Here’s your situation: You haven’t yet graduated from college or high school, so you aren’t quite ready to accept a full-time, professional position requiring forty hours a week year-round. But you need work for the upcoming summer. And you don’t have it.

You’ve knocked on doors, you’ve used your social network, and you’ve filled out countless applications for temporary positions in retail and food service. But as you’re certainly aware, the recession has hit hard in most communities. And to land even these temporary jobs, you’re competing with skilled adults and college graduates who have bills to pay and families to feed. In other words, you’re not having much luck.

How can you navigate this situation and make the most of your summer months? The answer may lie in a summer internship. Consider the following.

Why Take on a Summer Internship?

1. 
You need experience.

A summer internship might not sound very appealing, especially an internship with a company that can’t afford to pay you. But before you reject the idea, bear in mind that a small investment of free labor now may pay off a year in the future when you graduate and go looking for serious professional work. Hiring mangers who review your resume will want to see more than just good grades. They’ll want experience. And you aren’t off the hook just because you’re young. Many students your age have racked up years of experience in their fields, just as a matter of luck, parents, personal connections, and serendipity.  Not fair, you say? No kidding. But life isn’t fair. (You’ll be hearing this again and again in the hyper-competitive months to come.) 

2. 
You can’t command a high salary yet.

Unfortunately for you, you have little immersion in the working world, and chances are you don’t yet have a college degree in hand. You may feel better educated than you felt as a freshman, and you may feel enthusiastic, motivated, willing to learn, and willing to do anything to get ahead. But you don’t technically have many skills. And skills are what companies are paying for when they pay high salaries to their employees. For the moment, you may have to give a little before you get something back.

3. 
It’s a good idea to use your summer well.

You’re in a rare chapter of life that will never come again once it’s over. You’re fed and sheltered, and you have somewhere to go and something to do as soon as the summer ends. Technically, you may not NEED to work or gainfully occupy your time. But you should. Don’t just lie on the beach for three months. The beach will always be there, but this time is precious. Use it wisely, and you’ll thank yourself as graduation and an uncertain future approach.

4. 
Your internship may expose you to something amazing.

The world is a place of magic and wonder. Every conversation, every new encounter, and every moment can potentially expose us to things that might change our lives. This is especially true when we’re young. For the next three months, become an experience sponge. Find out as much about the world as you can. Later, you can use your experience to make decisions about what you might like to commit to, where you’d like to live, and where you’d like to take your future career. 

Need help finding a summer internship? Contact the staffing experts at Zenex. We can connect you with companies that offer internship opportunities in your area.

Zenex would like to recognize Anshera as the employee of the quarter! This award given is not based on the amount of revenue rang in for company by an employee, but for the recognition of hard work ethics, dedication to the team, and above all, loyalty to Zenex. Anshera takes on many tasks with a smile on her face every inch of the way! She deserves this award and much more! Thank you for all that you do Anshera you are truly an amazing person inside and out!!!

Networking: It’s a two-sided word. For some, it suggests fake smiles, sycophantic scrambling, self-interested relationships, and the scent of desperation that fills the air at job fairs. For others, networking is just another word for reaching out and showing genuine interest in the lives of others. And if this outreach happens to result in positive career development and opportunities for business growth, all the better.

Real networking, the kind that actually helps participants on both sides, falls into the second category. If you’re doing it correctly, networking doesn’t feel like “networking” at all. It just feels like conversation. It feels like an active effort to build a team of supporters and familiar faces, a list of people we recognize who can help us navigate through the otherwise-anonymous world of business and commerce.

So how can we network in a beneficial way? How can we build a networking strategy that makes us enjoy our work and appreciate the people around us even more than we already do? Here are a few considerations.

1. Keep things in perspective

When you approach someone you’ve never met who may be able to help you, relax. Don’t be afraid, and don’t overestimate the stakes. No matter the context, good conversations are calm, focused, two-sided, and pleasant. Desperation, urgency, and self-involvement are not your friends. Leave them at home.

2. Be brave

Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call a contact, no matter how remote your connection may be or how short your interaction was during a recent event. Don’t assume your contact is too busy to talk to you, and don’t assume he or she will be annoyed to hear from you. This is rarely the case. Most people enjoy being contacted and are flattered to be asked for advice.

3. What do you do?

This is the most important question you may hear today. It may be the most important question you’ll ever hear. It’s graceful, functional and polite regardless of the setting, and it can help break the ice in almost any social situation. Just remember to listen carefully to the answer. And have your own answer ready when the question is directed at you. Your response should be brief, interesting but humble, complete, and should tell your listener something about who you are.

4. Follow through

If you receive a referral or a recommendation, follow through. This shows respect for your contact and may help elevate them in the eyes of others.

5. Give, listen, and offer.

Do these things instead of take, tell and ask. Establish contacts by finding out what you can offer people instead of what they can offer you. Whenever possible, do things for others. This means listening carefully to what they say so you can understand what they need.

For more advice on contact-building and reaching out to those who can help you, reach out to Zenex first. We’ll give you the tools you need to develop your network and get your career off the ground.

Jitendra,

Congratulations to you and your wife on the additional member of your family. We are all very happy for you.

Cheers to a new beginning for Chavi, a new zenex member!

-The Zenex Team

Congratulatios Hansa for being awarded the Employee of the Quarter. We are all so proud of you.
Keep up the good work!!

Hansa’s Response:

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for such a big award.I have no words for express my feeling. Thank you so  much for all your good words and wishes.This is a team effort and it wouldn’t have been possible because of the support you all have given me.

My sincere regards and thanks to Neha mam and Vinay Sir and specially great thanks to  Rachana mam for always believing in me and encouraging my efforts and hardwork and her the invaluable guidance and inspiration ,support she has always given me. I would like to thank Onsite and Offshore recruiting team  to.

Special thanks to my team,because of you guys this is possible for me. I’m extremely thankful to God for the bond we all share here. Lima, Leena, Ritu, Ankita , Jitendra , Nisha and Shruti  thank you so much for everything. and again I give thanks to Rachana and Lima mam for mentally support and understanding my personal problem and give me support to triumph up my all hurdles with there  valuable suggestions. I just pray that we always share this great relationship between us and my team gets more and more success in everything they do.

And I  always try to  work harder and harder to take Zenex and team to new heights.

Thanks to my family also.Specailly my husband he understand always morally support me to give my 100% in office and thanks to my little daughter too, she allows me for work.

Thanks a lots again

Hansa

I just wanted to take time to say thank you. I received the welcome letter in the mail and couldn’t let it go by unnoticed. Thank you for bringing value to your employees and for taking the time to make them feel welcome and in this case it was me. Thank you so much and I am very much looking forward to working alongside with all of you. I hope I can be a blessing to you as an organization as you all have begun to be in me. Thank you once again.     -Kimberly R.

We enjoyed spreading awareness of Zenex in the Seattle area. Many people were interested in finding out who we are and what we do. It was really exciting for both of us to be the first point of contact for our company. Putting a face to the company name is important to make our company well known. This was a very successful trip for Zenex Partners, we spent the day in the Seattle Center strengthening relationship and acquiring new applicants for our positions and bonding with all the job seekers. We conducted about 50-60 interviews each in a time span of 4 hours (from 10:30am-2:30pm). Each person had about a minute or so to introduce and pitch themselves. Our booth happened to be the busiest, which was exciting for us because Seattle is home to one of our most valued clients Expedia. We gave a presentation overview introducing our company and how candidates can benefit from partnering with us. We had a raffle with Starbucks cards going on every 30 minutes and candidates were very receptive, since Starbucks originated in Seattle! Overall we gained new talent, spread the awareness of Zenex Partners, met new friends and had some amazing seafood. This is surely a trip we will never forget!

Thank you Neha!

We are so pleased to have Raul join our talented recruiting team! The journey has just begun. Let’s make this a rewarding and successful year for everyone!!

In this busy, hungry, mobile-device-driven age, a simple truth has emerged: Where there’s a need, there’s a mobile app. And if a suitable app doesn’t exist just yet, wait for a few minutes and one will probably become available. As it happens, another signature of our age is the on-the-go job hunt. Even when we’re between jobs our lives are still busy, and there’s a growing demand for job search tools that we can access anytime, anywhere.

If you haven’t explored some of these mobile resources yet, investigate further to find out what they can do to make your life simpler and your job hunt more effective. But be warned: not all clever mobile job apps are free. And as charming as some of them may be, your job search is serious. Know the difference between a genuinely helpful tool and a five dollar distraction.

Mobile Apps for Monster.com and Careerbuilder

Monster and Careebuilder have both gone mobile. Jobs By Careerbuilder is free for Android, and can help you access Careerbuilder’s giant job database while you’re on the go.  Search for jobs by position, geography, keyword, or a variety of other parameters, and let your smartphone’s GPS help you find jobs close to where you’re standing at the moment.

Monster.com also has a job search application that can help you find positions, manage your resume, and view new job listings as they become available. This one is free through iTunes and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Lunchmeet

Free for the iPhone, Lunchmeet can make the meet-up process easy and blunder-proof. Simply access the tool through your LinkedIn account, then tell the app who you’re planning to meet (Colleague? Friend? Former boss?). Enter your current location and the app will find a suitable dining venue. If you know where you’d like to go for lunch, but haven’t made plans to meet with anyone, the app can help you find other networkers in the area who might be able to stop by and join you for a bite. 

Documents to Go

Documents to Go is a free Android app that can help you synchronize and store all of your job search paperwork in the cloud. Organize your Word files, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint documents in an easily searchable, easily accessible format that you can reach from anywhere.

The BlackBerry Business Card Reader

For $9.99, BlackBerry offers an app that can help you manage that loose fistful of business cards you find yourself collecting at networking events. Simply photograph each card with your camera feature and the app will load relevant data into your contacts list.

For more information about job search apps and help with the job hunting process, contact Zenex and talk to our career placement experts.

Zenex would like to congratulate Cameron Starr on his very first placement.

You have just started and because of your dedication and hard work, you have landed a placement.

We are very proud of you.

It’s your time to shine, keep up the awesome work.

-Zenex Team