According to recent surveys, anywhere between 20 to 50 percent of college freshmen are undecided in their major from year to year and an estimated 75 percent of college students will switch their major while they’re in school. But uncertainty about your major is not something that you should be ashamed of. While selecting a major is a big choice, Marist students are not alone in doing so. Marist College provides students with numerous resources that can help them pick a major and decide on professional interests to pursue. Explore Options Using Academic Core Requirements Every student at Marist must complete their core academic requirement, which includes the Breadth and Pathway. The Breadth is completing one class in each of the following subjects: mathematics, history, fine arts, literature, natural sciences, ethics/religious studies, philosophy, and social science. There are a variety of courses in each category that you can choose to fulfill these requirements and you can use these courses to explore possible new passions. If you think you might be interested in majoring in economics, for example, you can take Introduction to Macroeconomics or Introduction to Microeconomics to meet your social science requirement. Pathways are sets of four courses that are centered on an interdisciplinary idea. Marist offers 23 different pathway options. Each pathway has more than a dozen different courses that can count toward the pathway. The only requirement for the pathway is that the four courses you choose must come from three different departments. There are pathways focused on languages, ethnic or religious studies, and other interdisciplinary areas. The Public Health Studies pathway links the science and psychology departments, while the Legal Studies pathway offers course options in political science, history, ethics, the paralegal program, and more. If you have questions about your pathway or would like to know more about your class options make an appointment with your academic advisor or visit the Marist College Center for Advising and Academic Services in Donnelly 224. The FOCUS Program The Marist College Academic Learning Center also offers the FOCUS (Future Options and Choices for Undeclared Students) Program. Any student who comes to Marist undeclared is placed in the FOCUS program in the fall in order to help them decide on their major. As part of your Spring 2020 course load consider taking Career Planning and Decision Making. This one-credit course teaches students how to identify their values and traits and align them with possible career paths that are related to majors at Marist College. Take Inventories Using Focus 2 The Center for Career Services offers a free online resource for all Marist students called Focus 2. If you are unsure of your career or academic interests Focus 2 offers five different assessments based on your personality, skills, values, and work interests. These assessments cannot definitively tell you what you should do for the rest of your life, but they can help provide clarity and insight on what you might be interested in moving forward. You can register for a free Focus 2 account using a specific Marist access code. By using Focus 2 you can also see possible career options for students in certain majors. You can also perform a reverse search by exploring careers and finding relevant skills often used in particular roles within a career cluster. Working the search filters will allow you to narrow down majors that are the best fit for you. The career coaches in the Center for Career Services also offer appointments for career advising and can give you information on how the major you may choose could relate to your future career path. Schedule a career coaching appointment in FoxQuest if you need additional assistance. Do Some Soul Searching Take some steps to figure out who you are and what you are best at. Think back on your past experiences. What clubs and activities were you involved in during high school? What did you enjoy about them? Look at the skills that you know you already have. What industries or careers might they be applicable in? You can also look to people that you admire and see what fields they are working in. Are they happy and successful in those fields? Get Advice from Additional Trusted Sources If you are still unsure about what to major in try getting a personal opinion. It’s a good idea to ask your friends, family members, former teachers, and other people that you’re close with for their input. They could provide insight on your top skills. You can also reach out to professors or academic advisors. If you are planning to do an informational interview you will need to think about what talking points you would like to discuss. You should do research on the company that the person you are speaking with works for. The graphic below provides some great examples of things that you can ask during an informational interview. You’re Not Trapped Within Your Major
Remember that your major is ultimately your choice and it should influence your own personal and professional goals for the future. Many of the majors at Marist have flexibility built into them and can take many different career trajectories. If you feel your major alone isn’t aligning completely with your aspirations look into adding a minor or concentration in order to complement and/or supplement the work that you are doing. Your major itself will not necessarily define your professional life after college. The work that you put into acquiring knowledge will.
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So it has been a few months since you graduated from Marist and you have yet to find full-time employment. Know that you are not alone. Don’t compare yourself to your peers or let fear and anxiety get the best of you. If you are still worried about your situation here are a few things to remember as you continue your job search.
Don’t Get Thrown Off by the Experience Requirement What often turns many entry level job seekers away from certain positions is the line on the application that states the company is looking for a candidate with one to three years of experience. Knowing that they do not meet this qualification, many recent graduates don’t apply for the job. This is a mistake. You should still apply for the job. Companies often set their expectations high even for entry level roles. If you have the right background and skills needed for a job and some relevant work or internship experience, the company might consider you for the position. When in doubt, apply. The job that you think you will never get because you don’t have years of qualifications could be the one that provides the jump start for your career. Be Persistent It’s common to feel defeated and want to give up after a few months of sending out applications and not securing a position. But keep hiring cycles in mind. Oftentimes larger companies do the majority of their hiring in the summer months as they try to grab as much new talent as they can. Smaller companies and startups on the other hand, hire on the basis of need and may have positions available year round. Thus, you will still likely find new job openings in your field regularly. You should also reapply for jobs that might have opened up again at the same organization. Companies could underestimate the amount of employees that they need due to high turnover or an unexpected merger or acquisition for instance. Develop a New Skill Companies are interested in the skills that you bring to the table. The degree you earned or the school that you attended is not always the biggest determining factor in you earning the position. There are many ways to expand your skill set nowadays. Codecademy can teach you how to build websites and analyze data. Resources like Alison offer free online courses in areas such as project management and finance. Many platforms provide free online certifications in marketing and software such as WordPress or Creative Commons. Remember to put these certifications on your resume as you earn them. Taking the initiative to acquire more technical skills will show a prospective employer that you are driven and willing to learn. Think Outside of the Box As a recent college graduate, you are probably still at a point in our life where you have few commitments and a lot of opportunities to do unique things. Keep yourself open to opportunities that might arise even those that are not in your field nor directly align with your interests. All experience in the workforce can be built upon as long as you are willing to learn from it. Contract or freelance work could be another option to explore during your job search. Although it lacks the stability and benefits of a full-time job, freelancing allows for more flexible scheduling so that you can continue to develop the skills you have been working on while sending out applications for positions that attract you. Temporary work will allow you to expand your network and hopefully give you insight on whether or not you want to remain in your desired industry. Consider volunteer work if you are not employed full-time. Research has shown that candidates appeared more favorable to employers when they listed service and volunteer activities on their online profiles. Volunteer work shows employers that you are willing to help others and well-rounded. Remember Your Core Professional Development Techniques Networking still is and will always be a very important part of your professional life. Many of the resources that you had available to you as a Marist student are still available to you as an alum. For example, you still have access to FoxQuest to search for jobs. You can also utilize the Marist College Alumni Career Network to connect with other Marist alumni who work in your desired industry. Schedule informational interviews with Marist alumni who are established professionals in your industry. During these interviews you can discuss what the average day of work is like, how they got into the field they are currently working in, and more questions. The purpose of these informational interviews is not to land a job, but rather to give you perspective on how to break into your industry or give you a contact that may be able to help you in the future. Don’t Give Up Hope Your job search by itself can feel like a full-time job. The job market is competitive and you might feel completely unprepared to enter it. But as a Marist College graduate you have developed the skills to work in a full time role effectively. You still have resources available to assist you, so take the time that you have to assess your skills and think about what you want out of your professional life. Develop your skills and acquire new ones while applying for positions. There are jobs out there. You just have to find and get hired for one.So it has been a few months since you graduated from Marist and you have yet to find full-time employment. Know that you are not alone. Don’t compare yourself to your peers or let fear and anxiety get the best of you. If you are still worried about your situation here are a few things to remember as you continue your job search. If you have been following trends in the recruiting process you might have seen the term Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) pop up frequently. As employers and hiring managers have seen a drastic increase in the number of applications that they are receiving in the Digital Age they have begun to switch from viewing each resume individually to using ATS to organize and pre-rank all of the applications. With this new method of screening candidates there are additional steps you need to take to format your application for a job or internship to increase the chance it will get in front of a hiring manager. We will answer questions regarding ATS and advise you on how to best format your applications so they have the best chance of moving on to the next stage of the job recruitment process. What are ATS? As defined by Jobscan, applicant tracking systems are automated software tools that help employers by organizing all of the applications and resumes that are sent to them. ATS are used as alternatives to crowding offices and flooding email inboxes with paper applications. Why Are Employers Using ATS? Employers use ATS more than to just sift through resumes. They also use the software to coordinate with other departments in the company throughout the whole hiring process. For example, many employers use ATS to schedule interviews. Once a candidate has been hired, human resources personnel cam use the system to put employees on payroll. How Common are ATS? There are currently hundreds of types of Applicant Tracking Systems out there and nearly every company uses one in some way shape or form. A report by Jobscan found that 98 percent (all but nine) of Fortune 500 companies use ATS in their hiring processes. Keywords to Optimize Your Resume With the development of ATS it is more important than ever to tailor your resume to each individual job that you are applying for. You should go over your resume and focus on the aspects that you believe will be the most important and relevant for each individual position you are applying for. Most Applicant Tracking Systems are set by the employers to look for keywords. If a resume does not have these keywords it will likely be rejected by the system and a human will never see it. The most common keywords that employers set their ATS to look for are the title of the position. Skills are another important keyword that ATS are usually set to look for. The list of skills can vary depending on the position. However, you should have a set of transferable skills that you should put in every version of your resume. Examples of these “soft skills” include, but are not limited to, communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and creativity. Choose Your Words Wisely Since most Applicant Tracking Systems are set to pick out certain keywords in a resume, you should make sure that the words in your resume will be recognizable. You should avoid acronyms as much as possible even if they are common within your industry. While a human looking at the resume may know what a certain acronym means, the computer may find it ambiguous. Applicants should also keep the headings on their resumes simple. The best headings for your employment history, are either “professional experience” or “work history”. Anything more complex than that might not be recognized by the ATS when it is reviewing your resume. Make sure the dates of your previous jobs are also accurate. You also need to make sure that your resume still represents your skills and experiences. Don’t put keywords in for the sake of keywords. It’s not a good idea to try to fool the system by putting words in white text so that they appear invisible to the human eye but not the ATS. When the resume gets to a human reviewer they will be able to notice those tricks and will most likely disregard your application for being dishonest. Formatting is Important Jobscan has twenty ATS-friendly resume formats that you should use when applying for a job. In general, resumes should be saved as either Microsoft Word or PDF formats. You should also avoid using charts or diagrams in your resume since most Applicant Tracking Systems are unable to read them. If you need to outline or use data your best bet is to stick to bulleted points that are simple and direct. Fonts can be important too. Applicant Tracking Systems are best able to read Arial, Calibri, Georgia and Helvetica. Always Follow the Instructions An applicant tracking system will take a more systematic approach reviewing your resume than a human will. The ATS will not know how to compensate for any errors you might make. Common mistakes that an ATS may not pick up on include uploading a document under the wrong name or submitting a cover letter when you were supposed to submit a resume and vice versa. These mistakes will cause an application to be marked as invalid by an ATS. Always double and triple check that your applications are formatted and submitted under the correct employer guidelines. The workings of Applicant Tracking Systems might sound complicated and overwhelming, but they are a now an integral part of the job search. Following these extra simple tips will help your resume stand out to the system and make sure that it will not slip through the cracks. What Am I Supposed to Be Doing Again? Part IV: Professional Development During Senior Year10/1/2019 This is it, senior year. A time that can be both exciting and frightening.
The final year of our Four Year Career Plan, senior year is about preparing for life after Marist. Here are some things to think about and career services tools to use in your last year as an undergraduate student. The career coaches and other staff members in the Center for Career Services can help you market the skills and experiences you have gained to achieve your future goals. Secure References One of the most important things that you should do when you begin your senior year is continue to network and secure references. Professional references are people you have built relationships with who can speak to the development of your attributes and skills as well as your achievements. Consider your professors, advisors, and/or past internship supervisors to be your references for example. You should always get the other person’s permission before you list them as a reference on any job applications. The Muse has a great article that gives tips on how to ask someone to be your reference. The piece even provides a template that you can use to model when you create your request. Remember to be polite, appreciative, and ask your reference to focus on the skills and experiences that are relevant to the position that you are applying for. Apply for Jobs Using FoxQuest and CareerShift There are many different avenues to apply for entry level jobs, but it is recommended that you begin with a couple resources. You do not want to be flooded with dozens of positions that you are not qualified for or are not within your field of study. FoxQuest and CareerShift are good starting points to sift through job openings. Some available positions in FoxQuest are even posted by Marist alumni. CareerShift, which can be accessed through your FoxQuest account, can help you organize your application materials and find more postings. Marist students can create a free CareerShift account and no access code is needed. You can search the job boards on both resources using filters such as location, job type, and qualifications, which will show you only positions that interest you. Remember that you should tailor your resume and cover letter for each individual job application that you are submitting. Going Forward As students we are often inundated with advice and information on how to best succeed in our careers. However, if taken apart into smaller pieces, a student can work over time to develop their professional goals and interests and be able to graduate from Marist confident that they are prepared for the professional world in which they are entering. |
AuthorInformation on the latest professional development trends and advice, plugs for Marist College Center for Career Services events and initiatives, and stories from your Marist peers. Content is produced by Marist students for Marist students. Categories |