Prepare for career fair season with Handshake — Joyce’s Career Tip of the Week

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Career

Handshake is the tool used by ASU to connect students with employers, internships and jobs. The career fairs will be taking place next month, so now is the time for you to start preparing, and Handshake is the place to start. (If you have not used Handshake yet, get started today!)

First, let me ask a few questions and include a few tips that you might find helpful.

Is your profile complete? Have you posted a picture? Did you fill in the applicable information about employment, extra-curricular activities and academic projects? Have you posted your résumé and made it available for recruiters to see?

Are you setting time aside to look over posted jobs and internships? Do you know how to filter positions to see those related to your major or interest area? Have you created a Search Alert that will monitor postings and send you a message about positions?

Spend time looking at Events – Career Fairs and Workshops. You can see which companies will be attending career fairs. You can also see all of the upcoming events, plan ahead to ensure that you will be a well-prepared and competitive internship/job seeker.

All ASU students have access to GoinGlobal — a tool for finding job and internship opportunities in the U.S. as well as internationally. There are also U.S. and Global City Guides with a plethora of information to help you with your search as well as assist with potential relocation. The list of companies that have sponsored H1-B visas is valuable for international students.

Optimal Résumé is a resource especially for Fulton Schools students. There are tools to help you create your résumé, and you can use Optimal Résumé to submit your résumé for review. The Interview module has sample interview questions and a “coach” who will give you examples of appropriate answers. You can find both GoinGlobal and Optimal Résumé by clicking on the Career Center tab and then Resources.

Finally, you can use Handshake to schedule an appointment with a peer career coach or professional staff member. Click on the Career Center tab and then Appointments.

The Fulton Schools Career Center professional staff and peer career coaches are looking forward to working with you. Remember: Successful performance is the result of 90 percent preparation and 10 percent flawless execution.

 

Joyce Donahue is a career counselor in the Fulton Schools Career Center.  She is nationally certified career counselor and holds “Master Career Counselor” membership status in the National Career Development Association.