Career Services advises graduating class
Seminar stresses importance of a marketing plan, networking for job-hunting seniors
Gabbi Chee
Issue date: 2/2/10 Section: News
This may come as an unwelcome newsflash to seniors, but graduation is only months away. To those not planning to pursue higher education, Meghan Semmer-DiMauro would offer the advice of coming up with a marketing plan and beginning to network as soon as possible to facilitate the transition from student to member of the workforce.
Semmer-DiMauro, a senior consultant from talent solutions company Lee Hecht Harrison, covered these and other strategies during a seminar entitled "Planning Ahead: Moving from the Campus World to the Career World," held by the Office of Career Services Wednesday night.
Semmer-DiMauro said that although today's economic prospects may look bad, college graduates have the advantage of being fresh to the job market without the baggage that more experienced workers may bring with them. Her experience has shown her that many job seekers believe that finding a job is simply a matter of having a good resume. But landing one's dream job requires more effort.
A marketing plan is essential to a successful job search, she told the 15 students in attendance at Wednesday evening's session. "You cannot get a job without a marketing plan," she said. Different from a resume, a marketing plan is a personal tool that contains a job applicant's professional objective, one's personal competencies, a list of the target employers where one hopes to find future employment, and a positioning statement. Semmer-DiMauro said that a positioning statement is the answer to the first component of any job interview: "So tell me about yourself."
"If you're going to be looking for a job, you need to be able to tell everyone you're talking to why they should hire you," said Semmer-DiMauro. Students need to focus on creating a "branded, consistent message," much like a marketing campaign for a product such as Pepsi. Having a focused plan on paper will help students more specifically articulate "what you bring to the table" in terms of experience and career goals.
Semmer-DiMauro, a senior consultant from talent solutions company Lee Hecht Harrison, covered these and other strategies during a seminar entitled "Planning Ahead: Moving from the Campus World to the Career World," held by the Office of Career Services Wednesday night.
Semmer-DiMauro said that although today's economic prospects may look bad, college graduates have the advantage of being fresh to the job market without the baggage that more experienced workers may bring with them. Her experience has shown her that many job seekers believe that finding a job is simply a matter of having a good resume. But landing one's dream job requires more effort.
A marketing plan is essential to a successful job search, she told the 15 students in attendance at Wednesday evening's session. "You cannot get a job without a marketing plan," she said. Different from a resume, a marketing plan is a personal tool that contains a job applicant's professional objective, one's personal competencies, a list of the target employers where one hopes to find future employment, and a positioning statement. Semmer-DiMauro said that a positioning statement is the answer to the first component of any job interview: "So tell me about yourself."
"If you're going to be looking for a job, you need to be able to tell everyone you're talking to why they should hire you," said Semmer-DiMauro. Students need to focus on creating a "branded, consistent message," much like a marketing campaign for a product such as Pepsi. Having a focused plan on paper will help students more specifically articulate "what you bring to the table" in terms of experience and career goals.
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