Yes, I have professionals and business owners speak directly to students. I also have the students visit professionals' worksites to receive a realistic perspective of the industry the students is seeking for employment.
Yolanda,
This sounds like a great idea both both the reasons you mention here. I wonder, do you ever have some of these professionals and business owners come to your school to speak directly to the students?
Elizabeth Kemler
I would ask the students to go to the local Chamber of Commerce mixer where there are various professionals and business owners attending for the purpose extending introductions and promoting positive community.
Keston ,
This of course is very true. My question is, what are some of the ways you help to facilitate this camaraderie?
Elizabeth Kemler
By developing and maintaing postive relationships with their classmates, instructors, faculty, and staff. Creating a positive image at all times. Once this is done, the individual will be more likely to be seen as someone with high credibilty and people in that network will be more willing to assist during a student's job search.
Amanda,
This is good and important advice. It makes a huge difference in both cover letters and interviews when the employer sees that the student did their research.
Elizabeth Kemler
I am going to focus on stressing being more prepared. I think my students just go blind to offices and drop off resumes. I will stress viewing the office website first and taking notes from it.
B,
You bring up a critically important but often overlooked point; I see so many students with big ambitions and lots of talent who have inappropriate material on their Facebook pages-often forgetting that it is widely accessible.
Elizabeth Kemler
Students have the ability to look at who they come in contact throughout their day both physically and electronically. This is where they can maximize exposure and get the word out that they are looking for an opportunity. It is critical, however, that students are sure that their image is appropriate. If they are chatting to contacts on Facebook in an effort to find opportunities, they need to be sure that the image is appropriate and professional.
Jessica,
I agree absolutely, it never hurts to let as many people in your network know you're looking for work in a particular area-and to reach out to those you may not know so well-just in case!
Elizabeth Kemler
Knowing people and being able to network will not only grow your knowledge of different areas but also put your name out there for those that may possibly be hiring. Sometimes its who you know over what you know.
Amanda,
What a fantastic idea-I love that you're focusing on harnessing the incredible power of the web to create a professional presence. This also allows them to incorporate some creativity and fun-which helps of course with motivation.
Elizabeth Kemler
I encourage my students to create a professional Face Book page, where they can network and add friends, family, businesses, corporations, and charitable organizations as friends/likes on that Face Book page. This professional page should absolutely at all times be kept separate from a personal Face Book page they may also have. In addition, their personal Face Book page should be secured that no unprofessional pictures, or postings are visible to a potential employee or co-worker.
I also started to encourage them to utilize Linked In, and to create a professional Linked In profile and to make connections and to send out resumes on that online tool.
In addition, I have also recommended they create a professional Pinterest page where they can garner helpful advice in their career/job search from other professionals in their respective field.
Felicia,
I think you've offered her some great advice; there are so many ways to make valuable connections-and do good in the process.
Elizabeth Kemler
I am a job coach for our training program and what I'm finding is that people really don't know how to utilize social media to network or other sources. Just recently one our students who is a displaced housewife asked to meet with me to discuss how to achieve her goals. The first thing I asked her what do you have a passion for, well she likes to paint, make ceramics pieces, anything to do with art, I recommended that she should consider volunteering at after school programs, volunteer at any school in our city, find an outlet where she can display her work, and the PTA any places where she can use her gifts and talents with the hopes of connecting with the right people who are in position to hire.
Ashley,
It sounds like you have a great strategy in place for your students. I like your ideas on networking and imagine they work quite well!
Elizabeth Kemler
First I would discuss with my students the importance of utilizing their personal and professional networks. I would explain that 50% of jobs are not advertised and that it isn't necessarily about who you know directly, but it can be more about the person your contact knows. For example, maybe a parent has an old classmate that works in the field in which the student is studying. The student should speak with his or her parent to see if he or she can contact the old classmate to discuss opportunities.
After discussing the importance of using personal and professional networks, I would have the student makes lists of personal and professional contacts along with their place of employment. Next, I would have them begin to reach out to contacts based on how relative their employment is to the student's job search. By reaching out to contacts in their own network they could be introduced to new contacts with possible opportunities.
Carla,
You are in the perfect business for something like this..and it could include lots of tastings :)
Elizabeth Kemler
Carla,
This is so true..I have a few friends that are chefs and bakers and it is indeed the easiest thing to talk about!
Elizabeth Kemler
I've had career fairs, but the idea of a Job Club is a great one! We have several clubs on our campus, and I think this would be a great one, especially if I could get guest speakers from the industry to participate as well.
