Kyle: I recently had a political internship with the Democratic mayoral campaign. Does the fact that I supported a single person/party hinder or help my chances of getting hired? Should I seek to balance this out by taking an internship with a Republican?

If you enjoy campaign work and you feel that it is providing you with skills that will help you land a future job, then by all means keep at it. Affiliation with a major party should not hurt (or help) you as long as you do not come across as too ideological or extreme: such people are not very good team players.

Of course, you might want to avoid the risk completely and simply mention the candidate’s name and leave off the party affiliation all together. When you think about it, it really isn’t relevant. When a prospective employer is evaluating your qualifications, she is focusing on your skills: what you did, not who you did it for. Leave it off and then you don’t have to worry.

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Gurbir: In terms of securing internships and getting jobs in the years to come, should I take relevant courses over the summer [or try to] get an internship?

Your future employers will be looking for clues as to whether you will be successful doing what they want you to do. The closer you can get to performing some of the skills that they will find valuable, the better off you will be.

Two future questions they will ask themselves about you are:
1) Do you have the skills necessary to be successful at my firm?
2) Will you find the work rewarding?

An internship can provide clues to both of these questions. Summer school can only offer insight into the first. An additional idea might be to approach a professor in the field you are curious about and see if you could help her with some of her research. This might shed light on both.

All are preferred to sitting on the couch and vegging over the summer!

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Mac: I don't really want to waste my time with internships or 'research' opportunities. Can I still get a job?

As a college student or first-time job seeker, you need to develop skills that an employer will find valuable. There are many different ways to do this. However, the more related your choices are to the roles for which you will be interviewing, the more relevant they will be to your prospective employers.

If you find yourself thinking that certain internship opportunities are a waste of time, you may be looking in the wrong places. Ask yourself what you really enjoy doing and look for internship or research opportunities that allow you to express these skills. Success is highly correlated with doing things that you enjoy: Richard Branson, Bill Gates... You can see the passion whenever they speak about their companies.

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Diane: Uh oh. My resume is 2 pages. The whole thing is in 11-point font, with headlines a bit larger. At what point in one's career, if ever, are 2 pages justified?

The answer to this is somewhat industry and job specific. Generally, after about the 10th year of your career, you have enough relevant information to justify extending your resume to a second page. Mine is a page and a half.

Just make sure that you scrutinize your dated and less important information in the same way that you did when you were trying to fit things onto one page. If the details of one of these older sections have become fuzzy and unfamiliar—so that you cannot defend them during an interview—they should not be there.

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Topic: Font Size

A big mistake a lot of resume writers make is that they shrink their font size when they add something new. Yes, you want to keep everything on one page, but never go under 11 point font to do so. By definition, if you have something "new and relevant" to add, something else has just become "more dated and less relevant", and can be minimized or deleted.

A well-organized resume suggests a well-organized worker!

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Ryan: [How should we answer] "What questions do you have about working at xyz"?

The questions you ask at the end of your interview should primarily serve you, and help you decide if the job is a good fit. Culture or work environment questions are good for that. Yes, if you do not ask a question, it could be interpreted negatively, but you should not worry about trying to impress your interviewer with a pithy question to make a strong impression; you have already done this or not!

Just don't say anything risky or inappropriate. I once had a candidate ask me to comment on a recent legal issue concerning my company. I guess she thought that she would win points for doing her homework, but I didn't take it that way.

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Ryan: I have always wondered what exactly to say when, during the interview, you are asked something like "Why do you want to work for xyz?"

This is a "bow and scrape" question, and I am sorry that you have to be subjected to this sort of thing. Some interviewers want you to grovel a bit and prove that you are worthy. Nonetheless, you still have to come up with a solid response.

The first thing to recognize is that this is an aggressive question, and aggressive questions should be answered with aggressive answers. Since this is a rather stupid aggressive question, you would be best off tactfully redirecting your response by answering a slightly broader, and better, question. What your interviewer really should be asking is why you are interested in a particular field, not a particular firm. Answering this question will get you where you need to go, but with more useful, honest content:

"From my past work experience and independent research, I realized that my skills are a strong fit for advertising and I am confident it is the right career direction for me. Being an assistant brand manager would be a great way for me to enter this business and I would be very excited to start my career at Acme, a recognized leader in this field."

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