Are You Career Ready?

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Actively sought new perspectives, ideas
• Generated ideas and initiated projects
• Identified and solved problems
• Set realistic goals, priorities
• Thought creatively, on a deadline
• Made difficult, but informed, decisions
• Curious, willing to learn

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Complete a diversity workshop
• Plan and implement a project or program
• Help solve an organization-related problem
• Apply math or statistics to a class project
• Set goals, prioritize, creatively complete on deadline
• Discuss a case study, and its possible solutions
• Present an in-depth analysis of a social issue

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Spoke effectively to groups, networked
• Explained goals, gave specific examples
• Defined, explained, or analyzed information
• Helped to promote or sell a product
• Wrote clearly, concisely, persuasively, creatively
• Critiqued, edited, proofread document
• Translated or interpreted another language

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Refine proofreading, editing skills
• Collect samples of transparent, concise writing
• Clearly explain a complex topic, with specific examples
• Persuade, promote, sell on behalf of a group
• Use multi-media to create presentation
• Gain a lot of experience in public speaking
• Travel internationally, cross-culturally

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Appropriately expressed feelings in a group
• Worked well with individuals, one-on-one
• Listened/understood perspectives of others
• Comfortably accepted differing opinions
• Dealt patiently with difficult people
• Succeeded in attaining a common goal
• Used tact, diplomacy, or discretion

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Gain experience in group discussions
• Expose yourself to differing viewpoints
• Join a campus organization or teambuilding activity
• Train, advise, or support others
• Use any chance to strengthen interpersonal skills
• Practice dealing diplomatically with difficult people
• Make a quality contribution to a major group project

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Gathered, organized relevant information
• Directly surveyed, interviewed sources
• Conducted multi-source, online research
• Designed a flyer, brochure, or publication
• Wrote code for a computer
• Familiar with industry-specific software
• Conducted data analysis

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Write a paper, with at least 10 online resources
• Conduct, compile, and analyze an online survey
• Interview long-distance, by email or social media
• Learn, apply industry-specific computer skills
• Develop a budget or financial spreadsheet
• Design a PowerPoint, brochure, or web page
• Coordinate a group’s social media, run analytics

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Have taken the initiative
• Worked without supervision
• Organized others to achieve a goal
• Mediated or negotiated a difficult situation
• Hired, trained or supervised someone
• Decided a group’s course of action
• Wrote or presented a progress report

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Take the lead and coordinate a class project
• Note any job duties performed independently
• Look for opportunities to mediate group difficulties
• Watch a TED talk on Leadership
• Serve as an officer within an organization
• Supervise, mentor, train others
• Write an organization’s end-of-year report

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Demonstrated ethical behavior
• Detail-oriented, orderly, organized
• Multi-tasked well under tight time constraints
• Showed great attitude, excellent customer service
• Coordinated and followed through on projects
• Received and utilized constructive feedback
• Went above, beyond expectations, without fanfare

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Manage a daily schedule, balance class, work, life
• Maintain high GPA, especially within major
• Work a part-time job on or off campus
• Volunteer in an area related to your career
• Coordinate, follow through with a major project
• Show positive attitude, impressive customer service
• Attend an ethics class or workshop

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Have you:

• Engaged in career exploration
• Complete a resume and an online job application
• Participated in a professional job interview
• Have researched a specific internship
• Interviewed someone about their career
• Completed a Job Shadowing experience
• Can fully state future career goals

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Meet with a career counselor, find and set goals
• Learn to promote self, join a professional association
• Complete a resume and LinkedIn profile
• Attend career fairs, workshops, join
• Practice interviewing, in person or online
• Maximize use of social media in job search
• Network, informationally interview, find a mentor

What skills have you already applied (through academics, work, and extracurricular activities)? Do you:

• Appreciate the importance of diversity
• Take time to learn others’ backgrounds
• Champion the strengths, differences in us all
• Always improving your cultural competency
• Strive for a workplace that embraces diversity
• Treat others the way they want to be treated
• Never tolerate bullying or hateful behavior

Ways to practice, fine-tune and sharpen your skills:

• Join a student organization tied to diversity appreciation
• Volunteer in areas helpful to specific populations
• Attend events sponsored by SDI, USAC, other groups
• Train for and join the University Alliance
• Mentor a First Generation student
• Continually improve your cultural awareness
• Stand up for justice—it’s the right thing to do