Check out Dillon Polley, one of our March featured student employees. He is majoring in MAS web development and informatics. He is passionate about technology and making the internet a more ethical space.
Meet Dillon
What tips do you have for other students who are searching for a part-time position?
"Apply to everything that interests you, the worst someone can say is 'no'! Update your resume and LinkedIn all the time and attend career fairs/resume workshops. When you go out of your way to make yourself stand out, it shows."
What tips would you provide to other students on how to get the most out of their work experience?
"Embrace every opportunity to its fullest and always look for ways to incorporate your unique skill set into what you're doing. I'm going to school here for web development, and I'm an ePortfolio consultant. You'd think that those two titles would have nothing to do with each other, but you'd be surprised as to how much of it translates and provides use for our department."
What advice would you give someone who is trying to gain experience for their future career?
"Network and put yourself out there; try using Meetup.com and connecting with people in your job field. Send friendly and personalized direct messages and emails, you never know if there's a company out there who wants you, yet doesn't have a job posting."
Description of the video:
[MUSIC PLAYING] DILLON POLLEY: Yeah, so I'm Dillon Polley. I'm double majored in Informatics and MAS, which is Media Arts and Science for Web Development. My position is the ePortfolio consultant here at the ePortfolio studio, and my standing is a senior.
SOPHIE CARRISON: Hi, I'm Sophie Carrison. I'm a bio major with a health psych-- oh, my God, Health Psychology minor, and I don't remember the other questions. Oh, I'm an ePortfolio studio consultant.
DILLON POLLEY: So it's weird because I technically didn't apply to this position. I've been working here since freshman year, and I'm just moved from role to role as needed. But whenever Amy came to me saying if I'd rather switch from the IEL to ePortfolio, I'm really big on portfolio practices.
Because like the best way to get a job is to have a really good portfolio with your projects, your programming languages, and just in general. And a lot of project-based majors do the same. So I just thought it'd be good at translate this work into my own professional.
SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm.
SOPHIE CARRISON: My professional writing Professor Debbie Oesch-Minor, we did e-portfolios in her class. And so she emailed me with the job position and said, hey, I think you'd be great at this. Maybe you should apply. And I was like, well, I already have a job. I applied last minute, and I interviewed, and I got it. So it was really great. That's a good one.
I think being able, like I said before, working with students directly is really important. And so, after graduation, I want to go into a physical therapy program. And so that's a lot of hands-on experience with other physical therapy students, as well as being a physical therapist. I have to work directly with people all the time, every day. So I think that aspect definitely has prepared me.
DILLON POLLEY: I think it's cool to help students, watch them go from freshman year through senior year. I haven't been able to yet since we just started up, but it's cool to see that we're developing a program that helps students along the journey for college.
SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm, and how has this helped you prepare for your future?
DILLON POLLEY: I think in my field, there's a lot of logistical stuff, and people talk like bullet points. So they just like very orderly, and having to work with people in a consultant role has helped me be a better communicator, which is something that's like one of my really big weak points.
So it's just like, although it's not directly related to programming and stuff, it's nice in helping me develop skills that I'll use later. So I'm directly working with students and faculty all the time. So I'd say that I'm learning names and faces and new people all the time.
SOPHIE CARRISON: Well, I get to see a lot of students from a lot of different majors and backgrounds. So I think just the community aspect of helping people figure out how to reflect on experiences that can be so different from life is really, really cool to see.
SPEAKER 1: Mm-hmm.
SOPHIE CARRISON: So weird talking about my fun facts. [LAUGHING] But I think my fun fact is I played soccer for eight years before college. It's not really fun, but it's just a fact. [LAUGHING]
DILLON POLLEY: Fun fact about me is that I have a twin, and he goes to Purdue. So nobody knows me at his school, and nobody knows him, but then, we're like we have a twin, and then they meet my twin, and they're like, whoa. It's another you. So I think it's cool.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Meet Academic and Career Development
University College is the academic home and advising resource for most first-year students at IU Indianapolis. We also work with students beyond the first year as they prepare for admission to a degree-granting program. Academic and Career Development offers you a team of student success advisors and career consultants to help you explore your interests, choose a major, and create a plan to achieve your academic and personal goals. Once you transition to your degree-granting school, you could work with advisors, career professionals, and even faculty to prepare for a successful career.