Steer Your Career!

Decisions, decisions and more decisions!

When thinking about your potential career, you must consider YOU! Finding a career can be overwhelming, we often look for approval from society, family, peers and MONEY to contribute to your decision. The interesting thing about finding a career is that you learn more about yourself.

 

 

1. If Money wasn’t a factor….

When considering a career, Alan Watts, psychologist poses the question if money wasn’t a factor what would you do? Hmmm…if you’re like me, I will move somewhere tropical, sip martinis all day, and travel the world. Sound good? Then what? Knowing me, after while I will become complacent. Trust me, you will too. Find out what makes you happy.

2.  The People Factor

Listening to people may be a good idea. If people are saying that you are a good listener, investigate potential careers that utilize that skill. If you are able to explain a concept that people find difficult to understand, maybe you should research teaching, counseling or other careers. People may be the answer to identifying your career.

3. Trust Yourself

Many people doubt their innate abilities and instinct.  Take risks and explore opportunities. It’s the only to learn more about yourself and potentially discover your career. Meet new people, scheduled information interviews with people in your interest field, learn new skills, and always join professional organizations.

25 Best Jobs in America for 2016

When I meet with students for career counseling, students always want to know… “What jobs are HOT right now?!” When asked this question, I usually ask students to do their research through the Occupational Outlook Handbook based on the job outlook for jobs they may be interested in.

What is the Job Outlook?

The job outlook predicts what employment will be like for a particular occupation in the future. It is important to take note of it when you are exploring an occupation because it can help predict your chances of finding a job in the future. Below is a visual of the occupational outlook handbook website, and where to find the job outlook section.

 

Now that we've got that information out of the way, I hope I didn’t lose you! Now for the main topic, did you know Glassdoor has made the job search a bit easier for job seekers? How so, do you ask? They have  identified the 25 Best Jobs in America for 2016.  So are you interested in: Engineering, Nursing, or Software…? Great, because those are just some of the occupations that made the list!

Check out the picture below to get an idea of how Glassdoor identified these jobs and visit this link: http://ow.ly/Y5miQ for more information on the Top 25 Best Jobs in America for 2016.

 

~Keshia Daniel

 

 

Interview common questions

 You just graduated from the college and looking for the job or any interview is coming up ? Here is some of the most common question that the interviewer might ask and you should always be ready to answer these questions.

 1-"Tell me about yourself?" For this question you shouldn't talk about your personal life. You should talk about your experiences, what skills you have or what can you do. 

 2- "Why are you leaving or left your previous job?" Provide a career goals that relates you to gain these goals in this (new) company and tell them that this company has a good platform that you can start with. 

 3- "Why should we hire you?" Again, relate it to your long-term career goals and provide them with an example that how your skills or experiences match up and contribute to the company growth.

 4- "What's your greatest strength?" Be specific, positive, and give an example that relates to your work experience. 

5- "What is your greatest weakness?" Give an example of positive weakness, for Ex: "Sometimes when I have lots of work to do at work and I might not have a time for my self but I can deal with it well though."

 6- "What is your greatest accomplishment?" For this question, talk about past work accomplishment, and make sure that accomplishment includes how you are valuable and ca fit in that position. 

 7- "What are your salary requirements?" For this question, you should not share your salary unless you are currently working in that company and applying for the higher position.

 8- "What are your career goals?" Give an example of short and long term career goals, that how you can start up in this company with your skills and how the respectable position you want to work as your long career. 

9-"Describe a difficulty work situation and what you did to overcome it?" Bring up a past work difficulty situation that you handled well and pick up a example that shows you tackling that could rise a new company that your interviewing for. 

10- "Do you have a question for me" You should always do your research and be ready to give a question about the company, you may ask "what can you tell me about your new products or plans for growth?"

Shakhboz Negmatov

SD-11

Bridget  Ofori

What is Networking?

What is networking? Networking is a way to connect with people for a mutual benefit. Networking does not mean at all “what can I get?” it has more to do with “how can I help?” It is very important to network these days. You can use social media to network. First thing first, you have to know which social media you’re going to use. Now a day you have many options like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. After you choose your platform, you can go ahead and target who you want to connect with. You must do research prior to connecting with someone for effective networking, why is that? Maybe because you want to know what you’re actually talking about and ask specific questions or ideas so the person can see you as an asset. Next time would be to meet the person offline so you can communicate effectively on broad topics according to business related matter. Lastly always say thank you!

By:Valeed Abid

Resume

Ashley Westbrook

The word Résumé comes from the French word, which means summary. Résumés are used for plenty of things but mainly for employment which shows your skills, accomplishments and background. When submitting your application, job recruiters take about 60 seconds to review your résumé and making a decision. Today, there are plenty people seeking employment and with such competition you need to build the perfect résumé. In order to get through the résumé screening process and actually get an interview you need to make sure your résumé has the following:

• Use a font that's legible and easy to read (Times New Roman, 12pt)
• Your email should be professional
• Content on your Résumé should stand out (full sentences are time consuming, so treat it as if they'll be scanning through a newspaper. They won't spend much time on your paper)
• Usually if your not sure about what tense you should use treat it as if your telling a story (if its current use present tense like: computing over 100 employees payroll. Past tense would be: Managed over 100 employees time worked)

Dressing for An Interview

Does dressing up help? Usually when meeting someone for the first time, first impressions are important especially for a job interview.  Most of the time in an job interview it is already decided within the few minutes they have seen you, if you will be hired or not. Confused? Well think about it, sometimes your personality, and characteristics and your presentation speak well more then your qualifications.  Most of the time you only qualify one third of the required position duties, but because of the attitude you bring to the table has heavy impact on the decision-making.  Best thing, well first thing is to carry a nice genuine smile, I say genuine because you don’t want to the interviewers looking past that smile, secondly when meeting and greeting have a nice firm handshake and it would not hurt to look directly into the persons eyes to show you are serious and content.  Lastly the way you dress may affect your job, salary, and overall work environment.  So try to give a nice warm feeling when meeting your interviewers.

By: Valeed Abid

A Productive Approach to Social Media

A Productive Approach to Social Media

In a previous post I explained that networking was a important skill to have. I also explained simple ways to start networking such as joining a club. In this post I will give you tips on how to use social media to network. 

Did you know that Facebook was originally created for college students to network? Now Facebook has become more of a social site. This is far from its original conception. You can still "like" a specific company's page but it isn't as effective as other methods.

There is another site that was made with networking in mind. LinkedIn is the "World's Largest Professional Network". You are able to write your resume and connect with companies and individuals in your industry. I was surprised with how many of my immediate friends had connections with companies that I was interested in. Many companies post job listings on LinkedIn and are able to reach out to you if your resume is deemed qualified. You can even see what fellow Kingsborough Alumni are up to. I tend to look at the jobs section to see what qualifications I need for certain positions.

Do not be afraid to connect with someone you do not know personally. Just be honest and tell them why you would like to connect with them. Make sure you make it about how you can help them.

Check List

Write your resume 

Add all current friends as connections

Follow companies or organizations of interest

Identify thought leaders (people you look up to)

Look up job opportunities

Interact with the company posts

You never know what connections you may make. Keep the connections and remember to pass along the knowledge.

By: Lillian Collazo

How to Behave at a Professional Networking Event

Keep in mind:

• Networking is a mutually beneficial interaction
• Remember that mindset matters, remain positive
• A network is a relationship

Do:

• Be prepared, bring resumes, business cards, pen, and paper 
• Research the attendees and speakers beforehand
• Set goals and create a schedule for presentations and panels
• Anticipate rejection

Source 1  Source 2

• Be genuine and be yourself
• Be respectful and courteous
• Be outgoing and sociable
• Smile and be approachable, make eye contact and have open body language
• Be present, show interest in who you are talking to
• Dress well
• Eat and drink moderately
• Build trust with potential contacts before asking for favors
• Be concise and direct when asking for favors
• End conversations on a genuine and positive note, "it was great talking to you"
• Ask for and give business cards
• Send out emails to new contacts within a few days after

Do Not:

• Say yes to everything, it is okay to say no
• Do all the talking
• Interrupt
• Discuss religion or politics
• Act like a know it all
• Expect favors to be recriprocated  immediately
• Be on your phone instead of present with people
• Drink too much or be sloppy

By: Laura Miller