11/13/2009
By MICHAEL STRAND Salina Journal
BROOKVILLE -- When you're arriving for a job interview, that administrative assistant may seem like little more than a person sitting outside the office of your future boss.

But think that way, and you can kiss the job goodbye, Joyce Volk warned students at Ell-Saline Middle/High School at the start of a career day Thursday.

Volk, a human resources specialist with Salina Media Group, opened the career fair with a talk about preparing a resumé, setting up a job interview, handling the job interview and what to do after that.

An interview should end "with a firm handshake, not a fist-bump or a high-five," Volk said, recommending a final thank-you when leaving the office.

"Also, thank the administrative assistant ... or, as we call them, 'The Gatekeeper,' Volk said. "That person has the power to cut you off and keep you out -- to lie and say, 'He's not here right now' when you call."

"Do not ask her for a breath mint. Do not ask her for a piece of gum. Do not insult her," Volk stressed. "She can destroy you."

Throughout her talk, students who answered Volk's questions correctly got to register for drawings for prizes, such as a digital photo key chain, or an iTunes gift certificate.

Among Volk's other suggestions: Don't mention the employee discount as a reason for wanting to work someplace; spit out your gum; show up early for a job interview.

"It shows you really want the job," Volk said, of arriving early. "I once had an employer tell me if you're not five minutes early, you're already late."

Organized by FFA

The day-long career fair was organized by Ell-Saline's FFA chapter. It included all-school presentations like Volk's and smaller group sessions at which more than two dozen different people talked about their jobs.

"We were looking for involvement and student development," said senior Ayla Beaugh, the FFA chapter's vice president. "Jordan (Pieschl) and I started planning this in July."

The event included the opening session, a series of small group presentations, another all-school talk on "dressing for success," more group sessions and an all-school closing meeting.

FFA president Jordan Pieschl, a junior, said it wasn't far into the planning that the event would have enough value to justify canceling regular classes for the day.

Besides, Beaugh and Pieschl said, they needed pretty much every classroom in the school to host it.

"We went to the administration, and they were really open to it," Pieschl said. "They thought this was a really good idea."

"We thought this was a way students could learn about different careers," Beaugh said.

"We wanted a variety of careers, including some they might not have thought of," Pieschl said. "We also wanted to give them an idea of the education and training you need for different jobs."

Working with people

"Working with computers, people think you just sit in a corner and work," said Karla Jones, information and technology manager at Great Plains Manufacturing, as she hunched over, mimicking working at a computer. "It's not like that."

Her husband, Randy Jones, engineering systems administrator at Great Plains, agreed that a wide variety of skills are needed for his job.

He started out as a mechanical engineer and urged students interested in the field to "take all the math, physics and chemistry you can. And speech."

That's because even people whose jobs revolves around computers will spend a considerable part of their day working with other employees to fix problems, develop new programs for specific tasks and document their software.

In addition to computer skills, Karla Jones said, "you need good speaking and writing skills. Every one of the thousands of programs we have needs to be documented."

The job also requires "knowing a little about a lot," Jones said, as nearly every aspect of the company's operations -- from the phone system to machines on the shop floor -- is computerized.

"If a punch press goes down, it's likely a computer issue," she said.

She also spends a considerable amount of her time keeping up with constantly changing technology, and added it's not a job for those who don't want to work evenings and weekends.

"We're pretty much on call 24/7," she said. "Computers can tell time -- but they don't care when they go down."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.

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