How does a college student prepare finding a job during the final semester? Thanks for sharing.
Job fairs, LinkedIn and Indeed.
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And Handshake
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College Career centers- our schools (husband, myself and daughter received letterhead with the university logos to add to our resumes). They also provided leads and set up interviews, reviewed our resumes, had practice interviews and provided linen paper for paper resumes. Your child can also attend recruitment fairs, ask professors for leads/recs, ask supervisors at their internships, and website career pages.
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What field are you preparing for a job? How you need to prepare might vary a bit depending on your job desires.
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We set up searches on indeed. Each day my son gets several emails with the latest. That’s been his best succcess supplemented with handshake and the job fair. All his success came from indeed.
We are starting with my daughter but her interests are more limited. Not sure how it will work but she will better take advantage of school resources then my son.
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In my opinion, the student should be taking the lead in their job search. Start with their career center, set up a good indeed account, same with LinkedIn. And sure, getting parent help with these things is fine.
But after that…really, this needs to be a student initiative.
Also…again I ask…what career field are we talking about here? Beginning a job search in some fields requires first getting certified or licensed. Is that the case here?
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It was my son but we helped with ideas and getting started. We shared him how to use indeed etc. He handled where he applied and got his jobs on his own. It’s ok to assist your kids. Frankly I’m not sure many of the school methods would work. They’re certainly more narrow than I would recommend. But each kid has different needs, goals, methods.
Back to the topic OP mentions final semester.
One finds a job earlier via internships. Internships beget future jobs and hopefully your child has an opportunity lined up b4 the final semester.
If you are just starting in the final semester, in my opinion you missed valuable time.
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Folks entering careers in education have a different type of job search. They need to get certified first. Figure out what state, etc.
That’s why I’m asking what career this person is inquiring about. The info given could be different depending on the profession.
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Internships or part time jobs while a student. This was certainly my experience decades ago, and my wife decades ago, and the experience of both daughters far more recently. All of us ended up getting a job somewhere other than where we were studying, which implies that the actual job that we got was not the same as the internship or part time job. However, the experience that we got while still an undergraduate student was very helpful.
I do understand that this might not apply in all fields, but it does seem to apply in quite a few.
Both daughters are far more familiar with how to look for jobs using on-line resources than either of us old parents.
One daughter happened to apply for a job that was advertised by a head hunter, and ended up finding other opportunities presented by the head hunter. Apparently some smaller companies find it more cost effective to enlist the services of a head hunter when they need to hire rather than have someone on staff full time who has the time to look to hire. Again this may depend upon what field you are in.
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Agreed - having an internship doesn’t mean you’re going to work there or even in the same industry.
But employers want people with experience - i.e. experiences in real world settings - and so those kids who have experience will have an easier job finding positions.
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I assume your student is not attending Northeastern. It seems late in the game to start thinking about this. What is his major? What type of work is he looking for?
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Important…they will also have an employer who can be used as a recommendation. Able to tell things like willingness to learn, dependability, responsibility, etc. One of my kids had jobs working in a restaurant and as an usher for a major symphony orchestra while in college. The restaurant owner wrote the LOR for the ushering job. And both employer supervisors wrote letters later too. Clearly, the restaurant job had nothing to do with ushering. And my kid is not a professional usher.
It’s never too early to start these relationships.
To @compiler what has your kid done so far themselves?
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Colleges have student help centers which will review resumes and even do mock interviews.
It is never too late to be looking for a job.
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Many people said internship but the internship opportunity is mostly available for the CS major students. For none CS major such as engineering, math, biology, public health, finance, journalism etc, how are those students quickly employed after graduation?
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That is just not true. One of my kids was an economic major and the other political science. Both had internships the summer after junior year.
The Econ major had a job offer from her internship and is still employed at that company. The political science major did not get a job offer and is currently a senior still looking for a job. He has had interviews that said they were talking to him primarily because of his experience at his internship.
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My son in engineering started after sophomore. We tried after freshman. Didn’t happen but he had a job detailing cars. It all helps. He interviewed with about 20 companies this fall and had 5 offers for May (he’s in his final year).
Some fields, like journalism, you may find an unpaid internship but they are out there. And even in the field there are paid roles.
Every student in every major can qualify for an internship.
What major. What are the interests ?
Sounds like you’ve not been given proper info.
One thing though - the student has to be a go getter. Opportunities don’t find you. You need to find them.
This is not the experience of my daughter or any of her friends with majors ranging from engineering, English, bio, history, econ, to marketing. All found internships related to their majors during school and they are all employed.
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Could you share the major or the industry/sector? That would help give specific examples.
My son has maintained contact with those he interned with last summer. He was with a municipality and is a liberal arts college major. They have encouraged him to apply this spring.
If looking for a general entry level job the resume should be humble, yet clearly explain skills and strengths. One page, no more than two. The college career center will coach them on this and interviews. Where have they worked in the summers?
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What jobs has your student had during college…during the academic year and during summers?
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