As I further my career search heading towards graduation in August, I have been attending several workshops that are meant to aid my search. The Career Planning and Development virtual workshop on Career Exploration was one of these experiences. Its focus was to help me and my fellow students learn how to navigate various job boards and effectively zero in on the positions we should be applying to. It was also meant to teach us how to explore various paths we could take within our various disciplines to broaden our search so that we don’t get stuck looking at the same job postings over and over again.
Lauren Higdon headed the virtual presentation by guiding us through a slideshow presentation that held all of the information discussed throughout the meeting. Krysta Fry assisted Lauren by heading up the student chat and fielding various questions from the students about the subject material. One of the programs that they talked about that stood out to me was YouScience. It is an application formatted as a survey that asks questions about how you would describe yourself and what you are looking for in a job. It is meant to field the questions and then give you specified results on the answers that you have given.
These results steer you towards certain lines of work that suit your style and would be a good match for you in the long run. I thought this was a very helpful tool that I didn’t know was available to KSU students and I think it is greatly underutilized. I am going to reach out and sign up for the service because I think it will be immensely beneficial for my job search and will help me to narrow in on certain career paths that fit my style.
I also enjoyed the various tips and tricks they mentioned when searching for a job. They emphasized that often when a company puts certain skills in the required section of their job posting, it is more of a wishlist than a hard and fast ruling. There are exceptions like being fluent in coding and verbal languages, but this list shouldn’t deter us from applying anyways. The virtual meetings and presentations that the Career Center at KSU has been putting on have been informative and indispensable for students like me closing in on their graduation dates. If you have the opportunity or time to sign up for one of their sessions I highly recommend it.
