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Third Year: Enhance
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The College Specialist Team Career Counselors are available to guide and support you through the following:
Revisit the Career Planning Guide and evaluate your progress
- Read through the checklist for your current year and highlight areas you want to accomplish during the year.
- Write down two questions to discuss with a Career Counselor.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as Four-Year Career Planning or Career Portfolio.
Apply strengths, values, interests and/or personality to reinforce a unique and authentic professional brand
- Determine what makes you unique, through self-reflection and feedback from others, and how your specific strengths can benefit a potential employer.
- Develop and maintain a positive presence on all types of social media that reflect your professional brand.
- Evaluate your professional attire and update as needed to ensure that it aligns with your industry and desired image.
- Participate in a mock interview with a Career Counselor.
- Practice communicating your brand succinctly in an elevator pitch. You can meet with a career counselor to practice and get feedback.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as a Strengths workshop.
Update and refine your career portfolio and further develop supporting materials
- Include examples of how you have used your top 5 strengths from StrengthsQuest.
- Continue adding relevant coursework and labs, projects, extra-curriculars, and internships/part-time work.
- Include visuals such as photos, documents, designs, etc.
- Add the Portfolium link to your email signature, resume, and LinkedIn profile.
Attend a Career Services workshop about Portfolium. - Showcase your portfolio to prospective employers; bring a tablet to interviews, networking sessions, and job fairs.
- Follow companies of interest to increase your visibility to hiring managers.
Explore graduate/professional school options and the application process
- Identify potential programs that will help you reach your career goals.
- Discuss graduate school options with your Career Counselor, faculty, academic advisor, and/or industry professionals.
- Become familiar with research and fellowship programs including the California Pre-doctoral Program
- Gain a better understanding of your prospective program(s) by making connections with current graduate students and faculty at that institution.
- Review the Graduate School links on the Career Services website.
- Become familiar with the application process and important deadlines.
- Study for your required graduate admissions exam(s) and identify testing centers.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as Graduate School Workshop (Why, Where, How to Pay) or the Grad School Fair at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Update your profile and utilize MustangJOBS
- Update your resume to reflect your most recent accomplishments. Upload your resume to MustangJOBS.
- Explore requirements for careers that interest you by looking at job postings.
- Search for and apply to internships.
- Sign up for networking sessions that feature companies that interest you.
- Review Career Fair participating employers to narrow down who you want to connect with. Further research those employers.
- Prepare for on-campus interviews using Big Interview.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as “Get a Job” or “Internship Search Strategy.”
Make the most of Career Services’ resources and services, including the College Specialist Team
- Meet with your College Specialist Career Counselor to further clarify your career goals.
- Access Career Services online resources, such as Big Interview, GoingGlobal, and Focus2.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as “Making the Most of the Career Fair” or “Networking Sessions.”
Cultivate and expand your network
- Connect with faculty/staff, alumni, industry professionals, and employers by engaging in informational interviews or job shadowing.
- Refine and practice your elevator pitch or sound bites about your education, experience, involvement and goals at networking events or Career Fairs.
- Update your LinkedIn profile and continue connecting with peers and professionals in your industry. Attend a LinkedIn Workshop to discover strategies for connecting with alumni in your field.
- Update your networking action plan to continue tracking your professional relationships.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as an Alumni Panel/Mixer.
Identify career possibilities and commit to further exploration by taking action
- Obtain an internship, co-op experience, or part-time job.
- Explore and participate in volunteer opportunities on campus or within the community.
- Utilize LinkedIn to look at the career trajectories of professionals in your field of interest.
- Submit articles, writing samples, or research to academic journals.
- Join professional organizations within your intended career field and get involved by viewing webinars or attending conferences.
- Make an appointment with your College Specialist Career Counselor to ensure you are utilizing all possible resources in identifying your future career.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event such as “How to Make Your HIRE Score Higher” or workshops/events on the topic of internships.
Make time for and appreciate the value of reflection
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as “Planned Happenstance” or a Strengths workshop.
- Use the following questions to help you reflect on how your experiences this year can relate to your future career plans.
- What potential obstacles prevent you from reaching your career possibilities? What can you do to address them?
- How have you invested in your strengths within your classes, extracurricular activities, volunteer, internship, or part-time work?
- What aspects of your classes, projects, extracurricular activities, and/or work experiences have you enjoyed the most? How might these interests relate to a future career path?
- What is your greatest accomplishment so far in college?
- What factors seem most important in making a future career decision?