After Your First Semester of College

One of the best things about working here at The University of Texas at Dallas is that I can have great conversations with my students every day. Lately, I’ve had a lot of students share success stories with me, and it really got me thinking about the entire journey to that point. Time will fly by here, and before you know it, you’ll be walking across that graduation stage with a big smile on your face, and hopefully high-fiving me on the way down.

But it’s not easy for everyone, which is why I often get frustrated students sitting in my office and venting about their job search struggles. This is what inspired me to put together an advice video for our Professional Development course. I asked a few of our successful students to record themselves giving advice, as if they were talking to themselves on their first day here at UT Dallas. The general theme was that a successful job search came from maintaining a positive spirit, even in the tough situations. With that in mind, I wanted to share some professional development strategies that you should be putting to work now that your first semester is almost done.

1 – Rock the Resume

There is no magic resume template that will get you interviews every single time you submit it. My favorite thing to hear from a student is:

“I used my own template and got a job with it!”

That’s awesome, but it wasn’t the template that got you the job.

As I say in class many times – content is king. You can have a fantastic looking resume, from a visual standpoint, but if your bullet points are weak, don’t include metrics, not targeted, or aren’t focused on accomplishments, then your resume isn’t helping you. Fancy formats and colorful elements may get them to look at it, but that won’t get you the job. Take the time to break down job descriptions, and ask yourself – “What are they looking for, and do I communicate those things clearly on my resume?”

Here in JSOM, we teach students to use the JSOM Resume Template. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But the strategies behind it will take you through the rest of your time here at UT Dallas and through your whole professional career. From this point out, you should always be asking yourself:

• What am I doing?
• How am I doing it?
• What am I accomplishing?

Use that formula to develop your bullet points, and make your resume content the best it can be for your first internship, your first full-time job out of college, and your career after that.

2 – Get Active on LinkedIn

A professional picture, a strong headline, and an engaging summary – those three elements will improve your LinkedIn profile immediately. The challenge is actually deciding what goes there. Ask yourself these three things:

• What am I passionate about?
• What skills do I bring to the table?
• What companies/industries/people am I targeting?

Everything you write and share, and the people you connect with on LinkedIn should revolve around those basic thoughts. This is what makes up your LinkedIn Brand, and is an easy framework to follow when developing your profile. Think about it like your moral compass: you make life decisions based on values that run deep inside you. Your LinkedIn Brand should reflect the professional ambitions that motivate you to come to school every day!

As you continue your journey here at UTD, keep asking yourself those questions, and don’t be afraid to share your discoveries on LinkedIn. Your brand will become clearer, and you’ll get much better at communicating it with the right people. In turn, that will open up some great opportunities for you. 

3 – Tell Your Interview Stories

Believe it or not, many companies require candidates to use the S.T.A.R. model during an interview. In fact, I’ve learned about some that will make you start your answer over if you don’t answer it correctly. This is why I’m surprised when students come to me saying something like –

“I have an interview tomorrow and I want to practice.”

“Have you practiced the S.T.A.R. model since learning it?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

If you’re a JSOM student, you’ve no doubt learned about S.T.A.R. in your first semester. If you aren’t a JSOM student, you can learn about it here. Think of it as a foreign language – if you don’t practice it, you’ll forget how to speak it. Interviewers can spot an unprepared student from miles away. If they ask you a behavioral interview question, and you don’t have an answer, or take a long time to think of one, then you’re already failing the interview.

The worst time to practice this skill is right before you’re expected to do it. If you understand the basics, make it a habit of finding one behavioral interview question every week, and write out your S.T.A.R. story. In my humble opinion, writing down your answer with a pen and paper will help jog your memory of the little details that can make it a strong story. After you write it, look at it a few days later and see if there are any adjustments that can be made.

One thing I see often is when students breeze over the Actions part of the story. Why is the employer asking you these questions in the first place? It’s because they’re trying to uncover the skills that are related to the job. More importantly, they’re trying to find reasons why you’re a great fit. So tell them stories that they will care about! They have a problem, and you are the potential solution. Every story you tell should revolve around you being a problem solver. If you aren’t sure how to answer a question – ask yourself how a problem solver would approach it.

Another important tip: Instead of memorizing your answers, take the time to understand them. There’s a difference between memorizing and understanding a story. Have you ever been to a stage play? The reason the actors don’t sound robotic is because they understand the story as a whole, and see the big picture. If they simply memorized the sequence of the lines in the script, they would come off as robotic and impersonal. Telling the S.T.A.R. story naturally is important because employers care just as much about your personality as your technical skills.

Don’t let these things get away from you. You may only get one shot for a decision maker to see your resume and LinkedIn profile, or hear your interview. Why not make sure that your one chance is the most impactful that it can be? These are skills that will help you get exactly what you want out of this college experience, and I’m here to help you build them.

So if you come into my office, frustrated with everything, you can bet that I’ll remind you of what you’re working towards. You want a great career, and I want that high-five.

Jason Cirilo is a Career Development Specialist and Lecturer at the Naveen Jindal School of Management @ The University of Texas at Dallas. He serves students through classroom instruction, workshops, and one-on-one coaching sessions in order to share his knowledge of corporate recruiting strategy and professional development. Learn more at JasonCirilo.com