Faculty

Students are encouraged to connect with us in their first year to discuss their career plans and aspirations.

Possibilities:

·       Implement a writing assignment in which students identify and research career or major options.

·       Encourage use of FOCUS2 (a career interest inventory) and What Can I Do With This Major and have students reflect on results.

·       Invite us to deliver a short Career Services overview or full presentation to your class. (Be sure to visit our Online Resources for additional resources and helpful videos you can show in your class.)

Resume formatting can be industry-specific, and students should be familiar with the best ways to format and deliver their information to potential employers.

Possibilities:

·       Assign students to write or update their resumes and use our resume rubric to grade it.

·       Recommend they use the resume examples in the Career Guide to get started.

·       For bonus points encourage students to have their resumes and cover letters reviewed by a career counselor for extra credit. Refer to our class assignment guidelines below.

Job searching is industry-specific. Students should be aware of the optimal way to find employment in their particular field.

·       Encourage students to attend campus networking events and job fairs. If possible, incentivize attendance with extra credit. See our home page to see scheduled events.

·       Students can access jobs, internships, and career fairs via Handshake.

·       If your student needs additional help with the job search, encourage them to schedule an appointment with Career Services. For a part-time job, they may contact Student Employment.

Interviewing can be an intimidating process, but you can help your students become more confident with the process, and their answers to commonly asked questions.

Possibilities:

·       Include a requirement for your students to complete a mock interview, which can be done in Big Interview online.

·       Create a custom online mock interview for your subject area, using the Big Interview platform. (Call Career Services, at 601.266.4153, to setup your assignment).

Developing the habits and behaviors of professionalism starts in the classroom. Students must be ready to embody their professional brand as they transition to their career.

 Possibilities:

·       Include a professionalism statement in syllabus that speaks to the importance of professional traits such as promptness, positive attitude, neat appearance, accountability, and being respectful of instructors and peers.

·       Create a course project of creating portfolio or LinkedIn profile.

Career Services offers access to scheduled classroom presentations on resume standards, a rubric for scoring resumes, and an online Career Guide with resume/cover letter examples. We are happy to support students’ resume development and have found that class presentations or workshops combined with instructor guidance create the best outcomes for students.  Instructors are encouraged to visit and utilize all of the resources available through Career Services and work with their students on discipline-specific advice.

Because we are unable to offer individual resume critiques as part of required class assignments, due to volume and staff limitations, we have created a video of a workshop on professional resumes. The Resume Workshop video is available HERE. 

Relatedly, we have observed that students who are offered extra credit for viewing the Resume Workshop video are often more motivated and engaged in the process. The result in such cases is typically a better quality resume, which saves time and is more likely to be improved with a single revision following the critique.

In addition to the Resume Workshops, we are able to offer class presentations to offer your students resume guidance. If you are interested in that option, please contact our office, or click HERE to request a presentation.

Visit the Events section at www.usm.edu/career-services for additional scheduled workshops and presentations. Please remind your students that they can also access workshop information using Handshake, and encourage them to review their resources through that platform.

Career Services is pleased to offer the platform Big Interview to faculty for class assignments. Big Interview is an online interview training and practice platform that can support the interview training and development that you do in your classes or with your students more generally.

Big Interview allows students to:

Practice interview questions online from a personal computer.
Record interview answers.
Receive quality feedback from the instructor.

Please click HERE for details on using Big Interview in the classroom setting. As with resumes, we recommend the use of extra credit for a mock interview, as that tends to result in higher levels of student motivation and participation. If students need specific assistance or additional input following use of the Big Interview, we encourage you to refer them to Career Services. Although we are unable to do mock interviews for class assignments, we can work with individual faculty to support their class assignments and students’ use of Big Interview.

In addition to providing Big Interview, Career Service staff members can also lead a class presentation on interview preparation including in class practice. Please contact us at least two weeks prior to your preferred dates using our online form. 

Thank you for your support of Career Services, and we look forward to talking with you in the future about how best to utilize our resources and how we can assist you in reaching your instructional goals.