|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Upcoming Events
Dec. 2, Communicating Complex Ideas: A CU Boulder & Public Media Collaboration, 1-2:30pm, UMC 247
(From Academe to the Public is a panel collaboration among the Graduate Teacher Program, JMM, Communication, Film Studies, and Colorado Public Television.)
Dec. 3, Teaching English Abroad Panel, 5:30-7pm, UMC 386
Dec. 4, Buffs Professional Program - Adapting for a Changing World, 3-4pm, C4C S484
|
Featured Jobs through  More than 315 active job postings for graduate level students
Job ID, Title, Company
46125 / Communications
45527 / Middle School and High School Teachers (All Subjects) DSST Public Schools (Denver School of Science and Technology)
|
|
Career Spot Videos
|
Department
Career Talk
Department specific career workshops are planned with graduate students and faculty.
Formats may be presentations, panel discussions or networking forums.
Topics:
career assessments, non-academic career options for PhDs,
CV & resume writing, job searches, interviewing, networking,
skills employers want, salary negotiation and identifying your talents & strengths.
Contact
|
|
|
|
Hello again, graduate students!
Something ironic happened to me -- and possibly you -- earlier this semester. I woke up one morning and checked Facebook only to find my news feed full of articles about a study concluding that, despite all the connections to friends and colleagues they help us build and maintain, Facebook and other social media like it might actually make us feel sad and isolated. The dissonance of reading such dire news about social media via social media got me thinking about how we use such tools and why, and, moreover, how social media use benefits us. When it comes to career development, the evidence of an upside to social media sites is undeniable, and so a newsletter theme was born.
This month, we welcome our Career Services colleague, Lea Alvarado, to talk about the unique networking connections to be made on one specific social media site: LinkedIn. In lieu of an alumni interview, I review Vitae, The Chronicle of Higher Education's new academic career tool that, hopefully, will provide a much-needed fill for a social media gap. We are pleased that The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, and Science Career offer fantastic articles this month that provide detailed, practical guides to using social media sites like ProfHacker, LinkedIn, and others to not only search for jobs but prepare for your career while still a student.
We are glad to have you with us for this month's issue of Future 411 and hope you will find it a useful and informative tool to help you expand your career development toolbox. Please consider coming into our offices at the Center for Community for an in-person planning session and social media tutorial with a career counselor. We are ready, willing, and able to help you!
All the best,
Annie Sugar
...and Annie Piatt
|
Our Colleagues
Virtual Networking via LinkedIn
Interview by Annie Sugar
Lea Alvarado earned both her bachelor's degree in Psychology and her master's degree in Counseling with a specialization in career counseling from California State University Northridge. She manages the alumni career program for CU-Boulder's Career Services providing career counseling to alumni and coordinating alumni career events.
What role do social media play in graduate students' career planning strategies? Are there any particular sites that are especially helpful to that end?
I think social media are critical to any job search strategy, and the site I most often recommend is LinkedIn. In my opinion, it's one of the best tools available to job seekers because it allows you to find and reach out to people that you normally could not access. If, for example, you are targeting a specific company, you can look up the company on LinkedIn to see if you're connected to anyone who works there and then reach out to them for an informational interview. I also suggest that job seekers identify a specific kind of position and seek out individuals in those roles and interview them to learn details of their career path.
To learn more about what LinkedIn offers, how to get started, and how to make the site work for you, visit the informational page on the Office of Career Services website at http://careerservices.colorado.edu/students/linkedin. Career Services uses Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook to promote events and share articles and other relevant career information. We suggest that students beginning their job search follow us on these sites using the links in the side bar of our website at http://careerservices.colorado.edu.
What special networking opportunities do social media offer graduate students?
For those who have a hard time attending in-person networking events, social media are a great place to begin the networking process from the comfort of your computer. I often recommend to job seekers join groups related to one's interests on sites like LinkedIn. Once you are a part of a group, you have access to all of the members, which can be hugely beneficial for networking purposes. I also suggest joining alumni groups on LinkedIn for each school you attend; the University of Colorado Boulder Alumni group on LinkedIn has over 27,000 members. Through groups, you can reach out to individuals and set up informational interviews online or in person.
At what point in their search do you suggest graduate students begin to use social media? Is social media a more effective tool for some fields more than others?
I would suggest graduate students create a LinkedIn account and begin reaching out to people you know as soon as possible in order to increase connections. I would also strongly advise conducting informational interviews early on in the process, so that, by the time you graduate, you are not only clear about what you want to pursue but you now have expanded your network. While LinkedIn tends to be better suited for industry than academic jobs, but if you are going into academia, LinkedIn can lead you to individuals who have similar degrees and backgrounds for networking purposes. For example, you could search for people with your degree and review their profiles to get ideas for how best to market yourself, as well as set up a time to meet or speak by phone. The more you build your network, the more likely you are to experience a more successful job search and social media really helps to facilitate this process.
|
New Career Resource
Editor's Note: The following article is a reprint from Viget's blog announcing and detailing the launch Vitae, the Chronicle of Higher Education's new social networking site for academic careers.
Professional growth and sharing is a big part of our culture at Viget -- with each other and the larger web community. And whether it's blogging, joining a panel at a local event, or planning a
meetup with industry peers, we know the value of building a network within your professional community.
So when The Chronicle of Higher Education approached us about building Vitae, a product to help members of the higher education community grow their careers, we were excited to dive right in.
A Unique Challenge for a Unique Audience
Founded in the 1960s, The Chronicle has been the top name for news, advice, and jobs in academia for decades. When they took their publication online in 1993, they were one of the first newspapers to make the leap to the Internet. So it's no surprise that The Chronicle was first in line to innovate again - this time to solve the unique and long-standing career challenges academic professionals face.
In recent years, members of other industries, especially our own web/tech industry, have come to count on various social networking sites to help find jobs, connect with other professionals, showcase achievements, and build careers. But what we consider "the usual channels" -- LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others -- just don't have the flexibility and features to show academics at their best in an online, professional environment.
So we set out to create an online career hub to meet the unique needs of this community. For the past year, we've embodied all-things-academia to understand higher education career paths and the complex academic hiring cycle. An application built in Ruby on Rails, we designed and developed a robust platform that focuses on functionality key to this audience.
A Flexible System
An academic career can span the course of a lifetime and, until now, there hasn't been a digital platform to showcase a full body of work. Vitae's profile system is flexible enough to fit the diverse members of the higher education community. Whether a first-year graduate student, a college dean, or a university professor, users can tailor their profiles to meet their needs. A research-focused faculty member may prefer profile sections like 'Publications' and 'Research', while a teaching-focused professor may choose 'Courses' and 'Teaching' to feature on their profile.
We knew this community was busy, and wanted to avoid "another profile" that was time consuming to populate and maintain. If users don't want to fill out a profile by hand, they can import data from LinkedIn or their CV. And entering large volumes of new data -- like long lists of publications -- is seamless.
Building Relationships... and Careers
Vitae is not just another quasi-social, quasi-professional online network. Vitae uniquely reflects the networking culture that's already in place throughout academia. It prompts users to identify that they know each other and how, which makes for more discriminating choices than are typical of other online networks.
In addition to connecting with colleagues, members can access and share the latest news about academic careers written by The Chronicle's editorial team and thought-leaders in higher ed, known as Vitae Voices.
When members enter the (ever more competitive) academic job market, they can search thousands of jobs by multiple metrics, save them for later, and get notified when there are new jobs that match their interests. There's also an easy way to manage the hundreds of documents that make up an academic dossier, keeping them handy for job applications. And when they find the job they're looking for, they can manage the entire application and submission process -- all within in Vitae.
This is just a glimpse into the opportunities that came from working with The Chronicle on an innovative product. We're excited to see Vitae help academics get ahead in their careers, and become a staple part of their culture.
For more details, check out our full Case Story here. Today, we're thrilled to share the results of all our work and present chroniclevitae.com.
|
Professional Advice
Chronicle of Higher Education
Mentoring Gradute Students Through Social Media, or How I Made it Through the Last 5 Years
By Julie Meloni
After Amy recently wrote about how social media led her to Prof. Hacker, I was reminded that social media led me to graduate school in the first place. Without a doubt, I would not have started graduate school-nor would I be finishing, I don't think-without social networking. In this post I will talk about what social networking has meant to me, from the perspective of a graduate student.
The title of this post is "Mentoring Graduate Students Through Social Media" not because it's a how-to for faculty, but because for me social media has been my default method of receiving mentoring. If you're reading this as a faculty member and you have a presence online, please recognize that you are probably mentoring students without even knowing it. For my fellow graduate students, recognize that there are plenty of faculty out there who have something to teach you.
I had a clear plan for this post, all about the great mentoring I've had over the years, how social networking has shaped who I am as a scholar and a teacher, and how I've been able to bring aspects of social networking to my actual in-person mentor (committee chair) who isn't as technologically inclined as I am. But then I read some of the comments on Natalie Houston's introduction to the ProfHacker Series on Mentoring and remembered that not all mentoring relationships are positive and often no mentoring actually occurs. So, before reading on please know that I fully recognize that mine are probably unique experiences. I hope that over time my experiences will not seem unique or even at all interesting. Read more
|
|
Inside Higher Ed
Using LinkedIn
By Kevin Grubb
It's been said before that LinkedIn is the new résumé. This seems a reasonable conclusion at first glance. In your profile, you plug in things like your work experience, your education and your skills, and you talk about career goals. That sounds like a résumé to just about anybody who's written one before. And while it is true that LinkedIn has a line of business that would consider your profile a résumé, I think it's a little short-sighted to consider LinkedIn in only this one dimension. LinkedIn is a dynamic resource, good for more than just job seekers, more than just recruiters, more than just social media geeks. LinkedIn is good for you. Let's talk about putting it to work.
No Need to Post a Thing - Start with "LinkedIn Today"
"Staying on top of industry news is something we think matters for any professional whose success depends on being well informed," says LinkedIn's blog post introducing the LinkedIn Today feature. In higher education, staying on top of trends and industry information isn't just a need; it's a critical need. We are often at the forefront of industry defining news, performing research that moves professions forward and guiding the next generations to think critically about the world. If you want to read the hottest, most shared articles related to your industry and profession to be "in the know," look no further than LinkedIn Today.
The LinkedIn Today feed is located right under the box where you type in your status updates. If you click on the blue text reading "LinkedIn Today," you'll actually be taken to a page that is custom-fit for you. The stories collected in LinkedIn Today are those that are trending among your immediate LinkedIn connections and peers in your industry. Don't like what you're reading here? LinkedIn gives you the option to customize your news and will allow you to select channels to follow based on your industry (there are currently 21 channels available). Read More
|
Science Careers
Seeking Work in the Social Net
By Clifford Mintz
With more than 14 million Americans currently out of work and an unemployment rate higher than 9%, the old job-searching strategy of crafting a resumé and cover letter, then electronically submitting them to job boards and corporate Web sites, is no longer viable for most job seekers. There are simply too many applications and too few jobs. Michael Kelemen, a recruiter and host of the Recruiting Animal show, a call-in career development and recruiting radio show on BlogTalkRadio, told Science Careers, "These days it's about being first to hear about new jobs and making yourself stand out as a job candidate. Social media makes that possible."
Social media Web sites, which include online networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, microblogging platforms such as Twitter, and video- and slide-sharing sites such as YouTube, are changing the way those seeking work find jobs. This is because social media sites allow job seekers to craft a fuller image of themselves beyond just their resumés and to learn about jobs they might otherwise have missed. More importantly, it allows job seekers to communicate directly with prospective employers to learn more about job opportunities. Finally, it permits job seekers to more easily take advantage of the professional connections and networks they already have.
Besides helping job seekers find work, social media sites have also helped employers. Arie Ball, vice president of talent acquisition at Sodexo, an environmental engineering and facilities management company, believes that as her company has increasingly embraced social media, it has been able to more easily identify and recruit qualified job applicants. "Social media is a new way of communicating with prospective new hires, and it helps to improve the hiring experience for persons interested in our company," Ball says. "We almost exclusively rely on social media for recruitment purposes these days." Read More
|
|
|
Contact Us
Annie Sugar, Editor, PhD Student, Media Studies, Journalism and Mass Communication
Annie Piatt, Graduate Student Program Manager and Career Counselor
Center for Community, N352
Appointments: 303-492-6541
Office Hours:
Fall & Spring: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Wednesday, 8 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Friday, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
|
|
|
|
|
