Online Career Services

Career Management Tips & Tools

Have a question about your job search? Looking for resources to help you manage your career or find a job? This section presents resources on a wide variety of career management and professional development topics.

Job Search Strategy

In this section you'll find information and valuable resource lists addressing Resumes and Cover Letters, Successful Interviewing In Five Easy Steps, Building A Career Portfolio and Networking, as well as Job Search Tools.

Transferable Skills

Being competitive in any job market includes understanding how your past experience is relevant to the positions you are now pursuing, and will pursue in the future. Consider these tips to help you recognize your skills and present them effectively.

• List your accomplishments (from your work history and from extracurricular activities, too).
• What has your value been to past organizations, within and beyond the scope of your position?
• What do you do best?
• Write about past successes, and talk with friends, former colleagues or a career counselor, to express your stories fully and to find help with naming the skills that you've used.
• What strong analytical, communication, organizational, interpersonal and creative skills can you identify from your writing? What examples can you list that you would like prospective employers to know about? Several skills in each category are listed below, to help you get started.
• What are the key qualifications needed in the jobs you are applying for, in addition to the occupation-specific skills? Job postings are an excellent source for these points, as are informational interviews with people who are already doing the kind of work you want to do.
• Practice talking about your stories to prepare for interviews, and to evaluate whether your best professional qualifications are included on your resume, in your cover letters and in your networking sound byte.

Selected Transferable Skills

• ANALYTICAL SKILLS
  • Examining data
  • Forecasting future goals
  • Investigating situations/problems
  • Recommending solutions based on data
• COMMUNICATION SKILLS
  • Critical listening
  • Facilitating meetings
  • Presenting
  • Teaching/training (can also be interpersonal)
  • Writing
• INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
  • Advising colleagues/clients
  • Developing relationships with customers
  • Leading teams
  • Managing staff
  • Mediating problems
  • Mentoring / motivating individuals
  • Negotiating agreements
• ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS
  • Coordinating projects/events
  • Managing projects
  • Meeting deadlines
  • Maintaining inventory/files/a library/a facility
• CREATIVE SKILLS
  • Adapting to change
  • Initiating a new procedure
  • Innovative problem solving
  • Managing crisis situations

How can the Alumni Career Center help you consider using a recruiter in your job search, and help you prepare well?

• Career Advising - One-on-one interview practice with an advisor is available. Individual discussions about what to expect in interview situations with recruiters and clarifying how and whether a recruiter can help you in your current search can add to your confidence and help you feel prepared for a conversation that may lead to a long-lasting professional relationship. Career advising is a feature of the Alumni Career Center's Comprehensive Service Package, an annual fee of $160 for Alumni Association members.
• Professional Development Workshops - Sessions on self-marketing, on brushing up your interviewing skills, and on preparing for behavioral interviews give you opportunities to practice answers to interview questions and to learn from your peers, as well as from the workshop facilitator. Fees for individual workshops are $25; attendance at up to three workshops is included in the Self-Directed Service Package , and all workshops are offered at no additional charge as a feature of the Alumni Career Center's Comprehensive Service Package.