Career Services Webinar Transcripts

RECORDING OF: YouTube Video Walden University: A New Degree A New You
TRANSCRIBED: June 10, 2017
FOR: Walden University
REPORTED/TRANSCRIBED BY:
Dan Ambrosio
*****
>>Nicolle:
Welcome and thank you for joining today's webinar A New Degree A New You. What will you do with your degree once you graduate? And what can you do now to progress toward that end goal? We will shed light on some action steps you can take, along with reviewing transferable skills and how your background can shape your new degree. And for those of you who are not familiar with the Walden Career Services Center, our mission is based on preparing our learners to navigate career transition through educating, advising, and coaching. And here is our lovely Career Services team and we'd like to highlight to the right of your slide today's presenter Walden career services advisor Andrea Obrycki. She is the newest member of the Walden Career Services team, she holds a master's degree in leadership and student affairs. Her areas of expertise in career development are resume and cover letter development, electronic portfolios and social media. With that I will go ahead and turn it over to Andrea and we'll get started with this evening’s topic New Degree New You.
>>Andrea:
Thank you Nicole, and welcome everyone to tonight's webinar. I'm really excited to talk about the opportunities your new degree can and will bring you along with how your previous experiences and background play a role. Today's learning objectives will be to implement career management strategies to further develop your degree, identify your transferable skills from one position or new or field to a new one, and finally setting an action plan to put these steps to work. Now before we get started I have a question for everyone. You're probably familiar with the saying, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” But most if not all of us are grown up, so the question is who do you want to be? Whether this is your first time in school or you are coming back for an additional degree, who do you want to be? What prompted you to pursue this degree? What end goal do you have in mind and finally who do you want to be as a professional at the end of your academic journey and what can you do now to get it there? And that's what we're going to focus on tonight. We're first going to start talking about, about developing your degree through career management. In a book by Martin Yates he states, “your successful career is a marathon not a sprint” so whatever your goals the sooner you start them the better. In short have goals and always be working on them. To look at a definition of career management, Sally Power a professor of management who has published many articles and presented at various conferences defines career management intensity as a rough categorization of how involved an individual is in his or her independent career management for any particular period of time. Power also breaks career management into three major intensity categories. Maintainers are people
who enjoy their current work and are satisfied. The level of Career Management intensity is the lowest, but in today's turbulent economy this group still needs to pay attention to how the work is changing or to what is happening to employers. Builders are people in a phase of their career who want to build on their current knowledge, skills and experience to get more and/or different rewards from their careers. Their level of Career Management intensity is more than a Maintainer’s but not as much as a Changer’s. Changers are people who want to change their work focus in a radical way. This often involves changing the sector in which they work and/or the role they play with their employer. Their level of Career Management intensity is highest because they have much more to learn to manage their transition. The most important piece about Changers is that once they have moved into their new sector, they can then become Maintainers or Builders again. This shows that your career management is always evolving. When talking about career management and being a lifelong process be aware of what is going on around you to make informed decisions. First, understand who you are through assessment of your own skills. What do you what do your strengths values and personalities say about you and how are you applying that knowledge? There are multiple resources available on our website under the self-knowledge tab. Also consider going to your local library or bookstore and reviewing books that assist in self-assessment. Also, be aware of and understand the educational requirements for your program, such as required field experiences and residencies. When are they and what are you doing to prepare for them? Your Student Success Advisor is a great resource to help you with these questions if you are unsure. Understanding the workplace or new career field is also important. What are the job responsibilities and tasks you will be asked to do? What is the job outlook in that new field? And finally start researching employers you can make informed decisions on what you are qualified for and what employer will best match your own preferences. Consider reviewing onet.org or career onestop.org to help you research some employers. One way to start gaining experiences is in the career field you would like to end up in is through being engaged in your classes, getting to know your faculty and classmates as they are a huge resource for you. You have a great advantage. You are connected with individuals all over the world through Walden. How are you utilizing everyone you have met or will meet? Are you contacting them on LinkedIn or have you considered Skyping to stay in contact? Also, we often feature Walden faculty members in webinars we host. An idea maybe for you to watch an archived webinar featuring a faculty member in a specific area of interest and then reach out to that faculty member. Also, don't forget that Walden University's mission is focused on social change. What are you doing to be engaged in making a difference? How can going above and beyond the classroom enhance your degree and gain you additional experience? And to discuss the social change mission further, enhance your degree offline, although there are many great ways for you to increase your knowledge and experience online consider volunteering, obtaining an internship even if it's not required for your course, look into professional associations and even take on leadership roles at work or in your local community. Next is to have a plan and stay organized. It is recommended that you track who you have been reaching out to so you know if you need to follow up. Maybe create a checklist that says who you met with and on what day and when you should be following up. Also, be sure to send thank you notes to those who are helping you. Gratitude goes a long way and can make you stick out in
people's minds. Having a calendar or schedule can be helpful. This is another way you can track who you have met with. Another tip I learned early on in my career is to save each job description and application material that went along with that job. You don't want to get called for an interview and not remember the company or job or what documents you sent with for it. Either print them off and have a folder, otherwise create folders on your desktop for each position you apply to. On the screen now is an example of a contact tracker. Again, this can be used to keep up to date when you reached out to somebody, who they were and what kind of follow-up was needed for it. And with that I do want to break for our first poll so I'm going to turn it over to Nicolle.
>>Nicolle:
Hello everyone. So we're interested in finding out from our audience before we transition into our next topic, we would like to get some feedback as to what is the number one way you network. So you should see that a question coming up on your screen and we'll give everyone a moment to answer it. Again, what is the number one way you network or engage in networking activities, external professional associations, at work via LinkedIn through volunteering or what time for networking? I don't have any time for networking. Everyone still voting will give a moment for everyone to finish and it almost looks like even par ok. Ok looks like everyone finished, it looks like 34% and I'll post the results momentarily, 35% for external professional associations, 33% for work, a quarter of you 25% using LinkedIn and 35% for volunteering and about 15% of you say oh what time for networking I'm too busy working and with my coursework. Okay I am going to share these results so everyone can see them. Excellent. Again, 34/35% of external professional associations, 34% at work it's pretty much an even break down, 34% volunteering and engaging in Walden social change mission and a quarter of you on LinkedIn excellent. And I’d like to share that in a recent webinar when we asked the question what the same question “what is your number one way to network?” We were really amazed and excited to see that 43% of participants indicated they were networking via volunteering, followed by 34% of participants being involved with external professional associations. So, thank you.
>>Andrea:
Yes, wonderful thank you for doing that Nicolle and before we wrap up the section on Career Management I do want to touch on your attitude and how attitude is everything and goes a long way and whether that be in Career Management in a current position or looking at some type of networking event, attitude does go a long way. In a recent article from msn careers they've listed the following five attitudes that will impress employers. Number one is having a can-do attitude. Number two is taking initiative. Three is being determined. Four is being a team player and five is being aware of what is going on in the career field around you. And now on to the next slide and also a reminder to stay positive. Of course, depending on your unique situation then some of these may be easier said than done, but a few tips to help you stay positive are listed on your screen. Use friends and family for support even consider reaching out to classmates who may be in the same position as you. Be sure to exercise even if it
means giving up for a 10-minute walk while writing a paper or doing so on a lunch break at work. Don't overextend yourself and even ask for help if you need it there are a lot of people in the Walden community as well as your own that are willing to help if you ask. And with that utilize Walden student services, your Student Success Advisor, writing center, library an academic skill center are all available for you for you to use and if you're feeling overwhelmed to the point you're not sure what to do, please reach out to the Student Assistance Program to speak with someone in confidence regarding your specific situation. And now to wrap up with a career management section I want to leave you with a thought, follow every rainbow. In the book, Getting from College to Career, Lindsay Pollak who is also a spokesperson for LinkedIn lists 90 things to do before you enter the real world or use your degree if you're already in the real world. Number 68 “follow every rainbow” stood out to me. After Pollak shares a lengthy list of where individuals have found opportunities, she says you never know where an amazing job opportunity may exist. So, you have to pursue, pursue every angle and be open to any possible avenue. Expand your search as far and wide as you're willing to go. Now that we've covered career management, let's transition into transferable skills. Transferable skills may be a buzzword that you've heard in talking to a career advisor here at Walden or even a term that has been brought up in an interview. When talking about transferable skills we are referring to the skills that you're going to take with you from a previous experience and to the next. Think of these as the skills that are actually transferring. To go into more detail, what are transferrable skills? These skills applying all professions, they're the foundation of professional success you will experience in your current and any other career that you may pursue over the years. Along with transferable skills are technical skills and these skills relate to your current position and are the technical competencies that give you the ability to do your job and then know how to use your skills productively and efficiently. Technical skills, while transferrable, do vary from profession to profession. Now in this next slide are some examples of transferable skills which you may also hear as being referred to as soft skills or employability skills. I want to briefly discuss a few of these because once you understand the skills and characteristics that most employers seek, you can then tailor your application materials to show how well your background aligns with common employer requirements. This list comes from quintessential careers and quintessential careers is a great resource to utilize in a job search or for your career management. As I briefly review these, I want you to jot down some notes either mentally or on a piece of paper of which transferrable skills you have and how you can demonstrate it. For example, most individuals say they have good communication skills but how are you going to show a potential employer that you have that through your resume or an interview? First off, communication skills, this is the one skill mentioned most often by employers and is the ability to listen, write and speak effectively. Next, we have analytical research skills which is your ability to assess a situation, seek multiple perspectives, gather more information if necessary and identify key issues that need to be addressed. And the third one I want to mention is computer and technical literacy. Almost all jobs now require some basic understanding of computer hardware and or software. How can you showcase your knowledge? And then finally wrapping up is team work, how you work with others in a professional manner while attempting to achieve a common goal. I know I
only highlighted a few of these but hopefully you were able to start thinking about your personal transferable skills and how you can think about highlighting them. Another area to consider when discussing the transferable skills employers seek, is what are the personal values that are sought after? Quintessential careers also put this list together saying you should remember to find ways to highlight your personal values on your resume, cover letter and in answers to interview questions. I'm not going to go into detail of these but I do want to read through a few. How will you showcase your adaptability and flexibility, dedication, hard work and work ethic, dependability, reliability and responsibility, a positive attitude, motivation, energy and passion, professionalism and self-confidence? And finely I want to tackle on skills you are obtaining from the Walden classroom. The majority of you are in the midst of a degree program. Do you realize how many valuable skills you're gaining? These skills can be highlighted in addition to your transferable skills from previous positions or used as your primary skills if you have little or no work experience. A few of these skills include the ability to meet deadlines and thrive under pressure. College equals deadlines if meeting deadlines is an important skill on the job you seek, by all means state how you're able to meet these deadlines and the ability to adapt whether you're right out of high school or you spend some time in the workforce, armed services, raising a family, this is a time you have adapted. How are you handling stumbling blocks along the way? This is the way you rose above difficulties and how you can provide solid examples and one that we would like to add to this list from quintessential careers is online communication. The business world is headed in an online and virtual route and technology underlines your degree. Especially if you are considering teaching in an online environment, the qualification you bring to the table is that you can transfer your knowledge as a student into the environment of teaching. And now I want to throw in another poll from Nicolle on transferable skill so I'm going to turn it over one more time here.
>>Nicolle:
Okay. Hi everyone, uh what is your top transferable skill? Okay Andrea just reviewed some of these top five ones that employers are looking at, such as communication, analytical research skills, flexibility, adaptability, leadership management and teamwork. So, we'll give everyone a few seconds again to answer the poll. Again, what is your top transferable skill? Communication, analytical and research, flexibility, adaptability leadership management or teamwork. Okay let's wrap up your answers and I'm going to close the poll and share it so we can see it, it looks like 60% of you have chosen flexibility and adaptability and I would agree with you many of you are juggling work, your online education and family. Many of you over 50% indicated communication followed up by analytical and research which you are developing those skills as part of your program and leadership and management. Excellent. Thank you for that.
>>Andrea:
Perfect and so now moving on from this and fun to see where everybody is feeling and reading themselves there, is we're going to transfer here into looking at a job posting. When you first look at a job description, what
do you think about? Probably are you qualified and what are the job duties, but regardless of what first comes to mind you should also be thinking about how your background and transferable skills are going to apply in the new position. Here we are looking at a job posting for a Human Resources associate at a local nonprofit. The functions listed here are typically going to be the technical skills that we are looking at. As a reminder, the technical skills are specific to a field and typically only transfer of fields are related. The words I put in red showcase some transferable skills within the job function. Look at number two here, process employment and unemployment verifications. How many people have ever processed employment verifications? Potentially not many but that's the technical skill, the transferable skill here is processing paperwork and looking at number three request references from present or past employers of applicants. Again, you may not have done the specifics of that, however you have most likely requested information before. Those are the transferable skills that you want to showcase to a hiring manager in your application materials. Now let's take a look at the experience needed for this position. The experience needed is typically going to focus on the transferable skills or what the employer hopes that you can do. Again, I've gone through and used red on the words that stand out the most for you to highlight throughout application materials. Here you can more clearly see the transferable skills requested, effectively communicate, service-oriented, manage multiple tasks, trustworthy and finally computers. Consider utilizing some of the skills from the functions of the job we reviewed to help you in crafting your achievement statements which are the bullet points or the paragraph you write under a position on your resume. In resumes, cover letters and during interviews, you should always portray your skills as applicable to the job you seek. If you have good experience and you're seeking in a job, seeking a job in the same field you pursued in the past, portraying your skills as transferrable is relatively easy. But if you're changing careers and seeking to do something entirely different from what you've done in the past or you're a college student or other entry-level job seeker without much experience, you're going to spend some more time crafting your resume. For every item on your resume, think how can I portray this skill so that it supports the idea of what I want to do in the next job. If you can't make it support what you want to do, then consider leaving it out. Now on the next screen we're looking at an example of an administrative assistant showcasing their transferable skills for that HR position we were reviewing. The first bullet point is the before. The individual is simply stating the technical skills of what they did, answered phones, greeted customers ordered and stocked inventory and took on tasks as needed. We can make this stronger by really highlighting the transferable skills. In the after section this person transform their achievement statements to be more well-rounded showing their transferable skills, responded promptly to customer needs through answering phones and initial contact, maintained office supply inventory through effective planning and forecasting, performed office administrative duties as needed to enhance the cohesiveness of the office. You might be thinking I don't know how to do that or what should I make my achievement statement sound like? Here's a homework assignment for you, go pull up five to ten job descriptions of positions you are interested in, print them off or save them as a Word document, then go through and start highlighting the commonalities you see, as well as qualifications you will see to be necessary, then
throughout your achievement statements, highlight your transferable skills showing that you meet those qualifications. Now here is one more example of showcasing transferable skills. This example is of a restaurant server seeking a marketing position. The first paragraph is an example of what might be used for a cover letter, not only does this person highlight their education by mentioning marketing coursework, transferrable skills are mentioned through telling the reader this person has marketed meals and add-ons to add value to customer experience. The bullet point is an example of how this person may construct their achievement statement for a resume. Think about all the great skills you learn in a restaurant environment such as public relations and special events that you may not think to mention. What have you done in a current or previous position that you are not highlighting on your resume that could be an asset to you? And now in concluding discussing transferable skill, one transferable skill we don't want to forget are your interpersonal skills which are how we communicate and interact with those around us. One thing to ask yourself is how do I communicate? This may be a refresher for some of you but it's important to acknowledge that how you present yourself is important as you manage your career. Whether you are just entering the workforce or moving into a new field you should brush up on your etiquette. A few universal tips to remember with written visual and phone communication are that spelling and grammar count. Always double check what you are sending out. Do you have an online presence? Be sure you are highlighted in a positive and professional light. And you probably have a phone, make sure you have a professional voicemail and you don't have a ring back for when somebody is calling you. Texting, many questions are raised on this, when is it okay to text an employer or potential employer? Typically, it's not, once you reach that commonality and you can have a discussion about it, it may become okay but off the bat it's not highlighted as something to do. And finally, dress code. Do your research to know the industry and what the expectations are. It is okay to call and ask the receptionist what the office dress code is prior to an interview. In addition to how you communicate and your transferable skills your mindset matters. In the book Put Your Mindset to Work: The One Asset you Really Need to Win and Keep the Job you Love, Harvard lecturer PhD Paul Stoltz along with co-author James Reed reveal that employers are most interested in candidates who have a certain mindset regardless of what that skillset may be. This book is a great read and great information to acknowledge when you consider all the area's potential employers could be rating you on. The book states that we are part of generation global, a generation more defined by the age rather than your age. According to Stoltz and Reed, developing a 3g mindset is said to be key in a job search. First you have to be global, this is the big picture perspective it's your ability to lift your eyes out of the weeds, look at the world and understand the ripple effect of your actions. It's about how far you see, reach and go to understand and address the everyday challenge and issues. Global is about openness to new experiences and new ideas as well as the ability to make new connections. Then there is “good” this is a sensitivity to people an awareness of and the inkling to do good for others around you. Good determines how positive or negative your contribution to your job, your life and the world ends up being. And finally, grit. Grit proves anyone can come out ahead regardless of his or her advantages or disadvantages in life. It's the uncommon tenacity, intensity, resilience and everything that you do. In a rapidly changing
world, grid is the quality that enables us to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and carry on stronger for the experience. So, in summary, a hiring manager may have one candidate with the skill set, but what about the mindset? Do you have the drive to succeed? That will take you a long way. And now as we begin to wrap up, it's time to create an action plan. What are you going to do with this knowledge that you just gained? So, what can you do now? And hopefully your mind is full of some ideas whether it be with the resume, career management or some networking but if you're lacking in any areas here are a few more to consider. Go on informational interviews or informational meetings. Informational interviews are just that, you ask somebody if they would allow you to meet with them for 30 minutes to ask questions about their position or organization. You do this with the purpose of obtaining knowledge and increasing your network. Obtaining a mentor can often be the result of an informational interview. Regardless if that happens or not, we recommend that you find someone in the field you are interested in and connect with them on a regular basis that works for your schedule. With the mentor, you want to make sure you continue to grow professionally, whether you are in a full-time position or not and then one day consider becoming a mentor yourself. Reaching out to Walden’s alumni network via LinkedIn is a great way to find individuals for both informational interviews and mentorship. An accomplishment log is another thing you should start. When you get a thank you or kudo from some co-worker, supervisor or client, log it. It comes in handy for a review time and lets you see that you are making a difference. Search for jobs, it's never too early to search for a job or at least keep your eye on the job market. Review job descriptions and as mentioned before, figure out what you can do now to be hirable once you graduate. And finally, update your resume or CV. This is a working document and you should always be tailoring it so it's ready to go. When is the last time you updated your resume? Is your current position your most recent accomplishment on there? Remember, Walden Career Services offers optimal resume which is a tool for you to create your resume or view samples of over 100 resumes. We also offer one-on-one resume reviews that can be scheduled by appointment through your myWalden portal. Another thing you can do now is join professional associations and attend conferences, this is when you can really work the room. Some places to find networking events are through your Walden professors, local newspapers, craigslist, professional associations, the Chamber of Commerce in your local area, our religious organization, bookstores, the Walden Career Services website, as well as LinkedIn. And I want to wrap today up by having you write down one smart goal. On the next screen here, you can see the SMART goal stands for specific measurable attainable relevant and time specific. Hopefully you identified at least one thing you can do towards Career Management and now is the time to start making it happen. Write it all down on a piece of paper and check back with it often just ensure that you are on track to achieving it. And now I will open it up to Lisa to see if we have any questions from the audience tonight.
>>Lisa:
Yes Andrea we have several great questions. So um the first one is, what books or other resources would you recommend for self-assessment?
>>Andrea:
Great question if you are on our Walden Career Services website under the self-assessment tab there are many available for you there. Some of them are going to be fee-based and other will not be, there is the mbti the myers-brigg type indicator, there's a strong interest inventory and there's even books such as strengths finder or what color is my parachute that will help guide you through some options as you develop or you assess your skills.
>>Lisa:
Excellent and just to add something to that too, quintessential careers which you mentioned earlier is a really good website that has a lot of assessment information too so yeah perfect.
>>Nicolle:
This is Nicolle can I chime in as well? Hello please okay I was just going to say when individuals are thinking of assessments they want to make sure that they think of what kind of assessment they'd like to partake in for example today we talked a lot about skills so there are skill assessments, personality assessments, interests assessments and we actually have a skills assessment that for free for Walden students if you would like to contact us we can help set that up for you called skill scan and it has a skills driver on it so you know there are different kinds of assessments so I did want to kind of throw that in there.
>>Lisa:
Great thank you okay next question umm Andrea you mentioned that there are webinars available, can you tell us how one could access those?
>>Andrea:
Perfect. There are many archived webinars as Nicolle said earlier after these they’re archived two to three weeks after delivery and if you go to our Career Services website which can be accessed through your my Walden portal under the academics tab and in the bottom under resources it will say career services / optimal resume and then on the left-hand side navigation button which is purple, it will say archived webinars and there you will find all of the webinars that we have hosted in the past.
>>Lisa:
And we have a request from our participant who would like to see that smart goals slide again.
>>Andrea:
Oh, Nicole please.
>>Nicolle:
Sure. Sure, I can pull that up there we are.
>>Lisa:
Perfect thanks. Okay so what do you feel is the best way to show a transition from one on your resume, should we wait to update the resume until we're close to graduation?
>>Andrea:
That's a really good question and I would recommend starting to work on it now when you can kind of not be stressed and in a hurry but two more manage that now while you're in the transition mode. Once you start taking some classes and you become familiar with buzzwords and new terminology in a new career field, you can start tailoring your resume and so you're really going to want to look to see what had those previous experiences afforded you to learn and then looking at a branded summary statement and I will refer to a webinar that Nicolle did crafting effective resumes which would be a great webinar to look at and creating that branded summary statement for a reader or an employer to continue reading down and know what your mission is throughout that.
>>Lisa:
Great okay um another question asked, what do you think about the resume writing services out there?
>>Andrea:
Well that's a tough question, I personally we have great resources here available for you through Walden, each of the career advisors is more than happy to help you, we have webinars, we have optimal resume. I personally have not utilized any of those or really heard of anybody utilizing them because we do offer that as a free service, so I might ask Nicolle if you have any feedback on that.
>>Nicolle:
Oh, as far as using a resume writer? Mmhmm. Yeah I recommend using our services because you're already paying for them so just as you take advantage of library & Writing Center actually Andrea mentioned that earlier you really want to take care of our services because take advantage excuse me of our services because we have top-notch services and also you want to remember when someone else writes your resume then it's not really the language isn't coming from you so you kind of want it your personality a little bit to come across and if it's not coming from you sometimes it the resume comes across a bit colder and as we know these days with your degree and when you're engaging with networking and professional associations your resume is constantly changing and needing to be updated so you obviously cannot run to a resume writer and pay two hundred dollars or whatever the cost is every time you want to update it so it's really an evolving process just as you as a career professional are so we have people, resources, we have the optimal resume self-guided tool with over a hundred samples on it, we have tons of webinars with really quality content so you really want to take advantage of our
resources and we have also a lot of success stories from students who have worked with our career advisors who have landed volunteer opportunities jobs and interviews so hopefully that's a good sales pitch there but yeah I would take advantage of everything that we have that's free.
>>Lisa:
Okay another question, I'm an older job seeker and sometimes I feel that my age is a major obstacle for example I might have too many skills and a expectation of a higher salary, so do you have any suggestions to overcome that hurdle?
>>Andrea:
I guess there can you restate that question, what was?
>>Lisa:
Okay basically it's a more experienced job seeker that might be overqualified for some of the positions that she's applying for.
>>Andrea:
Okay
>>Lisa:
She's finding that age is an obstacle. I know Nicolle you've worked with students in this situation so you might have some ideas on that.
>>Nicolle:
Sure. Um we can work with you. As far as the resume goes you might want to go back just 10 to 15 years. Also these days I mean baby boomers is a huge population, many of them are going back to work and what Andrea mentioned today it's really about your mindset as far as I'm concerned and the way you sell yourself and carry yourself and your attitude that really makes the difference more than your age as far as on paper we can help you with that but it's more on what you're doing, you're a lifelong learner, you're engaging in your degree, you're gaining online skills, so you want to keep up with those technology skills because that's the way things are headed. You want to use LinkedIn and engage with individuals so I wouldn't really see that as a barrier it’s more of an asset and if you do have a number of skill set areas we can help you really hone in on which skill sets are key for your job target so that's what you really want to remember, you might have a number of different skill sets but you want to pull the ones that are most relevant to your job target and highlight those.
>>Lisa:
Two more things I just thought of, AARP puts out a list of employers that are very receptive to hiring more mature workers, that's one resource and also, we did a mid-life job search webinar, beneath pranking myself did that at the end of last year so that's an archived webinar so that might
contain some good tips as well. Terrific okay but what about finding a job in the federal government do have different strategies for the government sector?
>>Andrea:
We actually just last month hosted a webinar on the federal hiring process that gives some really great tips and strategies for filling out the online application and getting your foot in the door there and with that same that same timeline there of getting your foot in the door there is to also be considering local government and not just waiting for that government position that the goal but also be working from kind of the ground up to, to position yourself for qualification at that level.
>>Lisa:
Great thank you. Um okay just because I guess there were a couple students who didn't hear what I stated is AARP it’s AARP.org is the website that would have the information on the employers more receptive to hiring more mature workers. Okay, um do you have any advice for someone who's a student who's applying for jobs in the US from another country? I just I'll start the answer tonight for the first major thing if someone doesn't have US citizenship is to apply for work visas so that would be the first thing you know at a minimum to that over to overcome but beyond that any advice?
>>Andrea:
I think the biggest thing is to work one-on-one with the career advisor on some of the differences and understanding where some of the niche job banks are going to be to really position yourself for success in a job search and then also if you're looking from the United States to go internationally as we do have a resource on our website for the international job search what can be a benefit as well and looking at how you would tailor application material specifically a CV or resume for such positions.
>>Lisa:
Okay another question, webinars were mentioned that have been delivered by instructors of courses where those located that answer that question on those are in our archives webinars we've had faculty who teach at Walden collaborate with us on a number of webinars that we've delivered so for exact for example excuse me Jack Nemecheck who teaches in the public health field here at Walden collaborated on our federal career opportunities in public health webinar and we had numerous faculty from psychology and from public health collaborate on other webinars that we've done so I just you might want to check the archives for those. Um and then another question I just graduated in August and my questions how long are career services available to me?
>>Andrea:
Career services are available for you someone indefinitely we do ask that you schedule three appointments in every three-month timeframe to work towards your career goals but we are here and our resources are available for you.
>>Lisa:
Okay this is our final question; how do you get beyond the situation where you submit a resume and they say do not call us let us call you if we want to find out what our status is how do you get feedback from folks like that?
>>Andrea:
That's a really good question and I've heard varying opinions on that typically the, the response to that is as follow the instructions given by the employer just because they don't want to be flooded and if by chance you were to call them and that's the instruction not to that could be a reason to disqualify you for that. A way to get around that would be to really use your network LinkedIn and use any kind of resource you might have from with inside that organization to have a contact to just kind of reach out and see where they are and then if you haven't heard something and I mean it's been a couple months, I don't see the problem with calling and just saying you know I'm calling to see where the statuses of this position that was applied for I never received anything and it's been a month or two but also you want to pay attention to see if there's a closing date on that job position and then give it at least a month if not two because some companies do take a while to make decisions.
>>Lisa:
I think that's it I think we've covered the questions thank you perfect.
>>Andrea:
Nicolle, it will go back to you.
>>Nicolle:
Sure, so just to wrap it up um thank you for joining everyone and again this webinar will be archived so here is a listing of all the resources that Andrea used to put together this fantastic webinar and we mentioned here during the Q&A and during the webinar we have some yellow stars. This is a screenshot of our website the Career Center website um the colored buttons on the left highlighting our archived webinars here. I'm circling it with my cursor the purple button and then our LinkedIn group we all encourage you to join our career services LinkedIn group and then of course take advantage of optimal resume which has a resume cover letter e-portfolio and website builder and of course schedule an appointment with an advisor. Here's a listing of some of our popular webinars for resume CV review, networking and job search. We mentioned a number of these on
today's webinar and here is kind of how you can connect with us a little bit more informally through our career services LinkedIn group, follow us on twitter, please read our Walden career services blog there we highlight book reviews and student success stories. Check out optimal resume and of course you can access everything from our website which you just viewed a screenshot of and the best way to contact us other than an appointment would be to email us at careerservices@mail.waldenu.edu and just to end it off with an uplifting quote speaking of setting SMART goals and following your career dreams “goals are dreams with deadlines” and again good evening and thank you for joining us and have a goodnight.

D I S C L A I M E R: THIS TEXT IS BEING PROVIDED IN A ROUGH DRAFT FORMAT IN ORDER TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATION ACCESSIBILITY AND MAY NOT BE A TOTALLY VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS.