Translate
Second Year: Engage
Click here to download a PDF of this page.
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.
Be able to articulate strengths, values, interests, and/or personality while further developing self-awareness
- Create a resume and cover letter to practice highlighting your strengths and accomplishments.
- Meet with a College Specialist Career Counselor to discuss possible career paths in your major that align with your values and interests.
- Talk with employers about your abilities and skills at a Career Fair or Networking event.
- If you took StrengthsQuest, revisit your results and discuss them with a friend or campus staff member.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as “How to Make Your HIRE Score Higher.”
Update and expand your career portfolio and develop supporting materials using Portfolium
- 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.
- Include pictures to make your portfolio visually appealing.
- 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.
Clarify your major concentration, emphasis and minor, if applicable, and identify possible related career paths
- Explore the resource What Can I Do With This Major? prepared by The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
- Review possible major concentrations or minors in the Cal Poly catalog.
- Make an appointment with your College Specialist Career Counselor. Discuss whether you might benefit from taking a career assessment.
- Discuss concentration, emphasis, and minor possibilities with faculty, upper-division students, alumni, and industry professionals.
- Look at the Graduate Status Report.
- Search through O*NET Online and the Occupational Outlook Handbook for detailed information about careers that interest you.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event such as industry career panels, Meetups, or the workshop “Got Career?”
Update your profile and utilize MustangJOBS
- Update your resume to reflect your most recent accomplishments. Upload your resume to MustangJOBS.
- Explore internships or part-time jobs related to your field of interest.
- Search for networking sessions that feature companies that interest you.
- Research employers that are coming to the Career Fairs.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as “Get a Job” or “Internship Search Strategy.”
Utilize Career Services’ resources and services, including the College Specialist Team
- Meet with your College Specialist Career Counselor to help you 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 Career Kickoff.
Begin building a 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 connect with peers and professionals in your industry.
- Launch a networking action plan to track your professional relationships.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as a LinkedIn or Networking Workshop
Gain experience and develop your interests, skills and strengths.
- Continue to engage in meaningful activities such as extracurricular involvement, community service, and leadership experience.
- Actively engage in a club or on-campus organization; consider taking on a leadership role.
- Attend events offered by the Cross-Cultural Centers that educate on and/or celebrate diversity.
- Participate in faculty research and choose academic projects that relate to your career interest.
- Conduct informational interviews with family contacts, campus staff, alumni, or industry professionals to further clarify your interests.
- Seek out part-time work, internships, and co-ops through MustangJOBS, other job search sites, departmental opportunities, and networking.
- Record your academic, employment, and extracurricular experiences each year in order to update your resume.
- Consider attending a Career Services workshop or event on a related topic such as ”How to Get to Where You Don’t Know You’re Going” or a Strengths workshop.
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.
- Consider how your strengths, interests, values, and personality match possible careers. Identify three job titles that interest you that you would like to explore further.
- Describe your confidence level with your major and career considerations. If you are not confident at this time, what are some steps you could take?
- Discuss your career possibilities with important people in your life.