Introduction to Career Services

In this first episode our three hosts Michelle, Pierre, and Rebecca introduce themselves and talk about what to expect from this career resource podcast. We start with a general overview of professional branding and what that really means to help launch your career. Next, we discuss the services of a career center and offer tips to access related resources. Finally, we answer a common question job seekers ask. 

Topic #1 We look at the idea of branding and discuss how this corporate-driven perspective can be adapted to support job seekers present themselves to employers. Also, key terms are defined including resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn.   

Topic #2 The resource of the day discussed in this episode is your local career services center office with a close look at College of DuPage's Career Services Center’s website. We provide tips to leverage your local office as a student, alumni, or working professional and help you get connected to support resume writing, interviewing, and all things job searching.  

Topic #3 We answer the common question, “How long should my resume be?” The answer provides insight to make the determination based on different stages of your career, amount of experience, and what is relevant to your goals. 

Send us YOUR Listener Questions at careerpodcast@cod.edu 

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Send us YOUR Listener Questions at careerpodcast@cod.edu

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Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Career Ready Podcast! My name is Michelle Malik, and I’m a Career Specialist with the Career Services Center. Here, I have with me my co-hosts Rebecca Harrington and Pierre Michiels.  We’re excited to be here today and discuss what it means to develop a professional brand. I’ll let Pierre take it away. 
Now that you know who we are I want to go ahead and introduce the podcast and give you an idea of what to expect as we go throughout today's episode and as we launch this series as this is our first episode. We are calling this a resource podcast; we hope that you stick with us for every episode, but we also know as you go through the job search, you're going to be looking for content that you need at that time so make sure you subscribe to access the topics most relevant to you as more episodes are released. Today what you're going to hear is a general overview of professional branding and what that really means to help you launch your career moving forward and how a career service center office can help you through that process. After we go through that conversation, you're going to hear from Michelle who will give you an insight to our resource of the day. We want to share resources with you throughout this series and Michelle will be talking about utilizing your career service center office and specifically the Career Services Center at College of DuPage website. Finally, Rebecca will answer a listeners’ question. For this first episode she will answer a common question we get asked but please do submit your questions that you have so it can show up on a future podcast episode. 

So as I mentioned earlier this is our first episode and with that we wanted to take the time here to make sure that we were just set the perspective of what we'll be talking about in future episodes and hope that you will stay connected with us. We will be defining core terms and establishing what you can expect as you utilize this resource podcast. With that in mind our main topic here is professional branding and how using a career services center office such as the one here at College of DuPage can help you present your professional brand.  

 And that brings us to our first term, professional brand and to help set this stage I'm gonna ask our team here some questions. Rebecca, Michelle, I'm going to name a corporation, a brand and I just want you to throw out that first thing that comes to your mind: Starbucks 
When we look at Starbucks and Dunkin' the initial thoughts of coffee and breakfast pastries may come to mind but when we look at the big picture, they're very different, right? Now bring that idea back to a professional brand as we present ourselves as a job seeker how can we show we are different from the other applicants. We may have similar skills, education, qualifications but we also have our unique perspectives, experiences, and abilities. As a job seeker it is your responsibility to communicate your individuality and how your brand will provide value to the employer.  

When going through that job search this podcast and us here in career services can help you go through that process of discovering and presenting your professional brand to employers.  

 So, let’s now talk a little more about a career services office and how you can utilize them. We are at College of DuPage a community college 25 miles or so west of Chicago, IL. But regardless of where you are listening to you can connect with your local college and university or Alma Mater and they will most likely have a similar office. All schools have a different structure, but all our services are free to students, alumni, and community members, and with this podcast hopefully going far beyond that. We can help with career research and the job search. That includes resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn, interviewing, and anything else to better present yourself to employers. 
 
Let’s take some time just to define core components to the job search are and how they connect to your professional brand. Michelle to make sure we are all on the same page can you talk about what a resume is and why it is important? 
Thank you both for sharing on those core areas. Are there any other specific terms or ideas you want our listeners to look out for in future episodes? 
Our website is a great place to find out more about our resources 

• On the main page, we have information about our office, including how to schedule an appointment with us to discuss career-related topics, such as resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and more 
• To schedule an appointment, you will use the service request form or you have the option to request an e-review if you want your documents reviewed electronically 
• We also have electronic resources available at any time & if you are a listener at another school, your university website may also have these resources as well 
• Free electronic job board 
• Career exploration website 
• Interviewing software 
• Blackboard 
• BB = a way for students to get access to their classes/class material 
• We have a page on blackboard for Career Services 
• Houses our grab n go resources, like resume/cover letter samples, interviewing tips, etc. 
• Even if you don’t attend COD, you have access to our resources by clicking on Preview as Guest rather than logging in 
• Available for students, alum, community members to use 

 I also wanted to mention experiential learning & our webinars 

• Experiential learning – a way to gain experience in your field of interest 
• Internships – can get academic credit for internship experiences 
• Service Learning – you're able to volunteer in the community & it’s a part of a class 
• Webinars 
• At noon on Wednesdays to learn about career related topics and Thursdays are our demo days for our software 
• Available all year round 

 This is just a small preview of what we have to offer. We will do a deeper dive into specific resources in later episodes, so be sure to subscribe for that content! 

I’m going to start us off with a question we get often: “How long should my resume be?” Every resume can be different, but in general one page is usually long enough to give an employer enough information for them to know your background and decide if they want to interview you. However, some people may have enough experience in their background to need 2 pages for their resume. This is also fine. What we don't want is one page and just a little on the second page. If you're going to have two pages, make sure it's two full pages. If you have one page with just a little on the second page, then reformat it so that you have it all on one page. Some people who have been working for a long time might have three pages on their resume, but most of the time that will be too much information for an employer. Try to keep it to one page or two pages. 
Thank you to all of our listeners for joining us today as we learned more about how to build YOUR professional brand! Next week, we will be interviewing our Workforce Connections Coordinator, Bob Lapinski, on trends in today’s job market. You won’t want to miss it!