Career Marketplace Blog

New Grads: How Career Exploration Helps Your Job Hunt

By: Annie Favreau, Inside Jobs

College graduation season is in full swing. All over the country, droves of 20-somethings are starting their very first job hunt. For many career newbies, this can be an overwhelming process. With thousands of career choices and plenty of stiff competition, knowing where to begin can be a challenge.

Establishing a clear career goal is essential. If you don’t know where you’re going or what you’re looking for, your job search will be aimless. And that’s where a career exploration site can come in handy. By tapping into the resources on these sites—like job profiles, salary statistics, work environment—you can discover in-depth information and career direction. Here’s how:

Explore All Your Options
Even if you don’t know what kind of career you want, you probably know some of your skills and values. Are you good with people? Detail oriented? Happiest working outdoors? Career explorations sites often let you sort jobs by personality traits, skills, or work environment. By casting a net based on your own strengths, you can examine career choices that are both familiar and unusual—you might even find some that you’ve never even heard about.

The more options you know about, the better chance you have of discovering a career that’s a good match. In the big picture, finding a career path that fits who you are will be much better than pouncing on the first offer that comes your way.

Get the 411 on a Specific Position
When you’ve identified a job you’re interested in, it’s time to do some research. Start with the career profile to kick off a thorough investigation of the job’s general industry. Why? Having a good understanding of the ins and outs of the field will help you during your interview process. Plus, if you plan on scheduling informational interviews, this general knowledge will help you find and choose experts who can best answer your questions.

Map Out Your Next Step
Once you find a career you want, you might discover additional training—like an internship, certificate, or apprenticeship—is required. Or maybe you just need to start getting your name out there and apply for positions. Either way, career exploration sites can show you the best way to break into an industry and get the job you want.

__________________________________________________________________________

Annie Favreau works for Inside Jobs, a site that helps people discover a career they’ll love and build strong, successful futures. Join the career conversation on Twitter at @InsideJobs.

In this article for U.S. News and World Report, Miriam Salpeter explains The Best Way to Take Control of Your Job Hunt.

Below is an excerpt of Salpeter article. Read Full Article

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a little more control over your job search? It’s frustrating applying over and over again for jobs and never hearing back.

When you apply online, the odds are against you unless your qualifications exactly match what the employer wants. (In other words, unless you are applying for the job you already have.) It’s not impossible to land an opportunity via an online application; many people do find jobs that way, but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re not likely to get hired from a resume drop.

What should you do instead? Stop looking for a job. Start looking for a company.

You may be surprised, but it may be the best career move you never considered. Instead of spending all of your time searching for appropriate job descriptions and targeting your resume to apply for them, you should consider shifting some of your efforts to identifying organizations whose goals are in line with your interests and whose problems you know you can solve.

Read On

Want to know how to sell your job skills to employers? Learn how with Curt Rosengren’s U.S. News and World Report article, How to Market Your Skills in Your Job Search.

Read an excerpt of Rosengren’s article below. Read Full Article

If you‘ve ever looked for a job, you’ve probably seen skills checklists, ones that ask you to tick off every skill on the page that sounds like you. The trouble with that is, when it comes to telling your story to a prospective employer, it’s still pretty one-dimensional. There’s nothing to back it up.

If you want to talk about your skills in a compelling way, you have to go deeper than that. One way to do this is to give the checklist the heave-ho and take a longer and more fruitful approach to identifying your skills.

Don’t forget that potential employers aren’t actually interested in your skills—they’re interested in how those skills can help them meet their needs. This process will help you make your story more compelling by letting you demonstrate that.

Read On

In her article for Forbes Magazine, Susan Adams writes, Two Myths About Résumés

Below is an excerpt from Adams’ article. Read Full Article

Over eight years as a career coach in New York City,  Win Sheffield has observed the myths his clients tell themselves about the challenge of finding a job.

In this piece, he lays out some facts and some fictions about résumés. (I’ve edited his words a bit.) He writes:

Résumé Myth #1: Putting together my résumé is the most important part of my job search.

The thinking behind this:

Every ad requires a résumé. Everyone who wants to assist me says that they can forward my résumé to HR. To get a job I need to interview and before an interview, interviewers ask me to send my résumé. The only way people will know who I am professionally is by my résumé. It is therefore the most important part of my search.

The appeal – why we want to believe it:

Read On

Great news for veterans. LiveCareer News reports, Ashford University Helps Veterans Earn Degrees. The University has teamed up with Cox Communications to provide scholarships to veterans seeking higher education.

Read on to learn more about The Homefront Heros Scholarship and how it helps our veterans obtain a college education.

In Wall Street Journal Education article, B-Schools Give Firms Say Amid Tough Job Market, Diana Middleton reports, “Some business schools are working harder to incorporate employers’ wishes into their curriculum, as the job market for M.B.A. graduates remains tough”.

Read an excerpt of Middleton’s article. Read Full Article

Business schools for years have sought to prepare students for real-world challenges. Now, amid an ultracompetitive job market, some are responding more aggressively to feedback from recruiters about graduates’ shortcomings and adjusting their courses accordingly.

Nicole Hall, president of the M.B.A. Career Services Council, an industry group for b-schools’ career-services associates, says schools have been more proactive in maintaining and improving relationships with recruiters by inviting top companies to high-profile campus events and having executives mingle with business schools’ top administrators. “The downturn gave a lot of [curriculum] changes a sense of urgency,” she says.

Read On

LiveCareer News reports, More Culinary Opportunities Appearing in Health Care Field.

According to the article, “As more Baby Boomers head into retirement, the demand for individuals in health care food services is continuing to grow”. It is also reported that culinary schools will include courses to learn how to create menus for the health care industry.

Read on to learn how you can contribute to the health care industry through Culinary Arts.

About.com Guide, Dawn Rosenberg McKay explains how your ability to listen can benefit your job search. In her article, Now Pay Attention. Here’s Why You Need Good Listening Skills, McKay explains the difference between listening and hearing and explains why you need good listening skills.

Below is an excerpt of McKay’s article. Read Full Article

Wall Street Journal Career Stategies article, Most Promotions Take Place in January, Study Finds, Joe Light references a study conducted by LinkedIn Corp showing when “the greatest percentage of in-house promotions” occur. In this study, the professional networking site found that, “16% of promotions since 2000 occurred in January”.

January is not always the hot month for promotions. Depending on the industry, the study finds June, July, and September are also popular months for job advancement.

Read more of Light’s article to learn how you can secure a promotion in the coming year.

Wall Street Journal blog, Hire Education, Deloitte CEO, Barry Salzberg shares his thoughts on how students should begin career preparation as early as high school.

Below is a excerpt of Salzberg’s blog. Read Full Blog

Even in a good economy, the transition from college to the workplace can be tricky. Some people sail through academia to work without a hitch. Others have a harder time finding the right fit; they’ll need to adjust their expectations and/or improve their skills before they begin their careers.

So where’s the disconnect? Why isn’t everyone coming out of college career- and future-ready?

For many students, it may be because they had to spend time getting up to speed on college-level work. That leaves them less time to reap the benefits of higher education and grow into the kinds of young professionals employers expect to hire.

As colleges prepare for final exams this month, millions of first-year students will get concrete data on how well they’ve been prepared for higher education. More than two-thirds of high-school students in Deloitte’s 2010 Education Survey told us they felt well-prepared for college, while more than two-thirds of high school teachers fear their students are not prepared to handle college course work.

Which view is correct? The sad truth of the matter is no one really knows.

Read On