Career Exploration & Job Search Strategy Workshop

Job Search Strategies
60 followers
8 Video Views·Apr 12, 2025
In June 2024, the College of Global Futures Career Services team held the first session of their summer workshop series. This workshop provided tools to explore career interests, research career paths, and build a job search plan to narrow down professional opportunities.
And then let's see. Great. So welcome to our first summer workshop of the year.
Again, I am a career advisor for the College of Global Futures, which includes the School
of Sustainability, the School for Future and Innovation and Society, Complex Adaptive Systems,
and just launching the School of Ocean Futures. Today, what we're going to talk about,
obviously, with the title, but really, I want to give you more than just information. I want to
show you the tools that can help you explore what you want to do, how you want to use your degree,
and then also with job search, things to keep you on track, and the tools to help you stay on track.
So quick disclaimer with this workshop, just want to say there is no one way to explore careers
or apply for jobs. These are my opinions and what I've learned from recruiters and my research on
what works best for people. There's no magic wand for discovering what you want to do or finding
your dream job. So just keep that in mind while we go through. These are just some tools to get
you started, but you ultimately are the one who decides how you're going to do it. So career
exploration. I meet with a lot of students and recent grads. I ask them what they're interested
in, and they say they're open to everything, which is great. It's great to have an open mind,
but when it comes to your career, having a roadmap is extremely helpful. So let's say I
told you you need to drive from Phoenix to New York City, but you can't use GPS. You can't use
a smartphone. You can't use a map. You will eventually get to New York City, but it's going
to take a while, a lot of wrong turns, probably a lot of frustration. But if we use tools like
GPS, you will get there a little faster, a little smoother. Granted, always opportunity to take
wrong turn, but at least you know the general direction you're going. So with that, thinking
about career exploration as a process, it's going to happen throughout your career, not just as a
student or a recent graduate. So these are kind of the four steps in the process, and we'll go
through each one of them. So reflecting. This is getting to know yourself, what you're even
interested in, what are your values, meaning like what guides your day-to-day actions also in the
workplace, what do you, what guide your actions in the workplace. Also finding out, getting clear on like
what skills and strengths do you have, but what also, what skills do you like to use.
So one way to do that, I mean there's multiple ways. Pathway U is a tool I will show you.
Having conversations with friends and family to get kind of their input to see what they see as
your strengths and skills are. And then we got something called the career onion that I will
show in a second. So Pathway U is available to you as ASU students and alumni. It's an exploration
tool, kind of the reflection and exploration, and even has some jobs open for you. So we really,
I really like this assessment. It's based on something called the RISIC assessment, which
evaluates interests in like five general categories. So this is assessment number one,
where it's kind of these generic questions of what you want to do. Like obviously you're probably not
going to be building kitchen cabinets for your career, but it's kind of getting to like the type
of task that you like doing. So once you take all of the assessments, it gives you that score
that I showed you. So interests, workplace values, so they kind of narrowed it down to six,
but there's so many values around work, personality, preferences. And then what's cool is that
you can also start exploring career matches based on your assessment results. So we'll go back to
that in just a second. Let's see. All right. That's Pathway U. So for some, a lot of grad students
maybe have some career experience already. So thinking about everything you've done in the past
and what you liked about it, what you didn't like about it, that can help you get really clear on
what you want and need in your next role. I linked the Feel Good Career Workbook I love. I'll
share that at the end with you, but it has these nice reflection questions, which are really ideal
for people with some job experience, professional experience already. Interests. Helpful way to
think about interests is thinking about the things that you've studied in your classes.
For our college, a framework we really focus on is the sustainable development goals.
You can also think about it as what problems do you see in the world that you would like to solve
or at least contribute to solving. So this takes some reflection as well. You can go to the UN
website to learn more about the strategies for each one. Quick Google search of like
who is addressing zero hunger in the world, and then that can help you get a better sense of
how people are contributing to these in their day-to-day job. All right. And then this career
onion is based on a book called Good Work. Thinking about an onion, it takes a while to,
there's layers and you peel them away. A lot of times people start with job titles. They look at
a job for the titles. They don't know the companies. They try to assess if it's a good fit.
What Shannon recommends is starting big picture, those issues or interest areas you have. What
problems do you want to solve? Then narrow it down after that. Kind of like that Google search.
What organizations are working on that? And then also keeping in mind the different types
of organizations that do that. So that typically breaks down into companies or corporations,
big and small, nonprofits, which are also can be local, national, or global, and then
government agencies. Again, local, national, global, to a certain extent. And then
universities and research centers kind of fall somewhere in between that nonprofit
and government agency area. Each one has a very different work culture. So that's something to
look into, too, as you're kind of searching through organization types. Then thinking about
function. You can also think of this as like a department at a company or organization. So
thinking about the general ones, there's usually human resources, accounting, marketing, sales. So
all of those teams have a different focus to help the organization achieve its mission.
So that is something to explore a little bit more. And then what roles are in each of those
departments? And what skills do each of those roles use? So just an example with human resources.
On paper, that's not necessarily sustainability focused, but you can work for an organization
where their mission is sustainability. And then within HR, there's people that recruit,
they're recruiters, there's people that do the interview process, people that onboard new hires,
people that do trainings and orientations or trainings throughout employees' careers. So
just one example of how this onion can break down and get you really clear on some things
you're interested in. Now, if you are studying or do you have like a skill, a very specific skill
you really like, be it graphic design, GIS, maybe engineering, you can also start with skills you
want to use and then work your way back up. And you're like, how can I use my skill in an
organization that is solving an issue that I care about? All right. So after reflecting,
it's time to do your research on what is out there. So kind of with the career onion,
what industries are addressing sustainability issues? Starting to look at job titles or
professionals that are working in these industries to see what are the common skills and experiences
they have. Also, what education they have. They, most people did not start off as, you know, an
assistant director, a CEO. They had a career path that got them along the way. And then talking to
these professionals is a hugely, hugely important piece of your research and exploration. So let's
go back to PathwayU. So once you do those assessments, you explore career matches. So
first they give you subject areas. So education. If I'm studying sustainability, I'm like, I don't
want to be a teacher. But think about this more broadly as the components of sustainability.
Thinking about sustainability education. There's lots of organizations that do environmental
education or advocate for more environmental education in the classroom. So take it kind
of from that lens. Each of these are an aspect of sustainability or an issue that you care about.
So communications is a big one. Every organization needs someone in marketing and communications,
sales as well. Law and public safety, you could be on the policy and advocacy side of sustainability.
You could work for a government agency working on rules and regulations related to sustainability.
And then as you can see on the right, it gives you specific careers where they think you would be
a strong fit. You can also go to careers and start searching job titles that you've explored on
LinkedIn or have seen in the past. These are not, these are not great. You need to do a little more
digging. So typing in sustainability, for example, then it's starting to give you some
more specifics. So public relations specialist, chief sustainability officer, takes time to get
there. Specialist is usually a more entry level role. This wholesale retail and buyers accept
farm products. Think of this more as like supply chain and procurement when it comes to sustainability.
All right. Also want to talk about using chat GPT to help you with your career exploration.
This does not take the place of talking to people, but it can help you start brainstorming
and get into the direction to talk to people. So this also, you need to do this after you do
some reflection. So first example of a prompt, you insert like the skills that you like to use,
your interests, your major. You can also put your resume if you want to say like not only good fit
based on skills, interests, major, but also the jobs that I've done before. Another fun one is to
ask for a typical day in the job titles that you generated. Also asking what organizations are
addressing the issue area where you are. So let's see. I linked if Christina, you can put in the
chat GPT prompts link to see all the things that are on there. Not only is it exploration, but
there are other tools for resume, cover letter, et cetera. But here is that find your path. These
are some of the prompts that I mentioned. All right. Now to LinkedIn research. So you saw maybe
a preview of some prompts that you can use. Really searching for alumni who studied what you studied
to see what are they doing, where are they working. On the flip side, once you identify some companies,
you can go to the company page and see what alumni are working there and because they might not have
studied sustainability. And then seeing what are the job titles of people at entry level,
mid-level, and again, how did they get there. So with LinkedIn, it's very easy to get to this,
what we call the ASU alumni tab. You just search Arizona State University. You go to the page and
click alumni. And think of this basically as a database of everybody on LinkedIn that has ASU in
their education section. So they give you some filters ready to go. One of them is what they
studied. But you can also just type sustainability or industrial design or music education to see
what comes up. And then it's going to give you where they work as examples. You can also narrow
it down by where they live if you're not in Arizona. And then you get some results. And I like
to poke around and see what people are doing. We can check on Kendon because he is an ASU employee
as well. All right. So he has done a lot. But we see an internship. He has 17 more experiences.
And all of these experiences have built up to being a manager and then even teaching at ASU.
So if it's helpful, starting to make a spreadsheet of the titles that you see on their way up to
their career or the other organizations they worked at, that can help you with the next steps
in your job search. All right. And then just for some fun, created a little word map on alumni job
titles based on the last alumni survey we did for College of Global Futures graduates. This is just
MSUS alumni. So only 29 people responded. But gives you an idea of some titles that you could look for
on LinkedIn in different organizations. For our MSL, there are a lot of people in our MSL program
who are already in sustainability and are using it to get ahead. So that's why you're going to see
some of these higher titles like director, manager. But analyst is kind of in between early
career, mid career. You kind of see it in different places. And also noting that every organization
has different titles. So they're not universal. All right. Then informational interviews. You can
also call this just talking to people. Gathering data. You're gathering qualitative data. You're
asking questions to get a better sense of what is it truly like to work in some of the jobs that
you've identified might be interesting. I also like to call these career conversations because
it truly is just a conversation where you're just asking questions. So a couple examples of things
that you could focus on. Biggest one I love is asking, like, what would you do if you were in my
position? Also, who else would you recommend that I talk to? Because the more you talk to people,
the more people are going to know about you and know your interests and think about you
when they see opportunities. But step one is just asking questions, making it about the other person
and really building that connection. A couple really easy ways you can do that. One thing is
work on climate. These are volunteers, people that work in climate, which is kind of the new
term for sustainability. They're very intersected. And they said, yep, I want to talk to people.
Here's my calendar. Just book a time. Some of them are one on one. Some of them are groups.
And so if you're new to networking, maybe joining a group session is a good start because you can
kind of learn things without coming up with the questions. Another easy networking opportunity
is something called open door climate. And this is a spreadsheet of people who are on LinkedIn who
have this hashtag open door climate in their profile. And that means they're also willing
to talk to people about their job or the industry as a whole. So after you find somebody you're
interested in, you do have to message them on LinkedIn already. And then preparing or testing
the interests and jobs that you've researched. It's also an opportunity to build skills and
experience. And to do that, lots of different ways. Taking classes about your interest areas
or really skill based. So maybe data analysis, again, GIS. They'll give you projects to work on
to give you kind of a real world scenario. I'll show a couple other options for you.
But really, it's all about getting out there, testing things out in the real world. So Forage
is a tool that ASU provides for all of you for free. They're considered like work simulations.
So they walk you through some tasks and give you some context on why they have these tasks
as part of this type of work. So BCG is a consulting firm. They have big clients,
big companies where they're helping companies with achieving their sustainability goals,
measuring their emissions, communicating their achievements. So it takes three to four hours.
Super low lift and way less time than doing an internship. Volunteering is also a great way
to test things out and really meet people. A lot of group volunteering events, they'll have corporate
volunteers from different companies. So then you can actually talk to people who might be
in this space. One place to look is Volunteer Match. That's a national database. Also,
Google search of environmental nonprofits, your city and state. If you want to be more
skilled in the volunteering or put projects on your resume, another great one is called Catch a
Fire. They do have in-person opportunities, but a lot of them are virtual. And you can search by
skills focus. So I've seen somebody needs help putting together their newsletter. So that's
communications, graphic design, marketing. They have HR support, data analysis support. So would
highly recommend checking this out. It is unpaid, but it is a resume builder for you as well.
And then another thing for ASU offers is Parker Dewey. They're called micro internships,
which you can also consider like projects. So you do get paid for these, but they are very
defined projects that you will work on. From my searches, there's not really much on
sustainability as a whole. So think about this as gaining those really technical skills. So for one,
there's that you see here, a marketing email marketing campaign. You'll get to learn how to
use like HubSpot, which is a customer relationship management tool. So, and I've seen data analysis
on here. So just think about these are ways to gain skills that you can apply to something you're
more interested in. All right. So through a lot actually, and not a little, not a lot of time.
So I will stop here to see if there are any questions. We can start with the chat or you
can totally unmute yourself and just ask out loud. And thank you so much, Christina, for putting all
of these links into the chat while I'm going. I have a question. Yeah. Hi, my name is Raheem. So
all these websites you recommend, they're to help us build our careers for our majors?
Yes. So it's really thinking more than just your major, thinking about
things that you're interested in and skills that you could see yourself using in a career. Okay.
Yeah. And a lot of these, I mean, I frame these in the sustainability sector industry, but really
these skills and websites apply to any interest area or any major. I wrote all of them down. Okay.
Well, I have a surprise for you. I have all these links ready to go for you in a Google doc,
so you don't have to write them all down. Thank you so much. And will this presentation be
available as well? Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Any other question? All right. Well, I'll go ahead
and move on to the ACT part of the career development cycle, which is your job and
internship search and applications. Another disclaimer here. There is no right way to do this.
Every job search looks very different for everybody. And also the job search has changed a
lot in not a lot of time. It really is competitive out there, especially in sustainability or
impact work, social impact work. I think when COVID hit and there's the great resignation,
a lot of people realized that they want to have an impact, a positive impact through their work.
So there's lots of people who are trying to transition into these industries who have
perhaps a lot more experience than somebody coming out with their bachelor's degree.
Nonetheless, you are still fully capable of finding a job just knowing that the first job you get
is not going to be the last job you have in sustainability. It truly is a journey and you
have to work your way up. All right. Just an example of some job help wanted ads. These used
to be position descriptions. I don't know which decade this is from, but this would definitely
not fly in the equal employment opportunity world. I cannot specify the gender of who you want to
apply. But what is nice back in the day was you apply in person and you just show up.
A little different as we've gone forward. I love this one because it's super generic.
You don't need experience and you don't need a specific degree. And then also willing to
do a lot of things that don't sound very fun. This is another one where before the internet,
you did have to start sending your resume, but it didn't have to be super specific to the job.
So I'm sure for those of you who are casually seeking jobs, now you have seen these super
long position descriptions. Some of them are like three pages of all the things that you're going
to do and what they're looking for. Super specific in the degrees they want and the experience they
want. This like, I think this is for an internship. So very specific on where they want you to be in
your academic journey. Whatever, whatever, whatever. Love things like this where it says
entry level and they want 10 years of experience, which is truly just impossible. You would have to
start your career at like age 13 if you wanted to get there. So with the job search, knowing that
it's difficult, it can really help to manage expectations and kind of shift your perspective
on this process. It is an overwhelming process for everybody. I'm sure you've heard finding a job
is a full-time job. It doesn't have to be, but it can be. So a couple tips here, just knowing that
everybody is going to get rejected from jobs. And maybe we don't want to say it's rejection,
it's redirection to the right job for you. Keeping a positive mindset and keeping kind
of a growth mindset of what you're learning along the way and what you improved on along the way.
So I love these micro shifts in perspectives. That Radhika Bhatt, she's a climate career coach
and she put together a really nice presentation called humanizing the job search, which will also
be included in those links. But a couple of things we hear all the time, I hate networking,
it feels slimy or unnatural, like I'm trying to get something out of people.
Maybe a new perspective to think about is you get to meet new people, learn things, and have
some people that are looking out for you when you're doing your job search. People love helping
people. It makes them feel good when they can do something for someone else. So truly let people
do something that makes them feel good by getting to know them and sharing your interests.
Another one, I hate customizing my resumes, it takes way too long, I don't have time.
We'll talk more about this, but customizing your resume, putting keywords, and taking the time to
do that, maybe with fewer jobs, is going to increase your chance of getting an interview.
I hate the job search. This is very common, but thinking again, kind of that growth mindset,
I'm trying something new, I'm going to get better with it, and I'm going to learn so much along the
way. And another one I love to hear is when you're feeling like really frustrated, thinking about,
I haven't gotten a job yet. Always adding yet to your statements, because it will happen
eventually. And it will, once you do get that position, you'll look back and understand why
it had to happen the way it did, and you'll feel better. All right, so now to the nitty-gritty of
actually applying. So what I recommend is first, getting organized, incorporating those career
conversations into your job search. I'll talk more about that in a second. Getting clear on,
again, what you want to do, and maybe thinking more about the practical,
logistical side of your job, not just interest areas. Recommend looking at organizations first
before you go to job boards, and then apply, and stay connected with people who are
in that organization, or even are reviewing the applications. So let's start with getting
organized. Setting goals can really help you stay on track. So maybe setting, it also depends
where you're at in your job search. If you need a job yesterday, your number of applications per
week might be a little higher than somebody who is graduating in a couple of months. But giving
yourself a number to work towards will really help with feeling like you're making progress,
feeling confident in your abilities. I love saying to have an accountability buddy,
making your goals public, visible, so somebody can check in. Public shame is a very motivating
force for a lot of people, for some of us, including me. You don't want to tell people
you haven't done anything this week, so use that as some positive motivation. Putting time on your
in your head, like my job search time is 2 to 4 p.m., or 6 to 8 p.m., and just make it a regular
habit, so it doesn't take up too much time, but it's also you're giving it the time it needs.
Staying really organized with all the applications you submit. I just talked to a recruiter yesterday
who said she can always tell when somebody is mass applying for jobs, because when she talks
on the phone, they kind of like halfway through are like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I remember this job,
and that's not a great look. And then kind of going back to the mindset, making sure you're
taking care of yourself through the process, taking lots of breaks, giving yourself little
rewards when you meet your goals, exercising, eating good, sleeping, all of those things are
going to help you with this process. All right, so narrowing down your options,
kind of with that career onion, we're going to think again about industries, what type of work,
type of skills you want to work for, narrowing down the types of organizations that you're willing
or want to work for. Location, where do you want to work? Is it a hybrid or remote position?
Salary ranges that you are comfortable taking on, and then thinking about also the perks like
vacation or continuing education funds. Also thinking about culture, a lot of organizations
put their values on their website, seeing like what do you what resonates with you,
maybe looking at their sustainability report, I mean, like, what are they accomplishing? Are they
just patting themselves on the back? Or are they actually like truly making progress? If that's
important to you. Schedule, kind of with hybrid remote, is it flexible? Is it rigid? And then
thinking about other things that are important to you when it comes to work. And going back to that
pathway U assessment, there is a workplace values one, and they ask some really good questions that
will kind of prompt you to think of other things that are important to you. Writing these things
down visibly or typing them out is going to help you stay focused when you are searching. So back
to the why. Why do this? I, again, meet with a lot of students and alumni who are kind of scared to
pick one option, because they're thinking, what if I miss out? What if there aren't enough
opportunities? So an analogy I've been working with right now is you just got to pick a lane.
So thinking about driving, as long as you're on the road, you're moving forward, you can
change lanes, you can stay in a lane, but you got to get on the road for your job search. And
also picking a lane or two focus areas, then you can really customize your resumes
for those kind of focus areas. So you're not constantly updating and customizing your resume
each time. Connecting with professionals like this says, is a huge part of the job search process.
I've heard career coaches say for every one application you submit, you should be talking
to two or three people. Granted, depending on your timeline for a job, you might have to
reduce that, but truly at the end of the day, people are the ones who are looking at your
application and making the decision. And if you have an advocate in a organization,
that's going to go so much farther than a perfect resume or cover letter.
So some stats here about how networking plays a role in getting jobs. So ways to do that,
we talked about LinkedIn already, but this is very important when you're actively job searching,
is making sure it's up to date, following organizations, you can put open to work,
that's a personal decision for you. And then starting to follow people at organizations
you're interested in, sharing content, or just even reposting things that other people post.
So we have a handy dandy checklist for you just to make sure all the components of your profile
are filled out. Going back to those chat GPT prompts, there are a lot to help you really
optimize your profile with keywords. So you're getting, sometimes there are recruiters who are
looking for people to work in sustainability, not all the time, but it will help you turn up
in searches. All right, so kind of like what I said with starting with organizations before looking
at job boards. This is advice from Steve Dalton, who wrote the two hour job search. So his thesis
is that if you start with organizations first, you are going to save time in the long run
from mass applying and just hoping it works out. So I would like to show you a lamp list,
and I also have a video on that. But back to this workbook, I put, I don't know why,
I can't see the tab. Let's see. One second. But basically, here we go. All right, we're back. So
you start with organizations, companies, you already know that you might, you could see
yourself working for. Then start taking 10 minutes tops for looking for alumni who work
at these organizations. And that's 10 minutes total, not 10 minutes for each job or organization.
Then thinking about how interested or motivated you would be working there, and then positions
or postings. Do they have active and relevant jobs open right now? And then you're going to give
the motivation and positions column a score. So one, not motivated, five, highly motivated.
And then you're going to sort the organizations based on whatever you want. If open position's
more important than motivation, sort by that, then motivation. But then it gives you kind of a ranking
and helps you prioritize where you're going to search for opportunities.
This is a nice video that explains it even further. 40 is a lot, but there are ways to
do it really fast. All right. And of course, you can also use LinkedIn, some of those chat GPT
prompts that we talked about saying what organizations work on X in this location.
So then thinking when you get closer to looking at actual active positions and job titles,
I don't want you to get hung up on a job title. If there are so many that address sustainability
or social impact that have a very traditional title. So a couple examples here.
Sales is a huge part of sustainability for companies. There are a lot of climate tech
companies where they make software to help organizations track their emissions. And they
need people to tell companies about their product and tell them the benefits. I think a lot of us
who are in the liberal arts and really want to do good in the world feel uncomfortable with sales.
But from talking with alumni, it is a hugely, hugely valuable experience to gain skills to
talk to people and ultimately help you in a different role with change management and
making the case for why taking on sustainability initiatives makes sense for your organization.
So just keeping in mind that focus, again, on the organization first and then seeing
what jobs are out there and being open to different titles that you see. All right.
So after you have targeted some organizations, you can also start looking at industry-specific
job boards. There is a huge, huge list that is crowdsourced called So You Want to Work on Climate.
There is everything. It is super overwhelming. So it will help when you have a focus area so
you can narrow down the boards that you use. But green job search is one that is super easy.
Environmental jobs is another. And each of them kind of have a focus area. And then thinking
about LinkedIn, Indeed, Handshake, they have a lot. But with a lot, it is not going to be super
specific. Also keeping in mind that not every company uses LinkedIn to post their positions.
So that's why you got to take all of these into consideration when you are searching for
positions. Indeed is kind of a nice one. It is a catchall where it is scraping the internet for
these opportunities. But you just want to make sure that you are going to the organization's
website to make sure that is still open. And for our internship searchers, same thing,
looking at organization pages. Handshake is our ASU platform for internships and entry-level
positions. Our team has created CJF Careers Connect where we are sourcing opportunities
for you. Fall internships are going to be coming out pretty soon. But we can't do everything for
everyone in every location that our students are located. So highly recommend you take a look at
the places we recommend it to. All right. Time to apply. Tips for applying. You kind of heard me
already say this, but I think something we didn't talk about is really reading and understanding
job descriptions. So there are required qualifications. There are desired qualifications.
The order in which the duties and requirements are listed show importance. So the ones that are
at the top are more important qualifications or with the duties, things you're going to be doing
more often. All right. So example from one of those positions, what are we looking for? Required,
must be pursuing a master's. Minimum GPA. So if you don't meet those, don't apply. However,
when you're looking at the desired skills or some required that are more ambiguous,
these are like a wish list, like a unicorn candidate. Nobody has all of these skills
and experience. So when you're, think about like if you have 50% of what they're working for, half,
or you could make the case that an experience you have is transferable or related to what you're
for. Apply anyway. And then looking at keywords, those are what you're going to want to include
in your resume and your cover letter. So when you're actually creating your resume and cover
letter, we're going to go over this in our next workshop next week, but using a format that
applicant tracking software can scan. Almost every, if you're submitting an online application,
there's some type of software that's keeping track of your resume and looking for it for keywords.
Your cover letter can kind of be a tiebreaker between you and somebody else, especially if
the other person wrote a really generic bad cover letter. This is where you can showcase your
passion for a specific aspect of sustainability. And considering that sustainability is still
a pretty new industry, passion goes a long way. There aren't a lot of people that have
like the 15 years of experience that they say they're looking for. So being on board with the
organization's mission, that's really going to go a long way. You can't always put that in your
resume, so that's why you put it in your cover letter. Make sure you proofread, especially with
the cover letter, making sure it's addressed to the right organization, the job titles match the
application you're applying for. I will say I've definitely sent the wrong cover letter to a job
and I didn't hear back, but it's okay. And then following application instructions, is there a
deadline? Are they saying save your resume with a specific title and format? You got to do it.
And then on the application side, tracking your applications, kind of going back to,
you know, you might not hear back from a job for two or three months, and if you don't have the
position description saved, it's going to be hard to remember what it's all about and hard to prepare
for that interview. So back to that spreadsheet that I shared, I also included a job search tracker
that is from themuse.com. You can add any columns that you want that will help you.
These are just some suggested ones, and there's a lot, and I think this is really designed more for
applying to private companies like interview one, interview two, but it's really cool that
it will give you this next step based on what you are entering into these fields. So here,
the job posting, a lot of times they disappear, so maybe saving them as a Google Doc,
that will guarantee that you can still access it. So really fun. Hopefully you don't have to
do three interviews. All right. We're getting close to the end of the job search strategy.
Oh, so after you apply, even if before you apply, it goes a long way to send a message to
a recruiter or even like the hiring manager for the position. So you can do this pretty easily
on LinkedIn. Like we said, go to the organization, go to the filter. Finding people who went to ASU,
that's an immediate connection that can help. It's okay if you connect with people that maybe
aren't on the team. They're still probably going to mention it to somebody. Hiring manager title
is a big one. So if you look at the position description, usually it will say like this
position reports to the director of procurement. So what you do is you search procurement director,
director of procurement. Usually they'll pop up, and so that is who you message.
Always adding a note, of course, and then also managing expectations on this part.
Some organizations like have a policy where hiring managers cannot communicate
with applicants, but your name is still popping into their direct messages. So they are going to
recognize your name when they start reviewing those applications. Well, all right. So we are
getting to the top of the hour. Just some words of wisdom from me that I may have already said,
but again, first job, not the last job or the dream job. Talking to people and building
connections and community is going to make this process so much less, more enjoyable. Let's say
so much more enjoyable. And then thinking too, like if you're not sure if you're qualified,
again, 50% apply anyway. Let the organization decide if you're qualified instead of,
you know, like closing the door before they even have a chance to consider you.
And then quality over quality, passion, and I think that's all I got. So on the note,
with resume reviews, I am part of the College of Global Futures Career Services team.
Christina is also, we're both career advisors, and we can meet one-on-one with you over Zoom or
on campus to go over really anything you want, regardless of where you're at with your career
journey. We also meet with students who haven't started. So the QR code goes to our scheduling
page. The website is also pretty easy. If you Google CGF ASU career advising, it is the first
thing that pops up.
