Looking for any sort of job is a lot of work. Figuring out what job you want to do, finding applications, and submitting your documents is scary and time consuming, let alone trying to do it while juggling a full course load during midterm season. But luckily, UMBC recognizes all of these challenges (and more you might not be considering) and created their Career Center to guide you through the process.
If you’re not sure what you want to do: Check out our online self assessments! They range from the Traitify (takes about 5 minutes) to the Focus2 (takes about an hour). They’re a great starting point when you’re beginning to explore what you want to do with your life. After you take the assessments, you can schedule an appointment with a Career specialist here at the Career Center to discuss your results and what steps to take next towards your new career goals.
If you don’t know where you want to work: Spend a few minutes (or hours, if you like research like I do) reading up on companies. The Career Center pays for access to Vault, a site that has amazing research and reviews all in one place. If there is a company you particularly like, see if they have any upcoming events hosted by the Career Center. Stop by and chat with representatives about their experiences at work.
If you’re applying to positions: Start with UMBCworks. Use the filters to find jobs you’re interested in (as well as the ones you qualify for). After that, try looking at the links by major to find job sites for your specific field. If you want to learn more about the application process, you can make an appointment with a member of our Internships and Employment team to discuss potential places to apply and how to wow hiring managers with your application.
If you’re getting ready to interview: Research common interview questions for your field and see examples of great answers with Big Interview. After you read, try recording yourself answering those questions and send it in to the Career Center to review. We’ll give you feedback on your answers, and you’ll never even have to change out of your sweatpants! If you want more experience interviewing, you can also make a mock interview appointment with the Career Center to practice.
You hear it all the time: “The best way to find a job is through networking.” The word networking gets thrown around a lot, but not everyone is really sure how it works, or what the benefits are. The idea is that you have to have connections; you have to “know people”. Personally, I don’t know any “people”, so how am I supposed to network and get a good job? The Career Center is your networking connection. We bring employers to you, and we even bus you to employers! There are constantly networking events going on on-campus, which is why the best plan is to look at our calendar of events and plan out when your next networking adventure will be!
The truth is: you do know people. Even your relatives count, so when you’re at the thanksgiving table, you should be networking! And that doesn’t mean outright asking them for a job, but rather asking if they know people who work in your desired field. Personally, as a psychology major, my family members tell me about their friends who own their own counseling practice, and are totally willing to answer my questions. I’ve even been given internship offers from these friends of relatives. A lot of introverts might be reading this and thinking the idea of approaching someone to ask about connections is a horrible idea, but there are also opportunities for you. Introverts can be great observers and great listeners, which can still help you pick up details about where to find connections. Remember: everyone has connections, and YOU have the means of finding them!
There are several types of networking events available to UMBC students. The biggest and most popular event is the big Career and Internship Fair held each semester. It’s like speed-dating for jobs! But there are many others that students aren’t aware of. For example: we have information sessions where you can meet directly with employers like the CIA this week or Northwestern Mutual Financial Network a few days later. This is an easy and effective way to meet with recruiters and get your name on their good list. We also have our On the Road series, where the Career Center provides transportation to places like T. Rowe Price, the Space Telescope Science Institute, Exelon, and tons more. The series is done for this semester, but it picks right up again in February with a trip to Cisco Systems where students will get a tour of the facilities, as well as an inside scoop on internship and career opportunities.
Even with all of these free and easy events to connect you directly to employers, you might be wondering what to do with yourself once you actually get there. A great place to start before actually meeting people in person is the website LinkedIn. UMBC has several networking pages on LinkedIn including the UMBC Alumni-Student Networking Group that connects you directly to UMBC alumni in your desired field. Also, the Career Center website has a list of Top 10 Networking Tips to help you get started, as well as tools to develop your 30-second commercial. One effective networking strategy - especially if you are still exploring your career interests - is the Informational Interview, where YOU get to interview a professional in your desired field about what it’s like to do what they do, and how you could become successful in the field. Now networking doesn’t seem so scary, right? So get there and get networking!
The brisk, chilly air of November is upon us, and right now we’re all pulling out our scarves and sweaters to get ready for winter. The oppressive heat of summer is the farthest thing from our minds - even though we felt it only two weeks ago. Anyway, no one could possibly be thinking about summer right now …… except employers! Even though summer is seven months away, recruitment for summer jobs and internships have already started! It may seem crazy early, but right now is peak recruitment season, so it’s a great time to start looking for summer opportunities. And as always, the Career Center has you covered.
Last year, the Career Center helped me out a lot in my summer job search. I was like most of you and waited until March to start looking for jobs and internships, but I had yet another obstacle: I was going to be living in Florida over the summer. I will honestly tell you that while UMBCworks is a fantastic resource, it doesn’t help much for jobs outside of the tri-state area. But that doesn’t mean I was alone in my search. The Career Center offers appointments specifically for job/internship searches, so I took advantage and met with an incredibly helpful career specialist. They gave me tips on websites to look through that aren’t indeed.com and showed me how to find internships related to counseling, which is what I’m interested in. Lo and behold, I got a part-time unpaid internship at a counseling center 10 minutes away from where I was staying in Florida. Doesn’t sound ideal, but using the Career Center’s guidance, I also found a paid position at a library nearby to support my internship. I had a really great summer, and the Career Center is mostly to thank for that. Now, thinking forward to next summer, let’s look at the resources that are available:
As I’ve mentioned in the past, our calendar of networking events and on-campus interviews should be your first step in looking for potential employers. They are happening all the time with a wide range of fields, so constantly be checking!
A whole list of Career Center-approved recruiting websites is available on this page for your perusal, including places to look for government and international positions.
If you’re specifically looking for an internship, then learn how to get started, and even how to create your own internship. It may sound like that’s impossible, but that’s basically what I did for my counseling internship last summer, so I am proof that this actually works!
If you’ve never visited UMBCworks, stop reading this right now and go there. From myUMBC, it’s under Jobs & Internships (with the little briefcase logo). That should always be your first stop for looking for positions. But in order to apply through UMBCworks, you need to come get your resume approved by one of us, so stop in! We try to make it super easy for your resume to be approved, so we have drop-in hours every Monday - Friday from 2pm - 4pm. No appointment needed, you can literally drop in and meet with Career Center staff for just 15 minutes, to look over your documents and get suggestions to make it shine. If those hours don’t work for you, there are evening hours every other tuesday from 5pm-7pm, and those are by appointment through UMBCworks. And if you need more help looking for summer positions (like I did), stop by the Keys to Success workshop about Job and Internship searches on Monday, November 13th at noon in Commons 331. Master effective job search strategies, and learn some tips and techniques on how to explore the hidden job market. Another way students can find inspiration for their job/internship search is by checking out our Intern of the Week posts, where students give advice on how to find internships. And as always, feel free to comment about your job search experience or if you have any tips or tricks that could be helpful!