By James Crowell

During my four years at Cabrini College, I have learned a great deal.  As I prepare to graduate, I want to share my top 5 tips for college students.

• Preparation, preparation, preparation!  By planning ahead, making to-do lists and doing assignments before they are due, I am able to stay on-top of my responsibilities.  Keeping track of your weekly schedule on your smartphone’s calendar application can be vital to your continued success in college.

• Technology should help, not hinder.  As a Communication major, I can say with confidence that technology will only become more advanced and more integrated into everyday life.  Students should utilize the technology at hand and begin networking as freshmen and sophomores.  Social media sites like LinkedIn & Facebook are crucial tools in networking with your peers and professionals alike.   Simply requesting to follow industry professionals related your major and staying up-to-date with current events are extremely important to one’s success in college and to your post-graduate career.

• Having a well-tailored elevator speech and a resume can set you apart.  How you carry yourself and explain your past experience are important, especially as you begin to seek internships and co-ops.  Need resume advice?  The Co-op & Career Services office can work with you to develop a well-crafted and professional resume.  Moreover, being able to speak with confidence about yourself and what you have accomplished are very good skills to master in your life.

• Maintain a mastery of Time Management.  Keeping track of your day-to-day duties is good, but managing your weekly and monthly schedules are just as important.  Moreover, during your day you need to allocate time for studies just as much as downtime.  Burning out is a real possibility, especially towards the end of the semester and around finals week.  You must let yourself enjoy college, while balancing your responsibilities as a student.

• Seeking advice and knowledge from the Co-op and Career services office as soon as you can as a freshmen.  I cannot stress enough how vital the career services office can be in one’s career during and after college.  Skills such as resume-building and gaining college credit via an internship are important.

Today, one of the world’s most popular job search websites( www.simplyhired.com) published the August 2011 Employment Trends Report on their blog!  We have shared this website with you all before on Facebook, Twitter, etc. You may have seen a reference to this report before as well.  This posting will tell you exactly why we think as students or alumni in the job market…or even someone considering a career/job change should be reading and utilizing this report!

As a career counselor I utilize a list of various resources to help people make educated career choices.  In my role it’s imperative to remain knowledgeable about local and national employment news, trends, and ways to find a job.  As of late, one resource is at the top of that list.  The world’s largest job search engine, SimplyHired (www.simplyhired.com) provides a “one-stop shopping” place to get all this information.  One thing I’ve found particularly helpful on this site is that the company releases a monthly Employment Trends Outlook report. “The U.S. Employment Trends Outlook is a monthly analysis and forecast of employment trends in the United States. These findings are based on monthly job seeker activity on SimplyHired.com”.  This report provides a lot of valuable information to me as a career counselor, so I wanted to share its value with the people whom I purpose it for-to empower their career decision making through knowledge!

Who can use the report & Why?

Ummm, anyone who uses information about the current state of employment or job trends in the United States of America, that’s who!  This report holds value for a budding entrepreneur trying to determine the economic climate of the geographic area which s/he is planning to open their business.  Anyone considering relocation due to unemployment or a desired career transition could hugely benefit from the report. And many other folks like recruiting professionals, internship coordinators, and so on and so forth.   The report is rich with data and trends for all of us “nerds” or “numbers people” and analytical types to develop our strategies.

Below are 2 examples of the way the information is graphically illustrated but still easy to understand.  This first image is taken right from the beginning of the report. It shows a snapshot of the US job market using a colorful chart layout that isn’t chock full of too much data that it appears to be hieroglyphics to  a lay-person.  On the contrary, it provides a quick, bold job competition ratio and a clear chart detailing the Top 5 Hiring Companies in the nation.

Job Market Snapshot

© 2011 Simply Hired, Inc

 

 

Current Students & Entry-Level College Grads 

I suggest that current students add this site and this employment trend report to their online reading repertoire.  With the advent of the internet and now social media, there is unlimited access to information and numerous ways to access it.   College and graduate students should be using the data presented in this monthly report to determine what companies to start investigating for career opportunities or determine if the industries they are preparing to enter are experiencing loss or growth.  An entry level job searcher should keep close watch on this report, and pay particular attention to any month to month changes in the local market hiring. If you are a person who is considering a career transition or relocation, this report should be used as a guide to aid decision making.  Below is another example of the invaluable information this report provides for job seekers.  This is an image of the section of the report that outlines job openings by both industries and specific occupations.  This is literally spelling out for you where the jobs are from month to month!

Job Openings

For anyone searching the internet for job openings the Simply Hired Employment Trends report is a vital tool.  Why not get all the information you need to steer your job search from the same site where you search and find jobs?  “With over eight million job listings, SimplyHired is the world’s largest job search engine-25 times the size of the biggest job board”.   If you are an educator, a career counselor, college professor, staffing professional or job coach, this report should be a resource you use time and time again.   I personally plan to start pointing students that I work with directly to it and educating them on how to use it to their advantage. After all, I could just do the work for my students and give them job leads, but I believe if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime (Chinese Proverb).  If my students/clients, colleagues and even friends know the value of the information presented in these monthly reports, and know how to assess it for their own purposes, then I have facilitated their job search process in an empowering way.