies, planning my every day in advance and writing and reflecting on what I do daily.

Describe the process of obtaining your position. When did you hear of the position and submit your application?

I transferred to UMBC from Howard Community College (HCC) fall of 2017. As a pre-med transfer junior student, I did not know much about research opportunities on campus but I knew I wanted to do research and I saw a lot of UMBC students being involved in research. I asked around and learned that I should just email different professors in Biology and Chemistry departments and ask to see if they have any research opportunities available for undergraduate students. I specifically learned about Dr. Summers lab through a teacher assistant from one of my classes. I emailed my resume to Dr. Summers, specified my interest and asked if I could join his lab. I received an email couple weeks after I applied, had an interview, and was able to start working in the lab right after the fall semester ended, in the beginning of January 2018.

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

I have enjoyed learning, collaborating and sharing ideas in my group, being assigned my own project, and being able to train other students the most about my position. I also enjoyed traveling to go to a conference, presenting my research at a national level and learning about what other students all over the Unites States are performing research on. What I enjoy the most about the lab that I work in is the fact that it is a very supportive and friendly environment and that we have fun activities such as going on annual ski trip or a picnic or eating at a restaurant together.

How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?

Working hard toward a certain goal and trying to test if a hypothesis is correct or not helps me to believe that I have made an impact. Structural studies that are performed in our lab are done to solve a specific structure and function of 5´ leader of HIV-1 RNA genome. Once a structure is determined more specifically, better therapeutics could be find to help individuals infected with HIV. Aiming and working hard to study a certain part of the  5´ leader of HIV-1 RNA genome help me to believe that I have made an impact.

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

My advice would be to ask around, be persistent, email different professors and send them your resumes that highlight your strengths. Also, do not give up easily and keep searching until you find a research experience that you are looking for.

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Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!