Hey ThinkTalkers, my name is Molly and I am a senior English Major at CUA. As part of my internship for ThinkTalk, I will be blogging my epic search for a job in the D.C. area, giving you all my take on what has worked, what has failed miserably, and hopefully giving a splinter of insight to those of you who haven’t quite reached job hunting maturation yet in your young adult life.

I was full of energy and hope the first two weeks of my project and started off with many ideas on how to sell myself, but time and results are wearing me down. That’s where I am. My current job stats are: six apps, one reply, one strike out. I just remind myself that the app was good practice. After all it’s only February, and I still have three months till graduation. With each passing week, not getting a response from some employers and grinding out more apps has shown me how much easier contacts can make this process.

I attended my first University networking event, CUA’s Etiquette dinner to take a break from the piles of applications. Most of the topics discussed were things your parents hopefully taught you at the dinner table, but I picked up some very useful hints.

If you are going to attend a meal with a potential employer, it will most likely be for a semi-formal lunch. The picture provided generally represents what that looks like. I personally get confused as to which bread plate and glass is mine. A neat trick to help you remember is, hold up your hand in front of you and make the letter “b” with your left hand and “d” with your right. Remember, “b” for bread and “d” for drink. Hopefully you’ll be discreet with your hand hints while at the interview.

The first thing you do when you sit down for the meal is gently unfold your napkin on your lap. Don’t shake the napkin out of its fold then spread it on your lap. Next, the instructor talked about utensil positions and what they mean. Angling the stem of your knife in the one to two o’clock position of your plate is the rest position. Cutting all your meat or salad at once is not proper etiquette, so cut two or three pieces at a time and then put your knife in the rest position. According to the rules of etiquette, placing your knife and fork parallel in the four o’clock position tells the wait staff you are finished with the meal. I was taught a little differently but, the main idea is, don’t place your utensils on the table cloth and don’t make a mess of your plate.

If you like sugar in your drink, like iced tea or coffee, after empting the package fold it neatly into a small square and place it under the rim of your bread plate. When the courses arrive, even if you know you won’t like it, try it! For instance, we had apricot soup at the dinner. It didn’t sound too appetizing but turned out to be pretty good. The proper way of eating soup is, hold your spoon to the side, as if it were perpendicular to your cheek, and fill the basin of the spoon by gently scooping away from you. Sip; don’t slurp the soup from the side of the basin, not the front.

If you have to leave during the meal, fold the napkin in your lap and place it to the left of your place settings. In case this wasn’t obvious, turn your phone to silent so “Party like a Rock star” doesn’t go off during the interview.

One great suggestion was that you eat a good breakfast or a snack before the lunch. You will be talking for a good portion of the meal and may not be able to finish your plate. Besides, you don’t want a growling stomach or to stuff your face as soon as you’re served.

The instructor had also mentioned that some employers will purposefully not bring up the company during the meal or will talk your ear off. They want to see your social networking skills in action. Ask some questions or mention things that interest you about the company towards the end of the meal if it has not been brought up already. Be aware of your role in the conversation, don’t dominate the conversation but also make sure you are being heard.

The most rewarding part about the dinner, other than the chocolate mousse, was that I felt ahead of the game when talking about my blogging, internship, and use of social media like LinkedIn. Some seniors at the table hadn’t heard of LinkedIn, or understand that twitter can be used as an advertising tool for your network of contacts. Now I have a few a few more twitter followers and additions to my blogging audience. Not bad for a $10 exercise in Etiquette eh?