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Career Services Home
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The following four-step formula guides you toward making an informed decision about careers to pursue and how to enhance opportunities for securing meaningful employment.
Self-awareness plays an important role in determining careers you may wish to explore. Take time to conduct a personal inventory of your: 1. interests 2. skills 3. values, and If you have already made a career choice, a personal inventory can help determine whether you made the right decision. If you're at the exploratory stage, assessment instruments will help you in the decision making process. The following assessment tools and others are available for students at Career Services, Room 124, Maynard Hall at no charge.
Read To make an informed career decision, you need to understand what a job is really about. You will find a wealth of information at Career Services and at the Marion Campus Library. Also, check out any public library, professional associations by industry type, the Internet, etc. Talk Conduct informational interviews with people already in the industry. These people can provide the most up-to-date information about job descriptions and changes going on in that particular career or job. Establish contacts by talking to faculty, alumni, family friends, friends of friends, current and former employers, and members of clubs or professional associations. Once you meet one person who is willing to help you be sure to ask for referrals to others in the field÷it's called networking.
After learning about the career/job get some hands-on experience. A field experience allows you to test the career/job before making a final decision. It provides an opportunity to observe or perform the day-to-day routine of a job you are considering. Talk with faculty members, explore resources at Career Services, and use alumni to develop a contact base for possible field experience sites. Ö Internships/Co-Ops allow to explore career possibilities or to prepare for a chosen career. They typically involve an academic term, and academic year, and/or summer. They may be full-time, part-time, paid or unpaid. Most award academic credit. Interns often work on specific projects or perform teaching or research tasks at a professional level. Ö Volunteer work gives you the opportunity to work with people in career you might wish to pursue. You learn what work environment you enjoy most and gain skills that will enhance future employment opportunities. In future interviews you will be able to explain how your volunteer experience will benefit the organization by showing how it helped you. Ö Summer jobs also allow you to explore career fields and to develop key skills needed in a future job. With good planning and an early start, you can find a summer job that allows you to examine future employment opportunities. For more information about summer jobs, use Career Services, the Internet, the Library, professional contacts, etc. Ö Part-time jobs can be a excellent but often overlooked field experience. Most students take on a part-time job because they need money, but part-time jobs also exposes you to work environments that help clarify your career interests. Part-time jobs help you establish a work history while developing solid work related skills. These experiences can provide valuable references when applying for future jobs in your professional career choice.
Conducting a job search while going to school can be very demanding and frustrating. It typically takes up to six months of active job searching before securing meaningful employment. It is estimated that nearly 70% of all the available jobs are never even advertised. If true, how do you find out about these hidden jobs? The answer is-start early! Devise an effective, efficient strategy for implementing your career decision by learning how to market yourself. Using the network of contacts you've established through informational interviews, field experiences, and through family, friends, college contacts, etc. the so-called hidden job market will reveal itself to you. The secret to success is to be competent, confident and persistent! * * * *
Among incoming college freshmen, only rarely does a visit to the career services office rank up there in importance with meeting roommates, finding class locations, dealing with homesickness, and generally getting up to speed on the campus scene. But truth be told, students who use their career service center early and often get the best benefit. Contrary to popular opinion, career services are not just for students nearing graduation. In fact, if you visit your career services office well before your senior year, you will:
It is recommended that students visit their career services office each and every year of their college tenure to use the available free services. Chances are good that your college or school makes available most or all of the following services laid out here in a four-year timeline: Freshman Year Starting to explore majors and careers - College isn't just about preparing for employment, but let's face facts: most of us have to pay our way through life at some point! Many students come to college with, at best, a vague idea of how college will prepare them for a job once they graduate. It's definitely okay (and in many cases, preferable) to enter college as an "exploring" student if you're not sure about what your major should be. But even an exploring student could use a map, because having a goal is important to doing well in school. If you visit your career services office, counselors can help you begin that exploration with assessments that help you understand and articulate your interests, skills, values, personality traits, and generally what's important to you. This self-knowledge is key to making good decisions about the types of career fields and environments that fit you best. Career counselors can help you learn about those career options and help map out a path to explore them more thoroughly in your course of study. Those options could include using the college's alumni career network to obtain advice and information about possible career paths and entry strategies. Building a career network - From a networking perspective, building a professional working relationship with your campus's career services staff, alumni, employers, relatives, past employers, service groups, faculty, advisors, etc. is often the best method to gain career information and opportunities in your field, and/or to discuss specific job- or internship-related questions and concerns. Now's the time to visit your career services office to begin the networking process. Seeking internships - And freshman year isn't too soon to start looking at internships, either. Visit career services to learn about ways to seek out available internship or co-op opportunities and to get advice about applying for and obtaining these positions. You could potentially complete three or more internships during your college years, not only providing you with valuable work experience but giving you a huge boost on your resume at graduation, as well. Sophomore Year Getting involved on campus - During your sophomore year the career services office can help you tap into campus organizations that will let you build the leadership skills that employers seek in new graduates. Course selection and grades are important, but extracurricular activities are, too. Deciding on your major and career targets - If you've been exploring options for majors during your freshman year, your career services staff can now help you refine your list. If you need more resources to help with this process, they may urge you to speak with alumni, conduct informational interviews to learn about job fields, and apply for part-time, seasonal, or internship positions in your area of interest to actually "try on" a career before making a commitment to it. Preparing to apply for internships and jobs - Of course, the career center will work with you on preparing your resume, cover letter, portfolio, and making sure that you are comfortable and effective in the interviewing process. They can also sign you up for an online account to encourage your participation in campus career events, such as job fairs and workshops, and to give you access to online services, including on-campus job recruiting activities for internships and full-time jobs. Junior Year Transitioning into a different four-year school? - By junior year, most students in four-year schools have settled into a major. However, if you're entering a four-year school from a two-year program, you may find it especially helpful to pay an early visit to your career services office for a discussion about how to ease into your new school. Some students find the transition to a four-year school a little overwhelming at first, and a career counselor's guidance on how to mold your bachelor's program into a marketable degree might be a good early step on campus. Of course, you'll want to sign up for an online career services account and the services that come with it. Getting serious about work experience - Many juniors get serious about internships because they've got only one more summer left as a student. With good strategic planning, you've already been to career services - but if you haven't, don't delay. Counselors can help you seek internships and co-ops, prepare your application materials, and begin building work experience that will make a difference at graduation time. Besides a solid G.P.A. employers look for candidates who have completed an experiential segment as part of their college education. Building leadership skills - Career services can also help you identify ways to build leadership skills on campus. If you haven't done so before, junior year is a good time to join professional associations, student government organizations, arts, social or sports groups, or volunteer to participate in community service organizations. All these activities will build your skill set, provide meaningful experience, and (once they're listed on your resume) help employers see you as a leader and a well-rounded individual. Preparing for graduate school - If your intent is to pursue graduate studies immediately following your undergraduate degree, then now is the time to be taking the appropriate admission tests and selecting the schools to which to apply. Your Career Services office and assist with these details. Senior Year Putting it all together - By your final year of college, you want to be packaging your educational expertise, work and internship experience, and leadership qualities that you've been developing during your schooling. In a perfect world, it would be nice if you were in a position to come to career services and say, "Okay, I researched and explored my choice of major, I chose well, I performed well, I got solid work experience and completed internships in my field. I've been involved in campus activities and even proved myself as a leader in some cases. Help me translate this into an effective job search!" However, for lots of reasons, nobody's college experience is perfect, so don't let fear or intimidation stop you from getting to career services at this important time. Implementing your job search - Now the career center can help you plan and implement an effective job search strategy using a variety of tools: on-campus recruiting, job fairs, targeted approaches to desired employers, networking with professionals in your field, smart use of online resources, etc. They'll help you polish your resume, cover letter, and portfolio, and help you navigate important application follow-up steps, and they'll coach you on interviewing skills and even help you decide how to dress to help you make that important good first impression. Go early, go often - Remember, the key to effective use of your career services office is not waiting until the anxiety of graduation pushes you to go. Go early, go often, and begin grooming yourself for the professional world from day one. Finally, here's another little known fact about campus career services: they're not just for students. College career centers typically offer alums some of the services offered to current students, including continued access to career counseling, vocational assessments, job search support, and alumni career networks. Priscilla March, Career Counselor, University of Massachusetts, Lowell. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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