It is time. You have worked hard, are finishing up all your coursework in May and now you need to jump into the dreaded job search. There are so many things to do and think about at this time, in addition to taking classes, but you know you need to get started soon. And you may feel stuck.
If this is you, my advice – as a someone who has held 9 jobs in my career – is to take one step. Just one.
What step is the most important right now? It’s your resume. If you have one already, I bet it is not up-to-date and it might not even market to the field you hope to enter. To get started on this work, I recommend you take these steps:
Create a list of the following possible experiences you may encountered while in grad school:
- Internships or practicums
- Certification
- Course or independent projects
- Related work experiences and/or summer jobs or community engagement
- Presentations
- Research
- Assigned papers related to your area of interest
- Conferences, seminars, trainings and/or workshops you may have attended as a part of internships or practicum experiences or independently
- Grants or fellowships you may have received
- Associations that you have joined
If needed, add new sections to your resume, based on your newly developed list. For instance, new sections could include Related Experience, Presentations, Related Projects, Certification, Research Experience, Workshops and Seminars
Then add the experiences from your list to your sections
Use Onetonline.org’s Occupation Keyword Search to find great action statements or use language from job postings in your future field of interest. For instance, the tasks listed on this Onetonline page could help you form action statements for your research or project experiences.
Last but not least, when you have a draft ready, schedule a Resume Appointment through Handshake with Career Services and Internships, and we will help you to get that resume ready to go!
