Resume Writing Time!

Hello, All!
       My name is Victoria! I am in training to be a Career Planning Peer (CPP)! Just a little bit about myself... I am a Psychology major, and I am minoring in Music and Biology. Basically, what that means is, I want to be a superhero, rock star, and a dentist. I’m rooting for all three! I came upon working for the Career Service Center by applying as a Psychology Practicum volunteer. I’ve had my fair share of experiences working with younger children and with adults, it had been a while since I worked with my own peers. I really like to help people feel like they have something less to worry about, and this job seems like just the ticket!
        So far, I have shadowed drop-in hours in action and have learned just a couple of small details that can make all the difference in writing a resume. I am excited to have this new perspective on resume writing!
        The number one thing that I have witnessed: Students have not heard of the Resource Guide on the CSC website. For those of you reading this, you can find a resource guide (click the link to the right-->) Career Services Site, under Quick Links. It’s a pretty great tool to use if you are writing up a resume or cover letter! Hey! It beats Googling “how to write a resume/cover letter” over and over only to find thousands of varied results. Check it out and enjoy!
--Victoria

The 23rd Annual Career and Internship Fair

Can you feel it in the air? It's my favorite time of year again. What, you ask? Why, the career and internship season of course. The time of year when students finishing their degrees begin to seriously question "what's next", and when all the underclassmen start contemplating how and when to get the best experience for their resume. It's daunting, yes, but it's also quite exciting. A world of possibilities is open at your feet.

We here at career services want to help make this time as easy and straight-forward as possible. This is where our annual Career and Internship Fair comes into play. What easier way to network and find out about internship or job opportunities than by having all the employee-seeking companies here for you, under one roof? No easier way, that's what. So make sure you take advantage of this opportunity!

When: Friday, March 4th, 11am - 3pm
Where: McLaren Complex
What: 50+ employers in the health, financial, tech, hospitality, public, nonprofit, education, fashion, and marketing industries.  Find the full of employers list here.

Important Info: Make sure you bring several copies of your resume, do your research on interesting companies before attending the fair, and dress to impress.

I'll be writing another post in a few days with more details on how to best prepare, so keep an eye out. Until then, keep this fast approaching event on your radar - there's nothing but possibility awaiting you.

-Sarah

Prepare for your future!

Good morning all! 

I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Nathan (call me Nate) and I am currently a Career Planning Peer in training. I am from Honolulu, Hawaii and currently a sophomore majoring in Finance and minoring in Legal Studies. I have been working with the Career Service Center (CSC) as a student assistant for about a year and a half now and love the family/Ohana atmosphere.  The CSC has become my home away from home. As a Career Planning Peer, I will be reaching out to students, staff, and alumni on this blog a couple times a week to give you updates on the CSC events, interesting things that happen on campus that could affect you, answer questions related to CSC, and bring up hot topics in the world today regarding the University/CSC. 

So today I want to talk to you guys about a current topic on the minds of most job-searching individuals which is China and how China is the future of the United States economic growth. China offers many business expansion possibilities as well as a thriving visitor’s market for the US. Which essentially mean jobs and economic stability, considering most jobs in the United States have turned into service based jobs (not manufacturing). But there are a few problems that come with China: the main problem is the difficulty for the Chinese to obtain visas due to strict regulations by both the US and Chinese governments. These problems affect business opportunities and the visitors market, which could result in the loss of millions of jobs for graduating college students, further affecting the future economy of the United States. With the increase cost of tuition and the loss of job opportunities, our future is in question. As students and recent alumni you might want to think about taking Chinese as a language and looking into doing business with China in the future or working for a Chinese based company. You might also want to encourage globalization and connections with China through the government to secure a safe bright future.  So look head and plan your future by coming into the Career Service Center for anything you need including direction, resume/cover letter help, interview help, and even job search help! Your future is now so plan plan plan! Aloha- Nate 

Resume and LinkedIn workshop TONIGHT

Hey everyone,

As we all know in our technological age the job hunt and networking process are inevitably becoming more and more digital. This is why we're combining two crucial concepts - resume writing and online networking - into one jam-packed information rich workshop. Don't know what LinkedIn is? Never had your resume critiqued by anyone else? This workshop is for you!

Don't forget: Tonight, 2/10/11, at 5pm in Fromm Hall, Maier Room. 

Learn how to write and properly format your own winning resume, and then learn how to best used LinkedIn to your career advantage (including information on the new 6,000+ member USF LinkedIn group - helloo networking!)

Be LinkedIN or LeftOUT.

See you there,
Sarah

Be a S-T-A-R Resume Writer

Hello All!

My name is Rosie Ceja and I am a Sophomore Nursing major. I have been working at the Career Services Center as a student assistant for the past 3 semesters. Towards the end of last semester I was presented with the opportunity to become a Career Planning Peer (CPP) and I am super excited to be in training this semester for this awesome position!!

As part of my training process I have been shadowing a few drop ins and counseling appointments. The most common reason for drop ins is to have a resume looked over and reviewed. In the sessions I have shadowed, I have noticed a few reoccurring topics when it comes to resumes that I would like to address in hopes of making the resume writing process a little easier. 

One of the most important (if not THE most important) components of a resume are the accomplishment statements. These are meant to be a detailed explanation of what you accomplished for the company or how you made a difference in your position. There are a few things to remember about writing a strong accomplishment statement. You may want to keep the S-T-A-R format in mind:

S - Situation: define the general context

T - Task: identify the key objective

A - Action: describe the action you took or initiated and emphasize the skills you incorporated.

R - Result: Summarize the outcome; QUANTIFY as much, and whenever possible. 

- With every accomplishment statement you should start with an ACTION VERB and avoid starting with "responsible for" or "duties included"'

- Recall and incorporate specific and unique examples

- Write your accomplishments as concise bullet points (not paragraphs)

- You should write about 2-3 statements per position

- Quantify whenever possible and use numerical digits

Once you have your accomplishments set, the rest should be easy! Focus on format and consistency with every aspect of your resume. 

Hope these tips helped and good luck to you all this semester!

Rosie

Back in the 5-o-o

Hello Everyone!

Let me be the first to apologize that we haven’t made a post since… um… November?! Holy cow, it HAS been a while. We’ve had a lot of changes going on in the Career Services Center and the Career Planning Peer program in general, which definitely accounts for some of that. Let me get everyone up to speed:

In December we said goodbye to CPP Seghel (whose posts you’ve seen quite frequently on this site), as she graduated a semester early with a degree in Psychology. She continued working with us throughout the winter break, however, as she and I were furiously compiling our first complete and official CPP training manual. January 20^th was her last day at the CSC, and while we were all sad to see her go (she and I had been working together for over three years on this program, since we were Freshman!) she’s going off to do some pretty neat things in the world, so I guess it evens out a bit.  

Seghel’s departure, however, ushered in a new era of the CPP program. Right now we are currently training three, that’s right three, brand new CPPs. Can you say exciting? If you show up to drop-ins any time in the next few months chances are you’ll see them shadowing and get a chance to say hi. As I’ll be graduating in May, this can only mean good things and more growth for the program as a whole.

I won’t write too much about the new CPPs yet (I’m going to give each of them a chance to introduce themselves on this blog instead), but I will say we are fully back in the swing of things. So, make sure to keep an eye out for a bunch of new and interesting blog posts from a bunch of new and interesting voices. And me too, of course (I mean, I’m certainly not new but I am still interesting. Or at least that’s what my mom tells me. See? I made a funny).

I can’t wait.

-Sarah