No matter where you are in understanding your career direction, by actively engaging with these resources, you can stay ahead of the curve, remain adaptable, and maximize your potential for long-term career success.
You must be an active driver of your career and the opportunities you take advantage of to ensure you gain the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitude to excel in your chosen career paths.
These resources provide valuable insights into industry trends, essential skills, professional networking opportunities, and more, equipping individuals with the tools they need to thrive in their careers.
Career exploration is the process of discovering and investigating various career paths to determine the most suitable fit for one’s skills, interests, and values. It involves self-assessment, research into different industries and occupations, and gaining hands-on experience through internships or informational interviews. Effective career exploration enables individuals to make informed decisions about their professional futures and embark on fulfilling career journeys.
Explore your Interests, Values, Personality, and Skills
You know you want to study business and Focus 2 is a powerful tool to help suggest the best career paths for you. Explore your Work Interests, Values, Personality, Skills and Leisure interests with some quick and easy questions. Then, Focus2 will combine as many or as few of those as you’d like to come up with top-rated career suggestions.
What can you do with your business major?
Looking for information about how a major connects to common career paths? Check out the ‘What Can I Do With This Major?’ tool. This is a website featuring 100 major profiles with information on common career paths, types of employers that tend to hire in the field, and strategies to maximize opportunities.
Conduct your own research
Vault provides in-depth intelligence on what it’s really like to work in an industry, company or profession—and how to position yourself to land that job.
Overview
Roo Network – People Grove
Roo Network
Roo Network is an online community for UMKC students and alumni. Connect with other Roos, explore different career paths and develop professional connections all in one place!
UMKC Alumni on LinkedIn
The UMKC Alumni tab on LinkedIn provides high-level insights about the alumni of UMKC, as well as access to more detailed professional profiles they’ve shared.
In the Alumni tab you can:
- See what alumni in your field have accomplished since graduation and expand your sense of what’s possible for you.
- Identify alumni in your field and reach out to them for their industry expertise and career opportunities.
- Learn about job opportunities and mentoring partnerships.
- Best practice is to start you resume from a blank word document.
- Prebuilt templates downloaded or found on Microsoft Word can create many challenges.
- To get you started, here is a Bloch Business Student sample that you can download and make your own.
- This includes your education, work experience, leadership, involvement, technical skills, awards, certifications, related coursework, athletic, or military experience.
- Try to update your resume as often as possible. This could range from updating with every new experience or accomplishment after it happens or at a minimum, updating at the end of each semester during school.
- The number of bullets per job or experience can range from 3 – 8 bullets on average, but the important part is that it showcases the skills you gained and especially the skills related to the job you are applying to.
- Here is a great article that will help you develop solid, descriptive bulleted statements for your resume. Laszlo Bock
My Personal Formula for a Winning Resume
Laszlo Bock
VC | 2x Founder| Public Board Director | former Google SVP of People Operations (CHRO) | NYT bestselling author of “Work Rules!”
- In a time when many if not all of your applications will pass through an Applicant Tracking System, it is essential to tailor each of your resumes to the job/internship you are applying for. This involves using the skills and competencies listed in the job description that was provided.
- Add or change resume descriptions of your experience as needed to highlight the skills required for the role you are applying for
- If you are lacking experiences or skills in your work history, look for where you can add them in your other sections. You may need to add sections, such as relevant coursework, to demonstrate you have the knowledge and skills required for a job
- To give you a competitive advantage, use Jobscan to better match your resume to the job description.
Jobscan
JobScan is a tool to help jobseekers tailor their resumes to specific jobs, focusing on the keywords, skills, and experiences that are important to the employer.
Get A Primum Account: Use your UMKC username with (@mail.umkc.edu) as the domain, i.e. df27um@mail.umkc.edu.
Note: If you use a “@umsystem.edu” email address you will NOT be granted access.
Jobscan: https://app.jobscan.co/dashboard
Take a look at how it works and how it will help you
- Read through the job description and identify why you are applying for the role and why you are a good fit.
- Highlight what skills and characteristics are required for the job and identify the top 3-4 topics you would like to focus on in your cover letter.
- This includes the date and whom the letter is addressed to, an introduction, 2-3 paragraphs that support your thesis, and a closing
- Introduce the role you are applying for and how you found it
- Introduce yourself and an overview of where you are as a professional
- Finally, write your thesis sentence that includes those key topics you will focus on.
- In the next 2-3 paragraphs showcase how demonstrate the 3-4 topics by provide examples that match the goals of the organization and position you for success.
- Close with a summary conclusion and reiterate your excitement for the opportunity to apply
- State that you would welcome an interview and a chance to further show how you would be a great fit for the job
- Finally, thank them for their consideration and that you look forward to hearing from them.
- Here are some resources for thinking about and creating your cover letter.
- When considering an offer, the choice is so much more than what your starting salary will be
- Consider the benefits, bonus opportunities, and profit sharing/stock options
- The skills and growth opportunities you will gain
- Opportunities for advancement
- Company culture, hours worked, and company/position turnover rate
- The location of the position
1. Your work experience, 2. The current economic climate, 3. The company’s financial health, 4. The location of the position.
- If you lack work experience or the company does not have the means to offer more, then you may not have the capacity to negotiate, but you are always within your rights to ask if it would be possible to negotiate an offer.
The Bloch Career Center has curated a variety of resources to help you in finding quality, professional job, internship, and experiential learning opportunities
Jobs & Internships
Handshake
The Bloch School of Management utilizes the Handshake platform to enable students and alumni to connect with employers for incredible internship and employment opportunities. Whether looking for an internship or job here in the KC metro area, across the country, or around the world–Handshake is should be where you start your search.
Interstride
Interstride is a data driven technology portal, created to provide international students with all the resources they need to transition and thrive in their educational journey abroad. Interstride offers:
- Global Career Opportunities
- Visa Immigration and Support
- Student Resources and Services
- Networking and Mentorship
- Webinars and Workshops
Register and create your profile using your UMKC email: https://www.interstride.com/umkc/
Note: For specific information regarding your personal visa and immigration needs please always refer to UMKC International Student Affairs Office.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is one of the world’s largest job and recruiting sites that helps people find a job and company they love. The company was built on the foundation of increasing workplace transparency and they have developed numerous tools to help job seekers make more informed career decisions.
LinkedIn Jobs
LinkedIn helps you find relevant jobs that suit your skills and qualifications. You can either search for a job using the search field on top of the LinkedIn homepage or you can directly access the Jobs page where you can search and apply for jobs. Millions of jobs are posted on LinkedIn every day, so it’s important that you’re able to find the right job postings that fit your expectations and requirements.
Indeed
Indeed is the #1 job site in the world1 with over 350M+ unique visitors every month2. Indeed strives to put job seekers first, giving them free access to search for jobs, post resumes, and research companies. Every day, we connect millions of people to new opportunities.
Resources for part-time or flexible work
Parker Dewey
Micro-internships are an excellent way to gain professional work experience. Micro-internships sourced from the Parker Dewey platform are short-term, paid, professional projects open to all college students and recent graduates. The experiences range from working for a small entrepreneurial start-up to supporting a large enterprise, and provide the opportunity to explore different roles and company cultures as you gain valuable experience.
Set up your student profile here: https://www.parkerdewey.com/
Flex Jobs
Work is changing, and remote and hybrid jobs are becoming a new normal. Now, “the office” is often a home office, hybrid workplace, or wherever you want to set up shop. As the #1 job site to find the best remote, work from home, and flexible jobs for over 14 years, we know how to help you have a faster, easier, and safer job search. Just as we’ve helped millions of people, let us help you!
Fiverr
Fiverr is a premier online marketplace, offering you a streamlined experience while finding digital services and talented freelancers. On Fiverr, freelancers present their capabilities through detailed “Gigs,” providing potential customers with a comprehensive overview of their profiles, skillsets, and service offerings.
Forage
At Forage, our virtual work experience programs give students the opportunity to learn career skills from Fortune 500 companies. Virtual work experience programs replicate work at top companies, and connect students to the companies themselves. In only 5-6 hours, learn relevant tools and skills necessary to complete similar tasks during their work day. Virtual Work Experience Programs are 100% free, open-access, and self-paced. No experience or application is required!
