25 Jan Step 2: Prepare a brief introduction

CARD405 Career Development

Week 1 Discussion

DQ1 SELF-AWARENESS AND CAREER SUCCESS

Why is understanding yourself important in your career development? How can you ensure that an employer will realize that you have a clear grasp of who you are and what you have to offer? How does your self-awareness support success as a leader?

DQ2 CONSIDERING OUR GOALS

An important step of exploring and being an expert in the marketplace is knowing what you want for yourself in your career. Setting goals, drafting a mission statement, and defining success for both your personal and professional lives can help you clarify what you want.

So, in focusing in on this topic, finish the following sentence: “My definition of success is…”

CARD405 Career Development

Week 2 Discussion

DQ1 COMPANY RESEARCH

During the explore phase of your career readiness plan, you get to research the potential companies that you hope to work for one day. It is important to do this, because although a company may look good on paper, it may not always be the right fit for you. Take a moment to examine the site Glassdoor (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Type in a few companies that you have worked for, currently work for, or hope to work for one day, and read some of the reviews. Do you agree with what you found, or do you find that this new information alters how you see this organization? Please explain.

DQ2 JOB-HUNTING TECHNIQUES

The prospect of searching for a job can be very intimidating. What techniques have you used in the past when you were job hunting? Which ones were most effective? Least effective? What do you attribute their effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) to?

CARD405 Career Development

Week 3 Discussion

DQ1 MARKETING YOURSELF

As the Crafting Your Personal Brand Workbook highlights, developing a brand

helps you focus on the value you bring to employers and identifies the unique traits you bring to the workplace;

delivers an authentic message to hiring managers around your career goals and depicts who you are as a professional;

enables employers to see not only the skills you have, but also the unique personality and character traits you have to offer; and helps you define how your vision for the future aligns with the long-term business objectives of the hiring organization, effectively elevating your status from commonplace commodity to one-of-a-kind package.

Take a moment to describe your professional strengths and make an argument for why they are important.

DQ2 INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW

Different from a job interview, an informational interview is a conversation you arrange with someone who works in a field or company that interests you. The purpose of this type of interview is to help you explore an industry, organization, or job title. You may ask questions focused on how to break into an industry, what a career in that field or organization is really like, and whether it fits your skills and interests. Since you are not seeking a job offer, think of informational interviewing as a way to gather information and to prescreen a potential job, industry, or company.

Take a moment to review the Information Interviewing Guide (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., pulled from the My Compass to My Career (MCMC) portal. Discuss some of the benefits of conducting an informational interview.

CARD405 Career Development

Week 4 Discussion

DQ1 THE “HIDDEN” JOB MARKET

Although estimates vary, it is suggested that 80% or more of the job openings that exist are in the hidden job market. What is the difference between the published job market and the hidden job market? What techniques would you usually use to access the published job market? What techniques would you use to access the hidden job market?

And, if you are already a professional in your field and do not intend on seeking a different opportunity within the next 5 years, how might being aware of the hidden job market be of value to you? Additionally, many of you may be in a position to hire employees (or will be in the future). That noted, how might knowing about the hidden job market impact your strategy to recruit and hire qualified candidates?

DQ2 THE POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA

What social media tools do you use and why? How do you use social media to support your personal brand? Is there one social media method you prefer over another and why? Include specific examples and screen shots of your social media sites if appropriate.

CARD405 Career Development

Week 5 Discussion

DQ1 CONSIDERING THE RESUMÉ

This week, you will be preparing a targeted resumé, which is directed towards a specific job posting; however, your text details a few other types of resumés. Take a moment to review other types of resumés and the purposes they serve.

If you are comfortable, please share your resume, and provide feedback to your peers.

DQ2 THE ELEMENTS OF A PORTFOLIO

Your Week 2 and 3 Lessons, as well as your text, explain the process of creating a career portfolio. Last week, you developed a LinkedIn profile, which is a component of an electronic portfolio. Over the next 2 weeks, we will draft items that help build your professional collection of artifacts. Take a moment to reflect on the many projects, certifications, courses and teams you have been a part of. Do you have documentation of these accomplishments? The portfolio (your LinkedIn Profile) is your chance to show-off a comprehensive collection of these highlights from your life experiences. What documents from your life’s accomplishments do you need to locate? Take this time to share and provide feedback to your peers.

CARD405 Career Development

Week 6 Discussion

DQ1 EXAMINING A COVER LETTER

This week we are covering an important component of your professional brand – personalized communication. In regards to cover letters, there is flexibility in style, lengths, and composition but what elements do you think are most important to include and why?

DQ2 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE FOLLOW-UP

There are several approaches to follow up communications. It is highly recommended that you send an e-mail or handwritten thank you letter after an interview. Why is this recommended, and what are the benefits resulting from this action?

CARD405 Career Development

Week 7 Discussion

DQ1 PREPARING FOR THE INTERVIEW

Experts will tell you that it is important to “prepare” for an interview. What type of preparation should you do?

Find an article that offers practical advice about preparing for interviews. Summarize the information and add your thoughts to what the experts say. Be sure to also include your interviewing preparation experiences.

DQ2 EVALUATING A JOB OFFER

When interviewing for jobs, you’re interviewing the organizations as much as they are interviewing you. Is it a good fit? Do they have what you need in terms of the various types of compensations that would make the job worthwhile? Does it offer a work/life balance? Is there an opportunity to promote? Can you see yourself leading and fitting into the company culture?

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 1 PERSONALITY ANALYSIS AND JOB CONSIDERATION REPORT

This week, we will link the process of truly understanding yourself with that of the initial phases of finding the job of your dreams. To do this, you will need to complete the Personality Analysis and Job Consideration Report. The steps for this assignment are listed below.

Part 1: Taking the Assessments

Log into the My Compass to My Career site. For instructions for using this site, review the MCMC Student User Guide (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Once on the site, you should go to your profile and verify that all the information is correct.

Next, you will need to complete the 16 Personalities Assessment. To find this in your My Compass to My Career portal, please follow the steps listed below.

Click on the Explore tab.

Select the Realize Your Full Value tab.

Click on the Assessments tab.

Select the 16 Personalities under the Personalities section.

Complete the NERIS Type Explorer personality assessment.

Once finished, be sure to review the results and the full analysis provided to you.

Now you should convert your results into the Keirsey Temperament Sorter code. The process for this is explained in Exhibit 3.5 in your text.

Part 2: Consider and establish your ideal future as it relates to your program of study at DeVry University.

You will use this information to describe your ideal future on the Personality Analysis and Job Consideration Report Template.

Part 3: Identify and create your 1-, 2-, and 5-year career goals and associate these goals with the potential employers, job titles, and salary ranges that go with them. This is an exercise in critical thinking, take this opportunity to explore possibilities – please do not limit yourself to one organization (conduct an environmental scan of industry) or employment only.

Develop your 1-, 2-, and 5-year career goals. Consider these goals as the stepping stones of achieving that ideal future that you established above.

Research and list potential employers, organizations, and people that fit within the time frame of these goals. This requires a minimum of one organization, but it could be more, depending on your current access to the field of your dreams.

Determine three possible job titles offered at this organization that fit within your 1-, 2-, and 5-year plans.

Research the current salary ranges for these job titles. This can be done at www.salary.com (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Part 4: Reflection

The final stage of any activity should always be to reflect on what you learned during the process. For this, you will need to provide a written summary of what you learned about yourself and the characteristics of your dream job as a result of the reflection and research you have done in this assignment.

Record your outcomes and observations on the Personality Analysis and Job Consideration Report Template (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Do not forget to submit your assignment.

The grading rubric for this assignment is listed below.

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 2: CAREER AND COMPANY RESEARCH

This week, you will be building upon the job considerations you developed last week. The steps for this assignment are listed below.

Part 1: The O*NET Interest Profiler Assessment

Log into My Compass to My Career site. The instructions for locating this site are found on the Week 1 Assignment page, if needed.

Once done, you should complete the steps listed below.

Click on the Explore tab.

Select the Realize Your Full Value tab.

Click on the Assessments tab.

Select the O*NET Interest Profiler under the Career Interests section.

Complete the O*NET Interest Profiler assessment.

Now that you have identified some potential job matches, it’s time to match these positions to potential employers.

Part 2: Company Research

In this assignment, you will investigate companies based on your O*NET results and the career goals you developed last week.

To fully understand how to conduct proper research, you must either attend the Live Lecture this week or listen to its recording. An Attendance Verification Code will be given to you in the Live Lecture that you must then enter on your assignment template to confirm your attendance.

Part 3: Reflection

The final stage of any activity should always be to reflect on what you learned during the process. For this, you will develop a plan for achieving your goals.

Access the assignment template (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.; be sure to proofread and spell-check your work before you submit it.

Don’t forget to submit your assignment.

The grading rubric for this assignment is listed below.

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 3: ELEVATOR SPEECH

This week, you will be creating an elevator speech that you can use to market yourself to potential employers. A key component to any job search is the ability to develop your brand. The steps for this assignment are listed below.

Part 1: Craft Your Brand

For this assignment, you will need the following documents pulled from your My Compass to My Career portal.

Crafting Your Personal Brand Workbook (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Crafting Your Personal Brand Worksheet (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Elevator Pitch Guide (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Use these guides to develop your targeted brand message and an elevator speech.

Part 2: Record Your Elevator Speech

Now that you created your elevator speech, it is important to practice saying it. To help you do this, you will need to utilize the InterviewStream tool found on the My Compass to My Career site.

To do this, complete the following steps.

Log into the My Compass to My Career site. The instructions for locating this site are found on the Week 1 Assignments page, if needed.

Click on the three dots at the top left-hand side of the page.

Select the InterviewStream tab.

Under Practice Interview Skills, click the Click Here tab.

You should now be in InterviewStream. (User guide (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.)

When you are ready, select Conduct Interview.

You will want to click on the Custom Interview option.

Search for and select the Tell Me About Yourself question.

Once this question is in the Selected Question box, hit the Start My Interview button.

When the question is asked by the interviewer in the recording, provide the interviewer with your elevator speech.

You can rerecord this message as many times as you need to get it right.

Once you are happy with your results, copy the public link and paste it into the Comment section for review by your professor. You should also attach a copy of your completed Crafting Your Personal Brand Worksheet.

Please note that you will need to dress professionally for this recording.

Don’t forget to submit your assignment.

The grading rubric for this assignment is listed below.

Note: Once you complete your Elevator Pitch, upload your video to the discussion are next week, where you will receive guided feedback from your peers and professor to continue to develop your elevator pitch and professional communication skills.

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 4: EPROFILE

This week, we will be focusing on your electronic presence during the job search. Many employers utilize social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and GlassDoor, as a means of obtaining new employees. This is why it is so important to present a positive image in the digital realm.

For this week’s assignment, you will be required to create a professional LinkedIn account. There are many resources available to you in the My Compass to My Career portal to help you with this process. The Build an ePortfolio and Optimize Social Media Profiles page under the Develop tab explains the importance of this assignment and things to consider when developing your online presence. There are also many LinkedIn tutorials found in the Video Tutorial section.

To begin:

If you do not have a LinkedIn account already, you will need to sign up for one.

Once you have an account, you will need to build your profile.

For this assignment, you must include the following items in your profile.

A professional photo

A headline message that is geared towards your target job

LinkedIn grants you 120 characters in which to write a tagline about yourself.

Refer to your branding message/elevator speech to develop this.

A work/volunteer and education history that is focused towards your target job

One group that pertains to the student’s selected target job (student must join the group)

One leader in a field that relates to the selected target job (student must connect with leader)

Once complete, you will need to submit a copy to the link of your LinkedIn profile.

Don’t forget to submit your assignment.

The grading rubric for this assignment is listed below.

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 5: TARGETED RÉSUMÉ AND CAREER SERVICES ACTIVITY (DUE THIS WEEK)

Over the past few weeks, you have developed many tools to help you in a targeted job search. This week, you will be adding to your portfolio by creating a targeted résumé. A targeted résumé is simply a résumé that is targeted to a specific job. For this assignment, you need to locate a job ad for a position you would be interested in once you graduate. Using the ad, you will then prepare a targeted résumé.

The following resources will be very helpful for this assignment.

Résumé Wizard Student User Guide (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Résumé Evaluation Checklist (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

How to Match Your résumé to the Job You Want (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Part 1: The Targeted Résumé

Your targeted résumé must include the following components.

Personal information

Including LinkedIn Profile link or information.

An introductory section with a target job title and qualification/professional summary that reflects the student’s skills and experiences relative to the job description

Education history

A skill summary that includes both technical and transferable skills

Work experience that is summarized by using achievement statements, not task lists

Summarize your work experience in four to five points under each position held, focusing on concrete and measurable accomplishments

Once complete, you should copy and paste your résumé to the O*NET-Soc AutoCoder found at the following website: http://www.onetsocautocoder.com/plus/onetmatch (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. A guide for this site can be found at the same URL.

This site will verify that your résumé is a match to your chosen job ad. You will need to provide a screenshot of a score of 70% or higher, saved as either a Word or PDF file to verify that you completed this step. If you do not receive a 70% rating or higher on your first submission, please revise it until you do.

In a 1-2 paragraph reflection, respond to the following questions regarding the O-Net-Soc results: What were the results of the resume search? Was the score lower than 70%? Why do you think you received the score that you did? What parts of your resume would you adjust so that the score would be higher in the future? Why do you think this matters for your upcoming job search?

Submit your targeted résumé, the O*NET-Soc Auto Coder screenshot, and a copy of the job ad.

Your résumé should have appropriate headings and design elements (e.g., white space, bold, underline, italics, varying font sizes***) to improve readability. You should also make efforts to limit the résumé to one to two pages. The résumé must also be targeted to the job ad and be free of spelling and grammatical errors.

***Note: Students should not attempt to use all of these elements in one document.

Don’t forget to submit your assignment.

The grading rubric for this assignment is listed below.

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 6 COVER AND THANK YOU LETTERS

Last week, you created a targeted resumé tailored to a specific job ad. This week, you need to write a targeted cover letter responding to that ad. After this is complete, you will do a bit of role playing by assuming that you were given the opportunity to interview for the position and that you now need to write a post-interview thank you letter to the employer.

The following resources will be very helpful for this assignment.

Using Your Cover Letter (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Using Your Thank You Letter (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Part 1: The Cover Letter

The Cover Letter must

be targeted to the job ad and link the student’s skills to the job requirements; and

convey the company’s goals and be personalized to the reader.

Part 2: The Thank You Letter

The Thank You Letter must

provide at least three links from the student’s personal skill set to the expectations listed in the job ad; and

express why the student would be the best candidate for the position.

Both letters must

contain appropriate content;

be formatted in standard business style; and

be free of spelling and grammatical errors.

You will also find helpful materials for these letters in your text.

Don’t forget to submit your assignment.

The grading rubric for this assignment is below.

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 7: RECORDED INTERVIEW

This week, we will return to InterviewStream; you will get to show off your interviewing skills.

For this assignment, you will need to do the following.

Log into the My Compass to My Career site. The instructions for locating this site are found on the Week 1 Assignments page, if needed.

Click on the three dots “…” at the top left-hand side of the page.

Select the InterviewStream tab.

Under Practice Interview Skills, click the Click Here tab.

Select Conduct Interview.

You will want to click on the Custom Interview option.

Select seven standard questions and three behavior-based questions (defined in this week’s lesson) that could be asked in relation to your selected targeted job ad from the previous week’s assignments.

Once these questions are in the Selected Question box, click the Start My Interview button.

When the questions are asked by the interviewer in the recording, address the questions.

You can rerecord the message as many times as you need to get it right.

Once you are happy with your results, copy the public link and paste it into the Comment section for review by your professor.

You will need to dress appropriately for this recording as if you were really going to a professional interview.

Don’t forget to submit your assignment.

The grading rubric for this assignment is listed below.

Note: As an alternative, Mock Interviews can be conducted via live WebEx in large or small groups. Follow your Professor’s instructions as to how this will be conducted in this course. (Your Professor might request interview questions in advance and in order to share them with the group.)

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 8: SELF-EVALUATION

As mentioned in the previous weeks, an important step in any activity is the reflection that takes place at the end of it. This is because it allows those involved in the activity the time to analyze whether or not their efforts were successful or not. For this reason, in this final week of CARD405, you are going to be given the opportunity to reflect upon the work you have submitted this session.

For this assignment, you need to download and complete the Week 8 Self-Evaluation Template available here (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

CARD405 Career Development

WEEK 8: INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW

This assignment is the culmination of everything you have been working on in this course and your chance to not only show-off your interviewing skills but also to demonstrate your ability to network and develop new relationships. You are encouraged to approach this interview as an investment in your career rather than thinking about it only as an assignment.

For this assignment, you need to download and complete the Week 8: Informational Interview Template (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

There are FIVE steps to the Informational Interview.

Step 1: Compile a list of individuals in your target career field whom you would like to interview. Try to identify people who are working at a company in which you are interested. This is a good opportunity to practice your networking skills. Let your classmates, friends, family members, and colleagues know that you need to complete an informational interview with someone in your intended career field. You’ll be amazed at how effective networking can be.

Step 2: Prepare a brief introduction of yourself and the purpose(s) of the informational interview. Prepare a list of open-ended questions that would be appropriate to ask during the informational interview. An Internet search using “informational interview” will provide you with many examples of questions you might want to use.

Step 3: Practice your interview with a classmate, friend, family member, or colleague and ask them to critique your performance. Identify ways to improve based on their feedback.

Step 4: Set up a day and time for the interview and be sure to confirm. This can be an in person interview, Skype/WebEx or phone interview – whatever works best for the both of you. Record the interviewee’s responses to your questions.

Step 5: Send a thank-you letter, note, or email to the interviewee within twenty-four hours of completing the interview. And if appropriate, be sure to connect with them via LinkedIn.