Doing some work to clean up an online presence is good practice for anyone, but especially someone looking to enter the job market. Cleaning up personal posts, plus actively posting new, more positive aspects will go a long way for students looking to have a good online presence. Developing your own personal brand is the new resume, and is probably the most important step for a new job seeker. It’s my job as Career counselor to be able to teach developing a brand to my students.

As a career counselor, I would encourage a student to think of their entire online presence as a marketing strategy for attracting potential employers. It is now important to have an online presence in the fields the student is seeking a career in, as well as specifically adding their own brand in a way that will attract employers (find me, become interested in me). A tactical use of keywords specific to the desired career will increase the number of potential employers that will find your students online presence.

While I'm not a huge fan of what we are calling "Social Currency", I can see why it would be beneficial for companies to recruit and hire employees that have a positive and beneficial presence (or brand) on social media.  Rather than looking at past achievements on a static resume, being able to determine in real-time how a potential candidate would work to solve problems would be a great way for a company to find the best candidates for their positions.  As a career counselor, it is important to understand how recruitment is changing in this new digital environment and… >>>

It was a great module to learn the strategies we can use to create a community of learners.

In this module, I learned the three important motivational techniques.  It is important to be conscious of the fact that effective coaching consists well planned scaffolded progression and achievement of mutually established goals based on realistic expectations.

In this module, I learned the importance of active listening and successful coaching integrates feedback and not judgement and creates a safe and trusting modality for ongoing professional partnership.

In this module I learned that to be an effective mentor, the relationship has to be built on the foundation of trust and active &empathetic listening, being aware of the personal and external variables that students face.

I learned that Career Services encompasses more than just helping a graduate obtain his/her first job. I learned that barriers and not just the graduate/job match can play a key roll in whether a graduate gets employed in a timely manner in an appropriate position.  I plan to listen well to be in tune with a student's barriers and in tune with the employers needs. 

There was a ton of great information on cover letters that was very useful. I feel there was a bit of conflicting info on reference lists vs. in another module.

Experience is the #1 thing employers look at and should be written not to describe a duty, but rather to demonstrate a specific attribute the employer needs.