The Career Fair has passed and now it’s time to start applying to jobs! One of the keys to succeeding in a job application is to write a standout cover letter. Cover letters are formal business letters meant to get across who you are as a person, your job qualifications, and how you can add to whatever company or organization you want to work for.

Here are some quick tips for writing a standout cover letter:

1. Structure your cover letter like a letter. You should include your permanent address, the date, the name of the hiring manager, their job title, the company name, and the company address.

2. Match your resume. There shouldn’t be anything written in your cover letter that isn’t reflected in your resume. Additionally, you shouldn’t just walk the reader through your resume; the cover letter is where you give more details and really connect your skills to the job position.

3. Focus on your strengths. Display confidence and positivity. The cover letter is where you can really show off your strengths, so try not to focus on what you lack.

4. Minimize the use of “I” Be sure to vary your sentence structure to make reading your cover letter more interesting. Try not to use the word “I” too much, use “you” and “your” more frequently. It’s best to talk about what you can add to the company rather than what you can get out of working there.

5. Keep it short. The most effective cover letters are concise and clear.

6. Proofread. Spell-check isn’t enough! Be sure to proofread your resume and double-check that you are using the correct words for the correct context.

Cover letters may seem confusing and intimidating, but they don’t have to be. Be sure to utilize the Career Center resources available to you! We review cover letters during drop-in appointments Mondays through Thursdays from 2 pm to 4 pm and on Fridays from 12 pm to 4 pm. Of course, you can always make a longer 30- or 60-minute appointment with a Career Specialist through UMBCworks as well.

Job search blues got you down? The Career Center can help with that!

The job search can be frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be.

It seems like everyone is looking for an entry level candidate with years of experience, but what recent graduate has years of experience?

Well, the Career Center can help you look like the best candidate, even without those years of experience under your belt. They can help you land that internship that will get you the experience you need!

Internships know you don’t have the experience to do the job without guidance, that’s why they’re internships! So a good way to open the door for your first job out of college is to start with internships. Check out my blog post about internships for more information.

Another fantastic way to get that first job in the field you’re studying is to network! LinkedIn is a great networking site that allows you to connect with recruiters and apply to jobs. The Career Center can help you build a great profile for your LinkedIn account, just make an appointment with a Career Adviser. If you’ve got a profile you’re happy with but don’t know how to use LinkedIn, there’s an appointment type for that too!

Did you know that 70% of jobs are never posted? The way to find them is to network! Talk to the people you know, get connected through job fairs and other events the Career Center hosts, and utilize social media to your advantage.

The Career Center has resources for you to take advantage of, check out the Career Center website for more resources and services.

Are you looking to gain experience within a field you’ve never worked in? Your solution may be to get an internship! Internships are temporary jobs that are geared towards supplementing your education with in-the-field experience. Internships often include mentorships and other learning opportunities while on the job. They’re a great way to get that first taste of what your field is like in practice rather than just in the classroom. Sometimes you may even get paid for this awesome learning experience!

The Career Center has plenty of resources dedicated to helping you find and score the perfect internship. You can schedule an appointment with an internship coordinator for your major to discuss the internship search, and the steps to landing that internship.

The first step is to update your resume. Important sections to include are a skills section, academic coursework you’ve completed, and any work experience or internships you’ve had in the past. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of experience in your field of choice, that’s the point of an internship! Come into the Career Center to get your resume reviewed and approved for UMBCWorks. Our drop-in hours are Monday through Thursday from 2 pm to 4 pm and on Fridays from 12 pm to 4 pm. You can also always schedule an appointment with a Career Specialist to go over your resume in more detail.

The second step is to go into the Career Center to discuss internships, how to look for one, and the different kinds of internships within your field of choice that may be available to you. The internship coordinator you speak with will be determined by your major, so you’ll get specialized and specific help within your interests. You can schedule an appointment through UMBCWorks, or by calling (410)-455-2216.

Finally, begin your internship search using UMBCWorks! UMBCWorks has a job board with plenty of internship opportunities available for all majors. Your resume must be approved in order to apply through UMBCWorks, so don’t skip step one! Your resume will automatically be approved once you go in to have your resume reviewed, so come by for drop-ins any day of the week.

Coming up in the spring semester, the Career Center is hosting the Spring Internship and Career Fair on February 7th. The Career Fair will have lots of employers coming to campus to network with students and potentially hire them for internships or full-time job positions. If you’re looking for an internship, the Spring Internship and Career Fair is a great place to start! Be sure to bring copies of your resume to hand out to potential employers and come dressed to impress.

Internships are super helpful in getting those important first experiences within your field of study. Just because they’re not full-time jobs, don’t overlook them! They’re a great learning experience and networking opportunity and can lead to a full-time job offer.

Resume writing can be intimidating. You sit in front of a half-filled word doc, and suddenly everything you’ve done and accomplished in your life leaves your memory. You feel like there is no way you could ever, ever fill up this page. But never fear! The UMBC campus offers tons of opportunities to help round out your resume and feel confident in your experience.

Volunteering: There are a bunch of charitable student organizations on campus (see the full list here). Whether you're fighting food waste with donations or designing sustainable engineering projects, you’re sure to find an organization that interests you and possibly relates to your major. Reach out to The Shriver Center for more information about volunteer opportunities!

Extracurriculars: Service organizations aren’t the only useful club you can join. Consider attending meetings for your major’s council, or join a club to pursue a hobby! The commitment and leadership experience will look great on your resume.

Research: UMBC is a research university. This means a lot of the professors on campus have their own research projects in addition to teaching classes. Read up on your professors’ projects, ask them questions, and see if you can assist them in their lab! It's a wonderful experience and you get to work on a cutting edge project in your field.

Projects: Speaking of projects, think about starting your own! Whether you want to recruit a few friends to help you or go it alone, take some time and apply what you’ve been learning to apersonal project. There are massive amounts of resources on campus free for you to use, so start brainstorming ideas and get to it!

On Campus Jobs: Finally, consider getting an on-campus job. Come in to the Career Center to get your resume reviewed and approved, then check out UMBCworks for various on-campus job postings. On-campus jobs are a great opportunity to get involved on campus, and you supervisors will understand your student schedule as well!

Between those five options, you should have plenty of material to work with. Be sure to look at our sample resumes by major to explore how other students had added their experience to their resumes, and as always, feel free to drop by the Career Center any weekday from 2 pm - 4 pm if you have resume questions. Have a relaxing spring break!

Hopefully, you all had a good time at the Career Fair last Wednesday. At this point, the companies you talked to are beginning to look over resumes and decide who they want to advance to the next round in the hiring process, also known as interviews!

Before we dive into the strategies you can use to impress during the interview, there are a few basics that need to be covered first. Dress professionally. Wear at least business casual, but you might want to step it up a notch to business attire. Bring an extra copy of your resume, a pen and paper, and a bottle of water. Map out your drive (if you have to drive) the day before and account for traffic when deciding when you should leave. If your interview is on campus, make sure you know the building and room number.

During the interview, try and maintain an air of professionalism while developing a relationship with the interviewer. It's a tough line to walk, but resources linked below can help you practice and find that balance. Think of the type of interview as well, phone interviews and technical interviews are very different. When answering a question, keeping the acronym S.T.A.R. in mind is incredibly helpful. Stories that describe the Situation you were in, the Task you had to complete, the Action you took and the Result of that action communicate efficiently and clearly to the interviewer the message you are trying to get across.

At the end of the interview, you’ll get the chance to ask the interviewer questions about the company. I don’t know about you, but when asked to ask questions, every single question I’ve ever had immediately vacates my brain and I can’t figure out anything to say. So it's good to go in with a plan. Do research on the company beforehand and develop a list of questions to ask. They can be industry-specific or more general, like “How does the area I would be working in fit into the overall organizational structure?”. Finally, after the interview, send a thank you note to follow up. Thank the interviewer for their time and the opportunity, and reiterate how you hope to hear from them soon.

So, we’ve gone over everything you need to do, but how can the Career Center help you? We offer mock (practice) interview appointments you can schedule through UMBCworks. You’ll come in and interview with a career specialist, then they’ll give you feedback on your performance. We also offer a new online service called Big Interview. You can search through a database of questions, record yourself answering them, and send them to the Career Center for review. To get questions reviewed, simply send the recording through Big Interview to our email: interviews@umbc.edu.

Interviewing can be a scary thing, but with the tips laid out above, hopefully it’s a little less so. Make sure to keep an eye out for more employer events coming to campus soon, we always have fun things going on. See you next week, where we’ll talk about finding internships and full- time positions using more Career Center tools.

There is an ancient riddle which has confused students since the beginning of time: How do I get experience when all experiences require experience? Figuring out how to break into the job market can feel like trying to jump on an already moving Ferris wheel. Confusing, intimidating, and not how you want to spend your weekends. But there is a way to round out your resume, gain leadership experience, and develop a professional network without snagging that elusive first job in your preferred field.

Campus involvement is a great alternative. Hopefully, you made it to Involvement Fest and have a few clubs you’re thinking about joining. If not, don’t worry! The full list of UMBC student organizations can be found here. It might seem intimidating at first, but taking a few minutes to look through the list is a great idea. There are professional societies, department groups, and recreational clubs. Find a couple that seem like fun, figure out what time they meet, and you’re good to go!

As a member of a club, you have the chance to do three things that help boost your chances of getting a job.

1. Leadership Opportunities. Clubs are a great way to take on responsibility in a relatively low-risk environment. Having a leadership position in a club gives you experience managing other people and their schedules, planning events, budgeting, and recruiting new members. These are great skills to highlight in a resume and provide great stories to talk about in interviews.

2. Networking. In a club, whether its related to your studies or not, you’re going to make friends with people who will be able to help your career down the road. Building connections in and out of your major is always a great idea, and clubs are great ways to get out, meet people, and create lasting friendships. It’s a stress-free way of beginning to cultivate a professional network.

3. The Human Element. Most employers aren’t looking for an emotionless robot to sit behind a desk and bang out reports day after day. And if they are, you probably don’t want to work for them anyways. Clubs and extracurriculars show your potential employer that you’re more than just a student. You have a breadth of knowledge and ideas that support and enhance your professional development. Having dedicated interests outside your field of study show that you commit to the things that you love, and you’ll commit to your new job too.

Welcome, or welcome back, to UMBC! To most, 90-degree weather and steadfastly green trees don’t really feel like the beginning of the school year, but believe it or not, here we are. I hope you’re at least a tiny bit excited for your new semester.

I’m always torn between excitement and stress. I filled my calendar with due dates and exams, but looking at it makes me realize how much I have to do. Before we go any further, let me introduce myself. I’m Emily, a third-year computer science major with minors in Mandarin and creative writing. I work as a Career Peer Advisor here at the UMBC Career Center, and this year I’m going to be handling our weekly blog posts. At the Career Center, we specialize in getting you all jobs, and more important than that, a job you might actually enjoy. Have no idea what field to go into? We have tools and appointments for that. Need a summer internship? We have specialists to guide you along the way. Want to have an internship showcased on your transcript? We do that too. Stop by the second floor of Math and Psych any weekday from 2 pm- 4 pm to get resumes reviewed, UMBCworks questions answered, and cover letters edited.

Now before you launch straight into classwork, it’s helpful to take time and evaluate what you did over the summer. Service projects you completed, jobs you had, internship experience, it can all be useful when redoing a resume. And I know that those summer experiences look different for everyone, so I’ll try and break it down a little.

If you had a job or internship, there are a few important things to do before you forget everything in the haze of school projects. First, add the experience to your resume. If you’re not sure how exactly to do that, we have tons of resume examples on our website. Second, consider reaching out to your direct supervisor. Thank them for an informative summer and generally explain how much the experience meant to you. This is a great way to accumulate references for your next application.

If you had a job or internship not related to what you’re studying, the two steps above are also very important to you. I know it might not seem like it, but by maintaining a summer job, you’re cultivating professionalism and work ethic that will help you in your field for years to come. While you’re editing your resume, think about any skills you gained that might transfer to the field you want to work in. Maybe as an office assistant, you got a lot of experience with spreadsheets. Maybe as a retail worker, you helped organize schedules and shifts so that your colleagues stayed happy. These all look wonderful in a job description.

If you didn't work over the summer,there are still a lot of thing to consider. Volunteer experience, extracurriculars, new computer skills, and personal projects in your field of study are all important to have on resumes. Take a few minutes, brainstorm a list of your accomplishments, then take a look our career guide to figure out how to showcase what you did.

Here at the Career Center, we also had a productive summer. We have a new resource for students: Big Interview. Sign in with your UMBC login and you have access to their database of interview questions. You can even record yourself answering interview questions and get feedback from a Career Center team member through email. It’s a great practice tool for those who get a little nervous while interviewing.

Now that your summer is all summarized (see what I did there), you’re ready to hit the ground running. There are lots of big and exciting things coming up, from the Career Fair, to On the Roads with companies like Morgan Stanley, to panels with representatives from T. Rowe Price. Till next week, I’m your friendly neighborhood Career Peer. I wish you all a smooth start to the semester, and I hope we see you soon!

Where did the year go, guys? The sun is shining, but everyone is stressed with finals and projects and summer jobs and graduation … it’s a lot. I get it; I am right there with you. And if you’re graduating in a few weeks, that is a whole other level of stress! This can be a pretty crazy time of year, but we can all put our summertime to good use by taking the time to think about our own professional development and create goals for ourselves for the upcoming school year - or if you’re graduating, whatever your next step is!

If you already have a summer job, internship, or research experience - congratulations! If you want to take your summer experience to the next step, be sure to register for the Intern Success Practicum, a zero-credit pass/fail course that puts your experience on your transcript to give it more of an official, professional look. You can register on your UMBCworks account, or make an appointment at the Career Center to have a staff member help you register. It can only help you!

If you don’t have anything lined up for the summer yet, you are certainly not alone. You can still make an appointment to help with the job search, or just look through the 400+ summer job/internship postings that are on UMBCworks RIGHT NOW! There are plenty of opportunities; you just have to find them! Taking summer classes can also be a valuable use of time, and might even help you graduate early. Even volunteer positions at your local non-profit can be great skill-builders and resume boosters, so don’t despair if you’ve yet to find a summer position!

No matter what your situation or year in school, here is a Summer To-Do List:

• Update your resume - make sure everything is up-to-date and spelled correctly. If you don’t want to come in for an appointment, our Resume Resource Page has plenty of information.

• Critically think about your career path - even if you have decided your major and are confident in your career paths, there is a lot to be gained from continuously evaluating your goals and exploring all of your options. Who knows what you will find! Check out our resources for Discovering Your Options. You can also register for our Dependable Strengths Workshop on June 1st - a free full-day program that will build your confidence and help you take action toward career success.

• Set some goals for yourself - are you bad at making decisions? Feel like you have some things you can improve on? Take some time to read about Decision Making and Goal Setting and think about what you want to get out of the next school year.

• Graduating? We are still here! - If you are graduating soon, the Career Center’s resources are still available to you. See the attached flyer to learn more.

Even though the semester is closing up, we still have events! Stop by Commons Mainstreet on May 10th from 11:30-2pm to have your photo taken for #hearmebark and tell us what your next step is after graduation! Also, this year is the first year that UMBC is hosting the Maryland Career Consortium (MCC) Career Fair, with 100+ recruiters looking to hire students and alumni! And in case you didn’t know, the Career Center is still open during the summer session, so feel free to make an appointment! We are always here to help.

A huge part of my job is reviewing students’ resumes, and often it will be the student’s first resume - or at least the first time they’ve had someone review it. A very common concern I hear is how the student doesn’t have any “relevant experience” or they haven’t done anything “worthwhile.” But, without fail, the same student will leave our session with more confidence, and with more skills included on their resume! What most students don’t realize is that ALL of their out-of-class experiences are valuable, and they have transferable skills. Let me demonstrate what I mean.

Let’s say you’ve been a cashier at a grocery store or a clothing store. Maybe you feel like this isn’t even worth putting on your resume at all, or you have it written down, but it looks like this:

Giant Food Store - Baltimore, MD

Cashier (May 2017 - January 2018)

• Manned cash register

• Opened and closed store

I promise that you can really beef this up, and you don’t even have to exaggerate! All you need to do is articulate the responsibilities that you assume nobody cares about, but are actually pretty significant. For instance, as a cashier, you provide customer service to a large number of patrons, sometimes during high-traffic times (showing the ability to work well under pressure). You can also mention how you organized inventory in the back room, or answered questions over the phone. Just the fact that you have experience handling money is a significant skill! So now your resume looks like this:

Giant Food Store - Baltimore, MD

Cashier (May 2017 - January 2018)

• Provided quality customer service at the cash register and over the phone during high-traffic times

• Accurately handled money transactions and applied discounts when necessary

• Organized inventory as well as opened and closed the store

See? Nothing written above is lying or exaggerating. The key is highlighting what’s important and wording it in a professional, detailed way. Need more tips and how to spice up your resume? Check out the Career Center’s Resume Writing Page or make an appointment on UMBCworks or on the phone at 410-455-2216. The Career Center has 15-minute drop-in resume reviews every Monday-Friday from 2pm-4pm, so come give us a visit!

So that title is cheesy, but really the spring semester is a great time to take advantage of all the resources the Career Center has to offer you! I KNOW you’re looking for a summer job or internship, because I myself am still on the search. New jobs and internships are being posted on UMBCworks every day, so keep checking to find an opportunity that’s perfect for you.

NEWSFLASH: The Spring Internship and Career fair is THIS FRIDAY! This is THE place to get your name (and your resume) out there to potential employers. Whether you’re looking for a summer job, an internship next fall, or a full-time job for after graduation, this is the best place to start. Over 130 employers are registered to be there, and you can find a full list here. This semester, there are NEW resources available to you before the big day! Here’s the run-down:

1: Spice up your resume! Tomorrow is Resume Rescue+, which is more than it has ever been before! In the past, Resume Rescue was a day where drop-in resume review hours were extended to 10am-4pm the Tuesday before the fair. This is still the case! February 13th is the day you have NO EXCUSES to get your resume in top condition, so come in anytime during those hours. Drop-in hours are still every Monday-Thursday from 2pm-4pm, except on the day of the Career Fair, as all staff will be at the fair. Now here’s where the “+” comes in….

2: Create a Professional Pitch! In addition to resume reviews, Resume Rescue+ will have two additional services, the first of which is developing your 30-second commercial. This tool is completely under-utilized by most students, but it makes for a more confident-sounding job-seeker!

3: Look your best! The last station is all about dressing professionally, which is a confusing concept for a lot of people (myself included). You can get tips and have your questions answered on how to look the part. The link above gives you the basics on professional dress, but it also doesn’t hurt to stand out! You still want to be tasteful, but it’s always important to let your personal style shine through.

And finally, try to relax. Employers can smell fear.

Just kidding, there’s nothing to worry about! Even though this is a huge recruiting event, it’s not your only chance to gain a job/internship this semester. And if you do obtain an internship, congratulations!! You should enroll in the Intern Success Practicum, which helps you go the extra mile in your internship. The entire month of April is Career Month: a whole month dedicated to strengthening your professional skills and connecting you with fantastic employers! Check out our Calendar of Events to see what else is available to you.