In a job market that feels inundated with candidates, you may feel completely overwhelmed trying to find ways to stand out among your competitors. This can be especially true if you’re starting out in your career and are trying to find ways to add experiences to your resume.

It feels like an endless cycle. You need experiences...to add experiences to your resume...but without experiences...it’s difficult to get experiences in the first place. Internship opportunities fill up quickly within a seemingly narrow window of time.

In other words, how in the world do you get the visibility you need to land that first internship?

Here’s the truth: pursuing and securing an internship can feel like chasing a purple unicorn.

But here’s a secret: there are actually other ways to acquire career-related experience.

Here are a few to help you get started:

• Course Projects – Students are often surprised to find that their course projects count as experience, but they most certainly do! By listing out the class and details of what you did to complete an assignment, as well as the impact of your work, this demonstrates a level of knowledge and expertise that could be considered just as valuable as an internship experience.
• On-Campus Employment – If you find yourself on campus often, getting a job with a campus department could be a viable option. You get bonus points if it’s relevant to your major or career of interest. For more information on how to snag an on-campus position, check out our post here.
• Volunteer – Helping out a local non-profit, community organization, or student organization is another great way to gain experience. You could even tie the work to something related to your major, for example, running social media if you're a Media & Communication Studies major. For even more tips, check out our post here.
• Professional Associations – By connecting with professionals in your industry of interest through professional associations, you’ll not only build your network but also open yourself up to potential opportunities through their organizations or even the association itself. This option does require networking, which can be a source of anxiety for students, but it helps exercise that muscle that will absolutely be needed for the actual job market.
• Micro-internships – Micro-internships are a final great option if you’re still searching for semester-long work and need more experience. Go to parkerdewey.com to find available projects. You can also look into theforage.com to gain experience through their job simulations. 

Want to know more ways you can stand out as a leading candidate outside of internships? Join us for a Keys to Success workshop on Monday, October 7 at 12 PM at The Commons 331 to learn how.  

It’s time for our Fall 2024 Career & Internship Fair! Before you join us on Wednesday, September 18, from 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM, we wanted to share some recommendations on how to make the MOST of your time at the Retriever Activities Center.

MAP your route. Review the employer directory (you can also see a list of employers on Handshake) and determine who you might want to speak with at the Career Fair. Take special note of companies that are hiring within your major and/or your career trajectory of interest. Download the map in the directory and either print it out or notate electronically the booths where these employers will be located. That way, once you arrive at the Career Fair you’ll know exactly where you want to go and who you want to talk to.

OPTIMIZE your resume. Your route is planned, so now you want to make sure that your resume is in top shape prior to the Career Fair. That includes having it clearly and concisely list relevant information, accomplishments, skills, and experience, as well as the top keywords in your industry of interest. If you need some help knowing where to incorporate worthwhile edits, you can review some tips and samples on our website, or stop by our live drop-in hours Monday-Thursday 2-4 PM at the Center. We also have virtual/evening express hours on Fridays from 2-4 PM and one evening per week from 5-7 PM, which can be scheduled in Handshake. Once your resume is ready, print out 15-20 copies and keep them in a folder or padfolio the day of the Career Fair.

SELL your skills. Now that you know who you want to talk to and have an optimized resume, it’s time to practice what you’ll say to these employers. This is where your 30-second commercial comes in. A 30-second commercial (also known as an elevator pitch) is an opportunity to let employers know who you are, highlight a few of your accomplishments, and share how you might bring value to their organization. Before the Career Fair, think about your 30-second commercial. Write it down, and practice it a few times — either in front of a mirror or maybe even in front of family members or friends. You can also use the resource Big Interview and record yourself responding to the “Tell me about yourself” prompt.

TALK to your connections. Once you’ve passed out your resumes and sold employers on your abilities, the work doesn’t end there. After the Career Fair is officially over you want to take the time to follow-up with employers that you were most interested in. This could range from sending a LinkedIn connection request, sending over your resume, or sending an email with specific details about your conversation. With this in mind, it might be worth bringing a piece of paper or a notebook to the fair so you can jot down pieces of conversations you want to remember and draw from in your follow-up correspondence. This allows your messages/emails to be fully personalized, and will make you even more memorable.

By MAPPING your route, OPTIMIZING your resume, SELLING your skills, and TALKING to your connections, you’ll be making the MOST out of your Career Fair experience. Best of luck out there and see you soon!

The Fall semester is a great time to build your résumé (if you don’t already have one) or update it with the latest information (if you do have one). To help guide your edits along, here are some formatting tips:

• Personalization. When listing out your contact information at the top of your résumé, you may also want to consider including a web link such as your LinkedIn profile (we have appointments to help you build one out if you need one!), a portfolio link (for fields like communication or design), or a github link (for fields like computer science). Utilize the extra real estate at the top of your résumé to provide an additional opportunity for employers to view your work.
• Relevancy. The goal for your résumé writing is to list the most relevant experiences to your career of interest as soon as possible. Don’t have relevant work experiences? No problem — you can just list out your course projects as “Relevant Projects” and your work experience as “Additional” or “Other” experience. You can also list relevant academic coursework as another way to demonstrate you’re learning about a particular area of expertise.
• Consistency. There are no clear-cut rules about how to handle different aspects of your résumé (e.g., listing company vs. job title first in your experience section), but the most important thing to keep in mind is to remain consistent throughout the document. This tip also applies to using bold headers, maintaining similar font styles and sizes, dates, and using punctuation.
• Detail. This tip relates to how you describe your work experiences. When developing bullet points you want to be as detailed about what you’ve accomplished as possible, while making sure to share results. You want to also be detailed about the skill sets you used for your accomplishments, focusing on those that closely match the requirements of the position.
• Length. For most students and recent graduates, a one-page résumé should be more than enough to list your experiences, but if there is more that needs to be covered it can go to a **full** two pages. What is meant by a full two pages is that there shouldn’t be any excessive white space at the bottom of the page. There are exceptions to this rule, such as government résumés and CVs. One way that you can save space and keep your document to one page is by grouping your skills section into subcategories.

Anyone on the job market knows about the importance of the résumé. This is typically an employer’s first look at who you are and what you bring to the table. That’s why it’s crucial that you can make your résumé stand out from the rest.

1. Lead with the most relevant information. This refers to both categories and individual bullet points. You want to lead with the most important information on the top and left-hand side of the page, as well as within sections. 
   
   
2. Your personalized LinkedIn URL. At the top of your résumé with the rest of your contact information, you can add your LinkedIn URL. Need a personalized URL that’s not full of random numbers and letters? Go to your profile, and on the right side you’ll see an option to edit "Public profile & URL.” If you need assistance with this, schedule a LinkedIn appointment with a career advisor. 
   
   
3. Course projects. If your résumé is lacking in terms of work experiences, you can include projects from your classes. Just list the name of the project and/or course and include a few bullet points highlighting what you did. Remember: coursework experiences do count as work experiences! 
   
   
4. Relevant coursework. By listing relevant courses, you can demonstrate that you have foundational knowledge in key areas related to the job you’re applying for. You can also show that you’ve learned specialized skills in a specific area of study. 
   
   
5. Skills as categories. These can be comprised of hard skills (e.g., programming languages, statistical analyses, data analysis), soft skills (e.g., communication, leadership, problem-solving), and transferable skills (e.g., customer service, research skills, presentation skills).   
   
   
6. Extracurricular activities. Adding these to your résumé can demonstrate leadership potential. They also can help highlight transferable skills that you otherwise may not be able to show on your résumé.

Looking for some examples of résumés as you build your own? Download our Career Guide and review the guidelines listed on p. 26 of the PDF.  

Here at the Career Center, we meet with students whose work experiences run the gamut. If you are finding yourself lacking this area, here are some suggestions to build out your resume.

Entrepreneurship. Have a good idea and want to see what you can do with it? Consider starting a small business. By becoming an entrepreneur, you can demonstrate you’re motivated, passionate, innovative, and have good decision-making skills. You can also tie your business to your industry of interest as well. Need guidance in this area? The Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is another UMBC resource that you could turn to for mentorship and ideas.

Micro-internships. These are short-term professional assignments that allow you to work on a real project in a limited amount of time. Micro-internships are a great option if you’re still searching for semester-long work and need more experience. Go to parkerdewey.com to find available projects. You can also look into theforage.com to gain experience through their job simulations.

On-campus leadership. If you are already active with a student organization on campus you can add relevant experiences to your resume by stepping into a leadership role. You can even try to find something tied to your major depending on the organization’s needs. For example, if you’re a finance major you could be the treasurer of a student organization.

Research. As a research institution, UMBC is home to many research projects being conducted by faculty members across the university. If you are interested in learning more about research and obtaining research experience, you could inquire with faculty members to see if there’s an opening in their labs and/or research teams. If you’re especially interested in pursuing graduate school, conducting research with a faculty mentor is a great way to determine if you want to go down that path, while building experience for your resume.

Volunteer. Connect with a local non-profit or community organization that works for a cause you feel passionate about and see if they need volunteers. You can find out if they need help in your area of study to make it even more relevant for your resume. For example, if you’re a Media & Communication Studies major you could help with the organization’s social media. Another great way to get involved in service-learning and community engagement opportunities is through The Shriver Center.

As you can see, there are a number of different ways you can add work experiences to your resume outside of the more traditional internship positions. Want to hear more about how others do it? Join us at our Inside Scoop: Entrepreneurs Panel Discussion on April 15^th at University Center 312 from 12-1 PM.

The Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering Department(CBEE) in collaboration with the Career Center will offer a Resume Revamp event on Friday, April 1^st, 2-3pm (online). 

Don't miss this opportunity to receive feedback on your resume! As part of the session you will also hear from a panel of faculty and the Career Center about resume tips.

Space is limited- RSVP today! Please view full details here.

Now that spring semester is wrapping up, it's time to take a breath and think about your next career move. Are you a UMBC graduate looking for full-time work? Do you need an internship or research experience to build your resume? Are you simply ready to start exploring your career options?

Join the UMBC Career Center for a 5-week, FREE virtual series designed to focus and invigorate your career exploration, job, or internship search. The UMBC Virtual Career Launch Summer Series is designed with YOUR goals in mind. We want to help you get motivated and get moving in the right direction.

BENEFITS:
•    Learn tips & strategies for securing a job or internship
•    Explore career options and majors
•    Develop a personalized plan for career success
•    Meet employers who hire UMBC students
•    Network with UMBC alumni and local professionals
•    PRIZE RAFFLES for participants who attend 3+ events!

CERTIFICATE of COMPLETION available upon request for participants who attend 5+events!

Make the most of your summer and register today!

View the full schedule of events
(NOTE: Attending all events is NOT required!)

So, you’ve decided it’s time to gain some real-world experience by landing a great internship in 2021. But is your resume ready for the spotlight? Your resume is your marketing tool that will  help you land that internship. Do you know on average how long a recruiter spends looking at a resume? 5-7 seconds!!!Therefore, it’s very important that you structure your resume so that it’s easy-to-read to capture the recruiter’s attention. Your resume should showcase your education, skills and experience to show the employer you are a strong candidate for the internship. All experiences count so be sure to include extracurricular activities and volunteer work to show you are a well-rounded candidate.  Once you have developed your resume, you will have a solid foundation, but as you apply, you should always tailor your resume for the specific internship.

TIP OF THE DAY:

Chris Lanthier, Information Systems

Summer 2020 Cyber Systems Intern, Northrop Grumman

“Never say no to experience. Even if you aren't sure what might come out of it or if you're even interested, always seek out ways to grow yourself and your resume so that when the right opportunity does come around, you'll be able to take advantage of it.”

READ/WATCH THIS:

·       Video: Micro Session: How to Write a Stand-out Resume (13 minutes)

·       Sample Resumes by Major

·       Career Guide (Resume Guidelines and Samples)

WHAT’S MY NEXT STEP?

·       Draft your resume and schedule a resume review  appointment through UMBCworks (30 or 60 minute) or 15 minute Express Appointment

Get the scoop on exciting internship opportunities! Follow the Career Center on Twitter, where we’ll be highlighting amazing internships across a variety of industries all week!