Four Stages of the Job Search
- Identify trends in the marketplace
- Know your product (you)
- Identify market niches for your product
- Target market strategies
As a graduate student you have developed and demonstrated entrepreneurial skills: taking the initiative to research resources, pursuing a particular topic, and making a commitment of time and energy to a project. Use these skills to take charge of your job search.
Read articles involving job trends and the future of the job market. The Career Services Library has books on job trends as well as up-to-date magazine articles.
Taking time to look at who you are is an important step in the job search process. It is necessary to understand who you are so that you can make appropriate decisions in finding a career that is a good "fit" for you. In addition, knowing yourself helps you better sell yourself to employers.
There are several good books in the Career Services Library to guide you through self-assessment exercises.
Skills of a graduate student:
Once you have identified the product "you," the next step is to identify markets for the product. What career fields would value what your product has to offer? Where is there a good fit for you? This takes time to research several different career fields. How do you go about finding about career fields? Talk to as many people as possible, read books on the professions, if possible get some experience through an internship.
The actual job search requires you to rely on your entrepreneurial skills. Be resourceful, scan for opportunities, and make an investment with your time and energy. You are in charge of creating your own self-marketing campaign.
In order to present yourself effectively through a resume, cover letter, and interview it is necessary to acknowledge the stereotypes that exist between academic and business people (outside world). If you are aware of the stereotypes, it will better prepare you to prove you have the skills to make the transition to the outside the academic world.
Interviewers want to know three things:
Before your interview research the organization, read the company literature, look up their website, read related industry articles, and talk with Dartmouth alumni who work at the organization.
Always follow up with a typed thank-you letter. It gives you one last chance to market yourself and shows you have social skills.