“Opportunities don’t happen, you create them”
-Chris Grosser

Career Services supports students through all stages of their career development-from finding work while in school to gaining career-track employment when you complete your education. It is never too early to begin visiting Career Services. As a student, your professional career may have begun before your education, or maybe you are starting your professional career as you begin college. Regardless of the stage you find yourself, it is important to begin documenting your achievements, skills, and education since every year these may change. One of the big resources Career Services in the creation of a resume. Career Services can help you find a template that works with your experience, or begin one that will fit your future experiences. The secret is to begin a master resume template that grows with you and tracks all your achievements and progress. It is hard to keep track of all your achievements, progress in your career, and skills by memory. Also creating a resume as early in your career as you can, can help you see gaps in your experience. For example, you may notice that you need to look for more opportunities paid or unpaid to fill up your work experience section, or that you may need to get certifications in an area or work on incrementing your skills to fill out more your skills section.

The earlier you get started in your resume, the faster you can begin looking for opportunities to enhance your job prospects after graduation. Remember that opportunities do not go looking for you, you create your own opportunities by looking for them, and asking other experts how they found or got the opportunities that helped their careers. A Career Services staff member can be key to help you increase those opportunities.

Other resources Career Services offers are the following:

• Online job postings
• Resume assistance
• Cover letter assistance
• Job application assistance
• Job search assistance
• Mock (practice) job interviews
• Informational interviews
• Job fairs and recruiting tables

Online Job Postings (CareerLink)

At Chemeketa, one of the resources students have is access to CareerLink which is a site which features off-campus employment opportunities ranging from part-time jobs you could work while in school to full-time opportunities in your field of study after you graduate. You can create an account with CareerLink, by following the steps on this website. For student jobs on campus, at Chemeketa, there is a program called Student Leadership. More on student leadership can be found in chapter 19. The Student Leadership program offers more than 100 jobs for students on campus.

Resume Assistance

Career Services in creating or updating your resume and tailoring it to a specific job, or can help you create a master template in which you can save all of your past experiences, jobs, accomplishments, certifications, and skills. The appropriate resume, for a specific job application is the most effective way to highlight your skills and experience. One of the biggest misconceptions about experience, is that experience is only paid experience, but it can also incorporate un-paid experience, un-paid jobs, internships, volunteer hours and community service hours. A Career Services staff member can help you highlight all of your experiences appropriately so your resume reflects your hard work. To make an appointment with a Career Services staff member you can contact them directly or you can make an appointment with them via My.Chemeketa.

After logging into My.Chemeketa, click on the Services tab, and Advising.

Then hover to the right, and click on Career Services.

Then, you can choose the reason for your visit from the multiple options.

However, if you want to get started from home working on your resume, you can use the resume templates, and look at the tips documents on the Chemeketa’s Career Services website.

Cover Letter Assistance

A cover letter is a tailored one page document, in which an applicant explains why you are good fit for the position or job that you are applying. A cover letter should not list all of the experiences, or accomplishments found on your resume, it only serves to highlight some of your experiences and how they relate to the future job demands of the job that you are seeking. A great cover letter, gives an employer a good insight on the kind of person the applicant is and can help you differentiate yourself from other applicants. A Career Services staff member can help you draft cover letters. You can can check the Career Service’s website to find tips on creating a cover letter as well as downloadable templates.

Job Application Assistance

On today’s market, the majority of companies have moved to online applications; however, some companies still use paper. An application does not only provide information on the applicant, such as best way to contact you or your home address. It also provides employers a quick and easy way to see if the applicant meets minimum job requirements, such as educational requirements, and number of years on a specific function or field. In other words, initial ob applications, serve as a pre-screen to see if the candidate can move forward in the hiring process. Therefore providing the information an employer wants clearly and completely is key. A Career Services staff member at Chemeketa can help you get the required info clearly into you job application.

Job Search Assistance

Today’s there are lots of websites like Indeed.com to help you look for jobs, however another great resource are employment agencies. Many of the agencies normally focus their search and work with a specific business clientele such as finance, healthcare, etc. while others have a wide-range of employers from various industries that they recruit for. You can check the following link for a list of agencies that Chemeketa works with. This list may be updated and is best to check with Career Services by paying a visit to the staff.

Mock Job Interviews

Many jobs require a job interview or a series of interviews. Some jobs required a group interview, followed up by an individual interviewer with the employer or the hiring manager. Job interviews can be intimidating and can make you nervous if you feel unprepared for them. Remember, preparation is key when it comes to shining in an interview. Questions about yur knowledge and experienced may be accompanied by knowledge about the employment company you are applying for, as well as giving examples of your skills and problem solving scenarios. Setting up an appointment with Career Services staff can be helpful when preparing for your interview. They can also help by doing a formal mock job interview, so that when it comes to your interview you are prepared. Here is a website that can help answer questions in job interviews using the S.T.A.R. technique. 

Informational Interviews

Are you interested in a specific career or field, but you are not sure? One of the best ways to find out is to have an informational interview with someone already on the field! An informational interview can be anything from a 15 to a 30 minutes meeting with a professional in the field in which you can ask them anything that you are interested or concerned about. Informational interviews are a great opportunity for you to learn about your future career, about the possible growth in your field, the educational requirements and the day- to day operations and responsibilities of that career. It can also help you cross out careers that you are interested about but unsure. Is a great way to test the waters. Here are some tips on how to conduct an informational interviews. 

Job Fairs and Recruiting Tables

Job fairs are events in which employers gather and give information about job openings to potential employees. Many college campuses host jobs fairs, and Chemeketa normally hosts two each year (fall and spring terms). These job fairs are a great way for students to connect with their future employers. You can check the Career Services Page for more information.

Licenses and Attributions

Original chapter work is attributed to Grecia Garcia and Lori Gillespie.