“It’s a competitive job market out there.” How many times have you heard that? I know I hear it all the time. 

It can be incredibly unnerving and discouraging to try and present yourself to employers and recruiters when you start getting overwhelmed about the people you’re competing against as well as all of the qualifications the employers are looking for. However, it’s important to remember that you’re a student, and you’ve probably had a job, internship, class project, and/or papers to work on, which means you have qualifications to talk about! Sometimes you might not realize that the work you’re doing is building up particular skills, so it’s always helpful to take a step back and recognize the work you’re doing. By evaluating your skills and practicing your elevator pitch, you can boost your confidence and feel more prepared for job and internship interviews.

This Friday, March 4th from 12 to 1pm, there’s a Transferable Skills Workshop in Commons 328. This is an excellent opportunity to help you gain these skills. Whether you’re a freshman, alumni, or graduate student, this workshop is an awesome opportunity for you to identify what you’re good at and love to do, learn how to articulate with an employer, and learn how to make contacts in a field whenever you’re ready to make them! Doing this workshop could give you the confidence you need to find an internship or full-time job in the next few months. It could even help you decide on classes, internships, attending career fairs, and making connections. 

You can also always check out the Career Center website for some help on evaluating your skills and pitching them to employers. If you’re still feeling unsure about what your skills might be, you can take one (or all) of our online assessments that will allow you to learn more about your interests, skills, and strengths, as well as what field of work you could fit into based on your results! Another great thing to do is to find out more about your major. You can do this by using the Career Insider Portal on the database Vault, LinkedIn, and your academic department website to check out some of the fields of work you might be interested in going into for your major. 

You might already know what your strengths are, but are unsure about how to organize them. Our page on creating a 30 second commercial for yourself is a great resource for organizing your transferrable skills. A 30 second commercial is a concise way to identify who you are, some of your major strengths and accomplishments, and what you could contribute to an employer or company. This can be incredibly helpful for career fairs, networking, or answering that intimidating question from employers, “Why do you want to work for us?”

Having confidence in yourself is a significant part of finding a job, so I highly recommend attending this workshop or taking additional steps to get there!