By Betty Glascoe, Director, Career Development Center
Top employers want top students. And it is ever so rewarding that UMBC is often identified by many of the employing institutions as the university with themega-smart students. The honors reputation has superseded the presence of our student population and as a result, the employers are looking for the very best. It does not mean that all of their hires from UMBC must have a 3.0 or better grade point average to secure employment in these economically tight times; however, it does mean that the kind of experiences, skills and academic preparation that you have acquired, dictates how and why the employer would seek you for hire.
So, I ask you, do you have a strategy for securing the job of your choice? Do you know what you would like to do with the rest of your life? Are you successfully able to identify your talents and skills? Do you feel that the kind of academic preparation that you have received from UMBC has proven to be rewarding to your career search and easily verbalized by you to the employing institutions? Are you secure about what you have to offer? Have the work experiences, whether part-time or full-time, successfully contributed to your professional career profile/resume?
Have you utilized every resource available to you in the Career Development Center (CDC)? Have you participated in leadership opportunities on the UMBC campus? Have you been so fortunate to work on campus and capitalize on the enormous opportunities for skill development that are afforded you? Have you attended the Backpack to Briefcase seminars presented by alumni sharing employment information that could prove to be advantageous to you? Have you checked the job announcements that are daily coming into CDC? Have you been reading the senior newsletters that are sent to you monthly from the CDC, making you aware of employment opportunities? Have you been attending the career fairs?
Your concern might be focused upon, why all of these questions? And in response, we would say that we believe that the answer is clear. These are the kinds of questions that we hope you are asking yourself for self analysis in solidifying your career direction.
The academic preparation that you get at UMBC and the tremendous support systems that are available for you that grace this campus, tend to be rareopportunities in higher education. Your ability to define and acknowledge your personal strength will often be a major contributor to your success. Being a student at UMBC can put you ahead of many other employment seekers in the area; however, you must be sold on your abilities and for your growth and development, able to identify your career alternatives.
Dr. Howard Figler, an award-winning nationally renown author of PATH: A Career Exploration Workbook for the Liberal Arts Graduate and coauthor of The Athletes Game Plan for College and Career, as well as Outreach in Counseling; is also the author of this third and totally updated edition of The Complete Job-Search Handbook.
Dr. Figler indicates that there are 28 skills of the job search and they fall in five categories:
*self-assessment
*connecting (the identification of ways and means to connect with employers)
*communication (written and verbal)
*skills for selling yourself
*interviewing skills
In the final analysis, when you are cognizant of the fact that you are academically well prepared; that you possess transferable skills; that you have established a very impressive work history; that you have maintained a good grade point average while pursuing your education full-time and working in a demanding job; that experiential learning opportunities have been rewarding; then, you are ahead of the game. You are ready to explore the job search in a very non-threatening way, having some fun in the process, acknowledging your multiple skills that you bring, and taking the time to conduct your search properly. You're a winner! Now, make it all work for you.
