The Career & Job Search Readiness Quiz Find out if you have the skills and knowledge to get a job in today s uncertain job market! Over 60 Questions
Your Career Center will give you: 1. Job search knowledge and skills 2. Confidence to ace interviews 3. Advice on killer resumes 4. Knowledge about how to build a professional network 5. Access to best practices, guerilla marketing and personal branding techniques that work While most grads struggle in their first professional job searches, you will have the knowledge, skills and strategies to succeed! Monthly Webinars, enewsleters, advice and research! 2
The job search process has undergone dramatic changes in the past decade. Today you need to have a keyword laden resume that gets noticed by software before a human ever lays eyes on it, you need to know how to adeptly use social media to build an online brand and presence that shows your passion and knowledge within your industry, and you still need to master fundamental skills like networking and interviewing. Research shows that the typical college student will rarely visit the career center until the closing days of their college experience. That's too late! Additional research shows the more time you invest in your career starting as early as your freshman year, the more likely you will have a job lined up by graduation day that is more relevant to your career and at a higher salary! What does that mean to you? Well, the average grad will take nearly 8 months to land a job following graduation. Assuming the average graduate is paid $3-4,000 in salary per month, the average grad is losing out on $24-32,000 in salary! It pays to visit the career center frequently! Take this quiz to see what you need to work on early in your college years, so you can land a job by the time you graduate! 3
Participate in career boot camps and career planning programs your career center. A survey conducted by Adecco showed that 71 percent of recent college graduates wished they had done something different to prepare for the job market. Career Center The career center is a tremendous resource on campus to begin to explore careers, build a career plan and create job search strategies. Research shows that 61 percent of graduating seniors will either never visit the career center or visit once or twice. Your career planning should start the minute you arrive on campus. From your freshman year on, you should be building your knowledge skills, and network. 1. Are you visiting the career center at least once a month? 2. Have you taken multiple career assessments at the career center and reviewed the results with career staf? 3. What other services have you utilized from the career center? 4. Have you worked with the career center to create a basic resume? 5. How many career events have you participated in? 6. Have you used the career center to get help in identifying career options for you? 7. Have you participated in any on campus interviews at the career center? 8. What resources have you used at the career center to explore industries you might be interested in? 9. How often have you used the career center for practice interviews? 10. What books have you read on networking, job search strategies, and using social media to get jobs? 4
Take assessments and talk to career coaches to learn which careers are right for you at your career center. A survey by AfterCollege found that 86 percent of grads were finding the job search process difficult or extremely difficult. Career Exploraion Over 55 percent of students will switch majors during college. That ends up costing more money and keeps them out of the workforce longer. If you don t have a good handle on what you want to do, you will end up being one of the 60% of grad ends who end up in jobs totally unrelated to their majors. Knowing what you want to do will make it easier to ind your dream job! 1. What assessment tests have you taken? Behavior Personality Skills Interests Other 2. Have you reviewed the results of your assessments with a career professional? Y/N 3. What occupations do your tests indicate you would thrive at? 4. What type of industries do your assessments indicate you will thrive at? 5. What type of companies do your assessments indicate you will be best in? 6. What types of jobs do your assessments indicate you will be best at? 7. What positions have you job shadowed? 8. What positions have you interned at? 9. What do others think you should do? 10. What do you REALLY want to do? 5
Visiting the career center. A study by The Ladders found that recruiters spend an average of six seconds before they make the initial fit or no fit decisions regarding candidates. Resume It s not unusual for a hiring manager to get over 250 resumes for a job. How are you going to make sure you even make the short stack? Putting together a resume is part science and part art. You need to personalize each one as well as include keywords that match terms the company is using in its job listings. 1. Are you customizing each resume for the positions you are applying to? 2. Are you loading your resume with relevant key words for the positions you are applying for? 3. Are you using one of the three resume styles; chronological, functional or combination? 4. Is your resume focused on facts, stats and accomplishments, or tasks? 5. Have you had at least two supportive people proof read each resume you send? 6. Is your resume providing proof about how YOU can handle their job description? 7. Are you following the Resume Ingredient Rule? 8. Are you sharing your skills? 9. Are you speaking with action verbs? 10. How many pages is your resume? 6
Get a job faster by searching smarter. Learn proven techniques at the career center. One third of current working graduates are in jobs that do NOT require a college degree. Job Search Our surveys show the average grad is spending 1-5 hours on his or her job search after graduation. To get a job in today s competitive climate you need to consider your job search your full time job. In order to ill a 40 hour week with constructive actions, you need to have multiple job search strategies. 1. Do you have a written job search plan? 2. Have you created a list of 10-20 target companies you want to work for? 3. Are you researching these firms issues, successes and plans? 4. Are you focused on a specific position? 5. How many career fairs have you attended? 6. How many job search sites do you frequent? 7. How much time per week do you spend on job boards? 8. Are you focusing on jobs that your assessments advised you were the best match for you? 9. Do you have an organized daily activity for looking for jobs? 10. How much time per week do you spend on your job search? 11. How many job search tools are you using? 7
Build your professional network easier & FASTER. Connect with alumni on Linkedin. 75-80 percent of all job seekers end up getting jobs through networking. Networking You have an incredible opportunity to network with alumni staring your freshman year. Never before have graduating classes been able to as easily connect with alumni at companies for which they want to work. Studies show that 80 percent of us get jobs from people we know, so you should be spending a lot of time getting to know people! 1. How many people do you add to your professional network each month? 2. Are you maintaining your network by contacting its members on a regular basis? 3. Do you look for ways you can help your network? 4. Do you have an elevator speech? 5. Have you identified who your target network members are? 6. Are you participating in local, regional and national groups monthly either online or in person? 7. Do you have a plan regarding what you do when you meet new contacts? 8. Do you have a plan regarding what you will do after you meet a contact? 9. Do you focus on the other person s story first? 10. Do you have an event networking strategy? 11. Are you actively introducing your network members to each other? 12. Do you examine your network to explore collaborative projects? 8
Ace that interview. Participate in work interviews at the career center. On average, interviewers make up their minds within the first two minutes whether or not you are going to make it to the next interview. Interviewing Imagine sitting at a desk interviewing people just like you every day. As the photo above indicates, after a while each candidate would start looking and sounding the same. Each one is a hard worker, shows initiatives, etc. etc. You need to know how to prepare for and control the interview so you stand out! 1. Do you research the company to understand their products, services and markets? 2. Are you sure you understand the position being filled and review the job description? 3. Have you Googled the firm to find issues, problems and or new accounts/ products? 4. Do you find an inside person within the company to coach you prior to your interview? 5. How far in advance do you like to arrive at an interview? 6. Do you practice interviews? 7. Have you checked your body language style during an interview? 8. What statement do you use to close the deal at the end of the interview? 9. What do you do to follow up on interviews? 10. Do you stay positive about all previous jobs and positions? 9
Stand out in crowded job market. Build an online brand. Start a blog. 98 percent of job seekers don t know what their personal brand is. Personal Brand Pepsi is a brand and so are you! When people think of you, they instantly create in their mind a summary of who you are. You need to control and build a professional brand as you prepare to move from campus to the corporate world. It s easy to do, but you need a plan! 1. Have you defined what your personal vision and purpose is? 2. Have you deined your values and passions? 3. Is your message clear, unique and does it stand out from others? 4. Have you defined your goals for the next 3-5 years? 5. Have you created a list of adjectives or assembled them from others that best define/describe you and what you will bring to a future employer? 6. Have you identified your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT)? 7. Have you identified who your target audience is? 8. Have you identified who your competition is and compared yourself to those people? 9. What channels have you opened to deliver and promote your brand? (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc.) 1. Are you focusing on me by developing the right message, to your audience, at the right time, as consistently as possible? 2. In what area(s) have you decided to become known as a thought leader? 10. Have you created a professional set of personal business cards? 11. Have you created a video bio of yourself? 10
Become a LinkedIn expert. Get ps at the career center. According to a survey by Jobvite, 40% of job seekers got a job by using LinkedIn. LinkedIn Are you using LinkedIn yet? LinkedIn will be one of your most important job search tools yet. Not only can you ind jobs that match your interests and career goals, but you ll be able to ind people within the company who can provide you with ips about what you need to do to get hired. 1. Have you joined 50 groups related to your industry? 2. Are you participating in Answers by posing questions and responding to others? 3. Do you participate in the conversations in your groups? 4. Are you updating your profile page with proof of college and work related accomplishments? 5. Are you connected to a minimum of 100 alumni that have already graduated? 6. Have you accumulated a minimum of 5 recommendations? 7. Are you following at least 20 companies in industries you d like to work for? 8. Do you share relevant news related to the industry you want to work for in your News Feed? 9. Have you signed into LinkedIn s specially designed grad community? 10. Are you connecting to people in your desired industries that have titles and responsibilities you aspire to? 11
Use your facebook network professionally. Clean up your photos. According to a survey by Jobvite, 78 percent of those surveyed indicated they got a job by using Facebook. Facebook Facebook is going to continue to help people find jobs and lose jobs. To make sure you don t lose a chance at a job-- make sure you LOCK down your privacy settings and ONLY let friends see photos and comments you want to share. At least until you re hired! 1. Have you audited your privacy settings to make sure prospective employers cannot view your personal photos, communications and likes? 2. Are you signing up for events held by companies you are following? 3. How frequently do you share news and republish information related to your industry? 4. Have you liked the fan pages of the companies you are interested in working at and do you periodically post comments? 5. Are you using add-in applications like BranchOut and BeKnown to find people you know who may be working at companies for which you want to work? 12
Pick up tips, techniques and proven strategies to get a job. Visit the career center. Few job seekers difereniate themselves by crteaing their own websites to stand out. Personal website/blog/google Do you have an online identity? LinkedIn, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other online identity tools are more important than resumes for some organizations. In order to stay ahead of the rest, you need to have your own personal website and begin sharing your thought leadership on your personal blog, as well as the comments you make in your news feeds on Linkedin, Twiter and Facebook. 1. Have you set up a personal professional website? 2. Have you included documents, spreadsheets and proof of your capabilities? 3. Did you include a photo of you, professionally dressed? 4. Have you created a personal blog that provides insight and ideas related to the in which you want to work? 5. Are you posing an article at least twice per month? 6. Have you created a list of influential blogs within your industry that you follow on a regular basis? 7. Are you offering comments and participating in these blogs on a regular basis? 8. Have you Googled yourself to see if any unflattering information is out there for hiring managers to see? 13
How did you do? If you are currently doing 90 percent of these, you are doing great! If you are doing 80 percent, with very little additional effort, you will put yourself way ahead of the pack! If you are doing 70 percent of these activities or less, then you need to immediately take ownership of your career, and invest time in career exploration, career planning and creating successful job search strategies. Visit the career center to learn how you can effortlessly get more interviews, gain control of your job search, feel much more confident in interviews, and negotiate your salary and benefits as you pursue your dream job! 14