Career Building 101: Gaining the Competitive Edge

By Sabrina T. Hall, Co-op Program Coordinator

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

www.coop.gatech.edu

Why is Career Building so important?

Building your skills for a career is the most important thing you can do during your college years to prepare yourself for life after graduation. Most students wait too late to start looking for a job and preparing themselves for the job search process. Job seekers must start the search process early in their college studies and not wait until the semester before graduation. Landing in the right job after graduation is no easy step. You must take several small steps along the way with proper planning and preparation early in your college career. Taking the time to plan and develop goals now will help you to begin building a solid foundation for a satisfying job and career upon graduation.

Graduates must not buy into the myth that a college degree is a virtual guarantee of a good job after a painless, quick job search. There are more college graduates than ever before, so a college degree no longer guarantees a satisfying high-paying job. You must develop strategies to stand out above your competition.

Getting employed takes work. Becoming gainfully employed in a rewarding career takes even more work. Presently the market is flooded with unemployed yet very qualified graduates. Furthermore, employers have stated that they will hire fewer new graduates than ever before. It is a tough job market with stiff competition for the best jobs. There are many graduates who are under-employed and working in jobs that do not fully utilize their talents and skills. Poor job search skills result in students feeling as if they have wasted their hard earned degrees.

How can you avoid these scenarios of being unemployed and under-employed and make yourself more marketable to companies upon graduation? You must start by “Developing a Plan of Action.” Again, early planning is so important. You should start in your freshman year of school. Begin researching careers, maintain good grades, and join clubs, organizations and professional associations. You should also begin to explore co-operative education (co-op) and internship opportunities.

As you progress through school, you should become more involved in school and student organizations. Do not just join a club or organization but become an active, participating member. Start to develop your leadership skills. In your sophomore year, get to know the staff and services of your Career Center and the Co-operative Education Office. Take advantage of any scheduled workshops or seminars on job searching strategies, resume writing, interviewing tips, preparing for career fairs and company information sessions. The more exposure you have to companies and the job search process the more you will improve on your job searching skills.

Your sophomore year is a great time to begin adding work-related skills and to test your career choice in a real world setting. There are several options in which to do this that include pursuing a Co-op, Intern, Research Assistant or part-time position. I recommend Co-op as an excellent way to begin to build your resume with work related skills. Co-operative Education (Co-op) allows students to explore career options early, refine job objectives, confirm career choices, develop a network of people in industry, develop resume writing skills, build on job searching and interviewing skills. Co-op provides an additional benefit by allowing students to earn a competitive wage while learning.

Co-operative Education leads to a truly complete education. By alternating work terms with school terms you are able to build on what you learned from one term to the next. The alternating terms of school and work allow for more increased responsibility and projects as you expand your course work in school and your job responsibilities at work. These kinds of experiences will help you to create a well-written and effective advertisement of yourself known as the Resume. Through your co-op experience, you now have