The National Association of Colleges and Employers releases an annual report for students on the job outlook for the upcoming college class.  Based on a survey conducted from July 25 – September 10, 2012, 244 organizations provided input about their hiring plans and other employment-related issues in order to project the market for new college graduates for the current class and to assess a variety of conditions that may influence that market. 

Take a look at The Job Outlook for the College Class of 2013, provided as a student report through NACE, to find information on:

• Good News – hiring is up for new grads!
• Who’s in demand
• Who’s hiring: a look at specific industries, specific majors
• What employers want in a job candidate
• How to stand out: advice from employers

Although hiring procedures and job outlook will certainly differ among companies, industries, and geographic locations, the information provided in this report can reinforce some of your preparation and job search efforts.  For those students who are not part of the class of 2013, read through anyway!  Remember, knowledge is power!  At the very least, it provides you with some great insight into what employers are currently thinking in regards to their hiring decisions.

Every week, the Office of Career Services sends out a “This Week at Career Services” email to notify students of upcoming programs, workshops, and deadlines, along with offering a brief spotlight on one of our resources.  Also included is a list of a few of the jobs and internships that were posted in JobCenter the week prior.  The email serves as a constantly updated snapshot of the services available to students; if it were to include everything new and beneficial, it would be much too large for the average inbox!

This week’s blog is meant to call your attention to a section of JobCenter that offers oodles of information on companies, internship, research, or job opportunities, and graduate schools or unique opportunities.  This is only naming a few of the 30+ folders in your Resource Library – a constantly updated electronic filing system of countless resources that should be added to your career planning tool box.

Did you know….

• The Employer folder offers over 35 sub-folders about industries and/or companies?  There is information ranging from Accounting firms to GREEN jobs to state and federal government opportunities and resources for candidates.
• There is an Internships / Research / Shadowing folder that includes links to current and annual programs and opportunities at places such as Pfizer, Disney, The Kennedy Center, etc.  I stopped counting at 50 sub-folders, all of which offer students great resources and ideas on identifying potential opportunities of interest.
• A Unique Opportunities folder includes information on…you guessed it, opportunities that are unique.  AmeriCorps/Vista, Peace Corps, and Teach for America;  English Nanny & Governess School; a Leadership Pennsylvania Summer Institute, and more can be found here.
  

These are just three of the folders found in the Resource Library, accessible through the left hand navigation column in your JobCenter account.  Take some time today to turn on your computer, settle in, and browse!

A snapshot of current folders: 

As you wrap up finals week, many offices are looking back over the past year, compiling reports and preparing for 2012/2013.  Personally, I love putting together year-end reports (it’s the organizer in me); the feeling of achievement looking back at past accomplishments energizes me as I think of the opportunities ahead.

The 2011/2012 year was a great one in our office.  A few highlights of services offered with you in mind are as follows:

• More than 200 internship opportunities and 400 full-time career positions were posted, accessible through your JOB CENTER account.  We also hosted 86 companies at LVC this year through discipline specific career days, our On the Porch networking event, On-Campus Interviewing and Table Recruiters.   
• 809 students participated in at least one career related activity or met with career services staff individually. 
• We were in 35 classes talking with students about marketing yourself, networking, and planning your internship/career pursuits.  This was in addition to 27 programs designed to help you in Becoming a Professional Dutchman.
• Our Blog exceeded 100 weekly posts since its inception in 2009; the Career Corner Newsletter wrapped up its 25^th edition, and our This Week in Career Services email continues to be a great way for students to quickly see what’s happening. 

There have also been countless moments of joy in our office when students amaze us with their involvement and growth:

• To the students who participated in Internprenuership and/or accepted the invitation to showcase your internship during Inquiry 2012, we’re proud of your enthusiasm and commitment to your own development!
• We applaud the residents of Sheridan West Special Interest House who offered a year of programs promoting their theme: From Campus to Community.  They were also an asset to us in promoting events and programs, particularly On the Porch and the Financial Literacy Series.
• Kudos to the freshmen who took the initiative to get started early by attending our career days, networking events, or programs!  Believe us when we say it has been noticed by our staff and the employers you interacted with.
• Speaking of first year students, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting several go-getters who have elected to participate in the freshman shadowing program, Project CLOSE-UP.  In fact, 2012 will be graduation for the very first class of students who completed Project Close-Up nearly 3 years ago.  We’ve greatly enjoyed watching you each go above and beyond in your own career development!
• We commend all of the students who worked hard to draft and re-draft their resumes, cover letters, and graduate school essays from average materials into strong and convincing documents.
• Thank you to those students who discovered companies or resources and thought to share the information with our office to help us build employer connections and broaden resource offerings for all our students.
• And of course, it’s always a joy when students come in to share their successes by telling us of jobs, internships, or graduate school programs they will soon begin.  Congratulations to everyone who has taken the next step toward their future!

The points listed above certainly do not reflect everything that has happened in 2011/2012 – I would need a lot more space to do that – but hopefully it inspires you to look back at your own year and think about your achievements.  Keeping track of your growth and ‘light-bulb’ moments is a great habit to get into and will keep you focused on your next steps of career development and personal growth.

Our office will be open throughout the summer; please let us know if we can be of assistance to you!

Career Services Staff
Sharon Givler, Director
Gwen Miller, Assistant Director
Susan Donmoyer, Assistant

Phone:  717-867-6560
Email: careerservcies@lvc.edu
Summer hours: Monday through Friday; 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Most students are active users of one, if not several, online social networking tools.  I’m sure you’ve heard it before: everything that goes on the internet, stays on the internet.  There are two major lessons to take from that :

1.  Be careful what you put online to begin with.  Comb through your current profiles to remove anything that you wouldn’t want potential employers to see and increase all of your privacy settings.  You never know if you’re connected with someone who may also be connected to your next potential boss!  Make it a priority to be careful from now on with what you put online. 

2.  Social Media can also be a benefit to you!  It increases your networking opportunities, gives you another method of learning about potential opportunities and employers, and provides you with another avenue of promoting yourself (just be sure it’s in a professional way). 

Did you know that LVC has a tool to help you enhance your on-line reputation?  Lebanon Valley College uses readabout.me software from readMedia to publicize your achievements and activities on campus – like studying abroad, making the dean’s list, or winning a scholarship. It creates personalized stories about these accomplishments, publishes them online at readabout.me, and sends them to your hometown newspapers. This makes sure you get credit for the good work you’re doing on campus, which helps with summer jobs, internships, and even job interviews and references after graduation.

What is readabout.me?

• All of your online achievements are verified with a badge of approval from LVC. readabout.me then gathers all of your achievements into a profile that represents the beginning of a professional online resume.
• Your online achievements demonstrate to the world that you’ve really accomplished important things at LVC. Because every story is made to rank well in web searches and easy to share in social networks, employers or grad schools will find them when they Google your name.
• You can enhance your readabout.me profile by uploading your photo to make it more personal.
• You and your family can really help get this “good stuff” in front of employers and grad schools by liking them, tweeting them, linking to them (on blogs or other websites), posting them to Tumblr and whatever else you can think of.
• You can also input your own achievements, such as activities, internships, volunteerism, and work experience.

Check out http://www.lvc.edu/marketing-communications/readaboutme.aspx to learn more about Readabout.Me.  Remember, it’s up to you to manage your on-line reputation; LVC is simply providing one more way to help!

Read some of our past Social Media posts to gain a better understanding of how your social media reputation can help, or hurt you.

Welcome back!! 

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed at the beginning of the semester as you think of everything you will need to do for your classes, internship/work obligations, campus involvement, etc.  Hopefully you have also marked off time for your career planning activities. 

I don’t want my first post of the semester to be a listing of our upcoming Career Services programs, but I thought it might be helpful to let you know what to expect in terms of our different venues for communication and how you can access a few of the resources we often refer to.

• We will be adding to our archive of Career Corner newsletters this semester with three new editions.  Look for an email in February, March, and April; you can also access all of our newsletters in the Resource Library of your JOB CENTER account or on the left hand column of the blog.
• Wednesdays will still be ‘Blog day’ with timely and informative topics.  Our This Week in Career Services email will also continue to show up in your inbox every Monday with information on upcoming programs and deadlines. 

In addition to the above methods of communication, don’t forget about the multitude of resources available to you on our Career Services webpage.  From the homepage you can immediately access information about our services, key resources (JOB CENTER, Focus-2, Career Connections, GradSchools.com, What Can I Do with This Major, and The Big Guide to Living and Working Overseas), and links to our What’s Happening Page, Experience Counts internship information, and Resources for Students.   

JOB CENTER is also a vast resource where jobs and internships are posted constantly, details and registration for our career events is available, the resource library is updated regularly, and each student can upload job search documents and update their own personal profile.  You can also access Career Connections mentors to seek career advice from alumni volunteers and build your professional network.  

I understand that the resources briefly discussed in this post may add to your already overwhelming first week on campus, but I assure you, if you make it a priority to do a little bit of work each week on your career plans, it will become a much more manageable endeavor.   

Again, welcome back to LVC!  The staff in Career Services looks forward to working with you this semester!

Happy Holidays, from Career Services!

I’m sure there is plenty to do and look forward to with a few weeks off from school.  Frankly, I’m still amazed that it’s almost 2012!  While you are away, we will be busy preparing programs and events for your return. 

A few things to look forward to in the new year:

 

Be sure to check out the What’s Happening page of our website and explore your JOB CENTER account to learn additional details and registration information.

Also over the winter break, Career Services will be moving!  While we have enjoyed our time and space here at 50 N. College, we look forward to making the move back to Mund College Center.  The new Center for Student Engagement will be open for business prior to the spring semester.  We are excited to see you there in 2012!

I’m sure you have many things to do over the holiday break, including taking time to relax!  However, if you find yourself with some time on your hands that you would like to dedicate to your career development, start by catching up on our Career Corner newsletters.  Below is a list of editions with a short summary of their included topics that might be the most beneficial for you to catch up on.

• November 2011 – Professional Associations: what they are, how to find ones that are relevant to your career interests, and faculty advice on why you should consider joining them!
• October 2011 – Experience Counts: all about internships
• April 2011 – How to set up and make the most of a Job Shadowing experience
• March 2011 – a recap of Tabor Community Service’s Financial Literacy Series, written by Amanda Slusaw ‘11
• November 2010 – Social Media and your Job Search (don’t forget to also read advice from Bill Glose '81 in a recent blog posting!)

An archive of all past editions of Career Corner can be found on the left hand column of this blog or in the Resource Library of your JOB CENTER account.  Between our blog, our newsletters, and our Webshops, you have access to your own personal career coach, 24/7!   

I understand that many students are still focusing on final exams and papers, so perhaps it's not time to slow down just yet...but when it is, I hope you take the time to catch up!  Good luck on your finals next week!!!

Each year, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) surveys employer members on what skills they rank as the most valuable for successful candidates to have.  Although the ranking order may change, the skills represented below are commonly seen from year to year.  These skills are often considered transferable skills, or soft skills, meaning they are important to any industry or organization.  They often cannot be learned from a text book; instead they require practice and experience in the classroom, the workplace, or through co-curricular involvement to help students develop them.

When thinking about your job or internship search, it is important to keep these skills in mind as you put together your resume and cover letter or formulate responses to interview questions.  Providing examples that demonstrate your accomplishments in these areas will help you stand out from other candidates.  Even if you’re not yet thinking about your job search, it would still benefit you to think about how you can develop these skills now to help prepare you for later!

Last year we were thrilled to announce that Ashley Collins (class of 2011, psychology major) was the winner of the NACE Job Choices Magazine 2010 Reader Poll.  By filling out a quick survey, her name was drawn as the winner of $500!  Read what she has to say about the magazine and her winnings. 

Keep in mind, this is a national publication that students all over the country are able to access and participate in the survey.  We were pleased that someone from LVC won then; so imagine our surprise to learn that an LVC student won AGAIN in 2011! 
 


That’s right.  LVC student Lauren Davis (business administration/individualized major) is the winner of the 2011 Reader Poll!  In regards to her decision to fill out the survey, read what Lauren says: 

• What prompted you to pick up one of the Job Choices magazine?  I saw it as another opportunity to explore options after graduation and to help me better prepare for coming months.. and it was free!
• What are a few things you learned from it that were ‘new’ to you?  Maybe not new, but it made me understand certain things: I really found the resume building and cover letter explanations to be a big help when I first was starting to develop my job-searching abilities. No one wants a machine-built resume that looks and sounds the same as other resumes; learning to differentiate myself through my resume has helped and will help me throughout my job search.
• Would you recommend the magazine to other students?  Absolutely. It's free and the information you read can only help you.
• What was your favorite article?  Secrets to Interview Success: It provides you with questions you may be asked in an interview so you can be more prepared, and also questions that you should ask, too.
• What surprised you about something you read?  I'm relatively new to LinkedIn, but the magazine promotes searching for companies and people who have a position you might want in the future. I guess I didn't realize what a key tool LinkedIn can be.
• What will you do with your $500 win?  I will be saving it and putting it towards paying off my student loans. 

Congratulations Lauren!  Can LVC have a third winner?  Pick up a free copy of Job Choices for a wonderful resource on job search techniques and advice.  Although that alone should motivate you to read through a copy…but the thought of being the next $500 winner certainly doesn’t hurt either!

Have a wonderful summer!

Don’t forget that Career Services is open throughout the summer with hours from 8:00am-4:00pm.  Also, even though you’re on vacation, recruiters are not!  Jobs and internships are continuously posted to JOB CENTER, so be sure to log in frequently. 

However, what's your best plan of action?