I. INTRODUCTION
You have decided you want to get a summer job. But what type of jobs do you plan to go after? Will you....
Wait tables? Wash dishes? Mow lawns? Paint houses? Flip burgers? ___________????
Look ahead a few years and think
about these questions:
* How will these jobs look on your resume and how will you discuss the
skills developed in these jobs?
* What will employers or graduate school representatives think about these
experiences?
* What types of experience will they be looking for?
This packet focuses on finding a
summer job that ties in with your career plans; the type of summer job that
provides:
1. An Income
2. Work experience
3. Skill development
4. Work references
5. An understanding of organizations and work environments
6. Insights about specific career fields
7. Personal growth
8. An opportunity to take what is learned in the classroom and put it
into practice.
II. WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?
If you don't know what types of summer jobs you are interested in, your summer job search will be much more difficult. The first step toward finding a summer job involves discovering who you are and what you want to do.
Discovering who you are or as we in Career Services call it, "self-assessment" can help you develop a career focus and identify some career goals. It can also help you identify summer job options that will fit with your career goals. Career Services offers several resources that will assist you in the self-assessment process:
Career Counseling: A career counselor can help you answer questions about yourself and show you how to begin exploring appropriate careers. Simply stop into Career Services, or call x 2955 to set up an appointment with one of our counselors. Oftentimes it helps to have someone as a sounding board for your ideas and to help you identify options and figure out how to pursue them. The counselors also utilize several career assessments to help in the self-assessment process:
* Career Ability Placement Survey
* Strong Interest Inventory
* Myers Briggs Type Indicator
The career counselor can explain these instruments and help you decide which one might be the most appropriate one for your individual needs.
The Self-assessment process helps you to understand your skills, interests, values, and personality characteristics as they relate to career options. Self-assessment helps you gain a better understanding of career options and the other types of job, internship, and summer opportunities that are all "steps along the way" on those career paths.
A. Some Questions To Consider
WORKSHEET
To help you focus on the type of summer job you want, consider the following:
a.
What are your skills, abilities, interests, values, and personality characteristics
and how will they enable you to do what
you want?
b. What
are your short term and long-term goals? And how will a particular summer job
help achieve those goals?
c. What
type(s) of job(s) do you want?
d. What
is your primary reason for looking for summer employment--money? experience?
getting out of the house?
e.
How much money do you have to make (if any)? What is the bare minimum?
f.
Can you afford to do volunteer work, which might relate more directly to your
career objective?
g.
What else will you be doing during the summer? If you have friends around,
things to do and so on, the actual content of
your job may be
less important to you. You may want to go for a higher paying, less challenging
position on the theory
that your leisure time
will be enjoyable enough to offset the potential boredom of the job.
h.
What skills do you want to develop further through summer employment?
i.
How much time are you willing to take to look for a job? How much time can you
take?
j. Will
your summer job relate to your major course of study?
III. WHAT TYPES OF SUMMER JOBS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
The number one question for most summer job seekers is: "What's out there?" If you're asking this question, you need information to help you come up with some answers.
WORKSHEET
A. What Information Do You Need? Before you begin researching
career fields some points to consider are:
a. What
type(s) of employer(s) do you want to work for?
b. Can you identify
the size and type of the organization? The type of people? organizational
structure?
c. Have you identified
the geographical location (city, state, or region)?
d. Do you
know what type of setting (urban, suburban, rural)?
e.
Will you need transportation for the job? What type? What will it
cost?
f.
If you choose to work away from home, how will you live (i.e. housing, food,
etc.)? Will your housing and food have to
be provided by income from
the summer job? If not, how much money will it take to support yourself
for the summer?
g.
What is the employment situation for that geographical region? How competitive
is the job market?
IV. WHAT TYPES OF SUMMERS JOBS
ARE AVAILABLE?
Having completed your self-assessment and researched your career options, another
important step in the summer job search is to identify contacts and resources.
To maximize your summer job search, utilize a large number of summer job resources
including:
Summer Internships
There are many great paid and unpaid summer internships, which can give you
hands-on experience in the field you are interested in. Employers use
their internship program to get a look at potential full-time employees.
Many organizations have structured, organized internship programs and will advertise
to find candidates for these programs. Other organizations do not have
structured internship programs but might consider a program if approached.
For more information on setting up an internship, go to www.InternJobs.com.
Jobs at UNF
UNF has a number of jobs available on campus during the summer.
Job listings can be found in Human Resources,
Building 1, Room 1000, or posted around campus.
Personal Contacts
Many times it is "who you know" that makes all the difference in obtaining
an interview for a summer job. Thus, before you start your summer job
search, make a list of those individuals who belong to your "network".
Don't just think of individuals who are in the career fields you are interested
in but also identify those who are not in a related field because chances are
they know someone who is. You will also want to include as many people as possible
including: family, friends, acquaintances, students in your classes, faculty,
alumni, past employers or supervisors, members of professional organizations
you belong to, conference attendees and speakers, authors of articles you like,
etc.
Chamber of Commerce
Most cities have a Chamber of Commerce, which is an organization that
supports businesses in the community. Directories and lists of employers
are often available free or can be purchased for a small fee.
Newspapers
If you are moving or relocating to a specific city, consider subscribing
to the local newspapers of that city. A three-month subscription for the
Sunday edition costs very little. Note: A very small percentage of available
summer jobs are listed in the want ads.
Summer Job Employer Directories
Directories are often published that list employers from a particular region
(e.g. The Florida Job Bank) or for the entire country with geographical cross-indexes.
Names, addresses, and phone numbers of potential employers are provided and
often you will find a paragraph description about the organizations and companies.
Telephone Yellow Pages
Most public libraries will have telephone books for most major cities
or regions of the country. Utilize the yellow pages as well as business
sections of the phone book to identify companies or organizations that might
be seeking an individual with your experience and skills. The yellow pages
are an excellent way to identify smaller companies or businesses that are typically
not listed in employer directories published by the Chamber.
Career Expo
As part of the annual Career Fair, Career Services at University of North
Florida invites representatives from a variety of organizations that offer summer
employment to come to campus to share information about their organizations
and available jobs. Representatives can meet with a large number of candidates
in one day. It can provide an excellent opportunity for you to meet with
many employers in a short amount of time.
Information Tables
Representatives from hiring organizations will staff a table in courtyard
of UNF Campus to provide information about their organization and give out applications
and informally discuss positions. Check with Career Services for a listing
and schedule of organizations that will be on campus.
Internet
There are many websites to search through to find summer jobs in different regions
and/or categories. Some of these websites include:
www.coolworks.com
www.summerjob.com
www.seasonalemployment.com
www.jobsinparadise.com
www.ResortJobs.com
www.OverseasJobs.com
www.greatsummerjobs.com
These websites not only give
you an opportunity to find many different types of jobs all around the world,
but also posts
resumes and company profiles. Another way to search for other websites
is to go to www.webjob.org.
V. UTILIZE JOB-SEARCH STRATEGIES THAT ARE PRODUCTIVE
Resumes and Correspondence
In targeting a specific summer job, you need to draft a resume that highlights
the experience and skills you have that relate to that specific job or career.
Time spent on developing a targeted resume is well worth the effort. Indeed,
the resume and cover letter are powerful tools in the summer job search process.
It is the first impression an employer will have of you as an individual and
you want it to be a positive one. REMEMBER: RESUMES GET INTERVIEWS--NOT
JOBS!
In the initial screening process, your resume may get as little as 15 to 30 seconds of consideration. An effective resume should attract attention, stimulate interest, create desire, and generate action.
Organizing Your Search
Once you have identified your contacts and resources where there are openings
in your career field, the next step is to get organized.
Most effective job searches include three components:
1. utilizing personal contacts
commonly known as networking
2. contacting employers and organizations directly
3. responding to posted advertisements.
START EARLY! Most summer jobs are filled in February and March. You should begin as early as December. The Christmas holidays afford time to network and begin making contacts.
Thus, for your summer job search to be effective, you will want to spend a majority of your time networking. Indeed, in the hidden job market, almost every job is discussed in some way with friends or associates before it is advertised. Your task as a net worker is to discover this information from one of these individuals and present your qualifications and experience before the job is announced outside the company or organization.
The first part of your networking strategy will be to arrange informational interviews with the people you have already targeted as being part of your personal network. The second part will be to add new people you meet to your network as you go through the job search process.
Finally
Persistence is the key to summer job hunting. Don't get discouraged and
just keep plugging away until you land that great summer job!
APPENDIX J TIPS FOR
PREPARING APPLICATIONS
DEADLINES ARE SERIOUS BUSINESS
When organizations set deadlines for receipt of applications they do so according
to a detailed schedule. If applications are received long after the deadline
and applicants call in requesting waivers and extensions, it causes the organization
to disrupt carefully planned calendars as well as to interpret that the applicant
might not be trusted with completing assignments on time. Therefore, organize
your work, plan ahead and make sure your applications are in by the deadline.
APPLICATIONS MUST BE NEAT AND
LEGIBLE
Application reviewers read hundreds of submissions for each position and can
get understandably tired. Give them no reason to get impatient with your
application because it is illegible. Therefore, type or neatly print all
the information. It is always best to ask someone else to read through
your materials because you can lost sight of mistakes, inconsistencies or poor
constructions. Remember that reviewers are "meeting" you through your
written materials. You want to make the best impression from the start.
COMPLETE APPLICATIONS IN FULL
Read the application requirements very carefully and follow the directions.
Make sure that you are filling our a current application and for the correct
position. Check off every item as you include it in your package.
ABOUT REFERENCES
Show your references information about the positions you are applying for so
that they can write about how your qualifications match the organization's requirements.