CAREER PLANNING
A FEW BEST TIPS AND PRACTICES
BE SMART!
Use the SMART goal method to determine the best outcomes when creating new career paths.
Use the chart below to help outline your goals!
SMART GOAL METHOD:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Reasonable
Time-based
DISCOVER YOUR STRENGTHS…AND YOUR WEAKNESSES!
NO ONE IS PERFECT!!!
As eager as employers are to hear how great you are, describing your strengths and weakness can be a challenge. The best method is honesty.
It is good practice to find ways to share weaknesses followed by the actions you're taking to improve them.
Be honest, that's all!
NETWORK… NETWORK…NETWORK!!!
Building relationships with the right people can play an important role in future career outcomes.
“Its not always what you know but who you know.”
Here are a few easy networking strategies…
Attend activities and events pertaining to your career field.
Create a LinedIn profile.
Join other social media groups focused on your specific career interest.
DO INDUSTRY RESEARCH
Use online search engines to research current updates and happenings within your desired career field. Identify relative information such as position descriptions, average salaries, and other general requirements. Industry research, gives job seekers the opportunity to compare existing, skill sets and strengths to the what hiring managers are seeking.
Decide which industry works best for you!
MAKE CAREER PLAN
Asses yourself. Understand who you are. What motivates drives and excites you.
Research career paths. The task of understanding the employment landscape and what opportunities exist in in your industry. Make decisions. Decide what industry fits your career path, the opportunities that exist and formulate a plan. Act. Turn your ideas into action.
UPDATE RESUME AND COVER LETTER
Your resume and cover letter are dynamic documents. This means it is to be continually edited and updated. Be creative in finding new and ways to update and share your work history.
Resume Tip: Use templates to change the style of your resume. Keep contact info updated, add LinkedIn profile, Keep it short, 2 pages or less
HELPFUL LINKS AND RESOURCES
2020 Top Ten Job Search Engines
Indeed features millions of job listings from thousands of different websites.
Along with applying for jobs on Indeed, you can also set up job alerts to be notified when new jobs that match your criteria are posted, research and compare salaries, and much more.
CareerBuilder has been online for more than 20 years and offers highly customizable search features so you can quickly see job postings that match exactly what you’re looking for.
Unlike Indeed, CareerBuilder gathers job postings directly from employers (they post their jobs directly to the site). CareerBuilder also partners with many local news organizations to be able to list their local job ads from their “classifieds” section.
LinkedIn offers a lot – networking, a great online course platform called LinkedIn learning, and yes – job searching!
Glassdoor started as a ratings/review site where employees could leave anonymous reviews for employers.
Since then, they’ve grown substantially and now offer a great salary research tool, and a job search engine that we’ve tested and definitely recommend.
SimplyHired has great search functionality and customization and allows you to save your specific searches as well so you can check back each week and quickly repeat your custom searches.
This sleek, modern job search engine features verified, up-to-date job listings so you never waste time applying for jobs that are already filled, or are on hold, etc.
LinkUp is a great choice because of their easy to use design.
SnagaJob is another large, popular job search engine.
This is one that not a lot of people are aware of, despite using Facebook each day.
Facebook Jobs will show you opportunities in your area and provides a button to apply right from your Facebook profile.
This could be good or bad depending on what’s on your profile.
ZipRecruiter lets you search jobs by keyword and location, and they also recently came out with a new “Get Recruited” option where they claim companies will reach out to you (after you enter your name and email address).
Robert Half is another massive job search website with thousands of listings that you can filter through.