Keyword Tips for MY JOBS

An Important part of the job search process is for students to complete self assessment exercises to ‘Know thyself’. Using their marketable skills as search words will help students get the most out of the “MY JOBS” function in CareerShift. Here’s a quick exercise to use as an example: First, have your student make a list of things he or she does well; i.e.. What do you do better and more easily than other people? Think of something at the work you’re doing now? Something you studied in school? A hobby, for instance. Write down your answers, no matter how unrelated they are to work. The goal is to get your creative juices flowing. Answer; sales, client service, managing projects, strategy, training people, sports. Second, have your student make a list of what skills he likes using most? For example, ask he or she what they would do even if they weren’t getting paid for it? Here’s what students may enjoy doing: Sales, strategy, training people, sports, fishing, travel. These are your student’s most-marketable skills — things he or she does well AND enjoys doing. They are: training ,sales, sports and strategy. Use these as keywords in “MY JOBS”; The keyword, “Training” in “Chicago” produced 5905 results. “Training MBA” produced 337 results. “Strategic sales” produced 1001 results. “Sports strategy” produced 39 results. Use these results to further your research in CareerShift. Research the companies, find what other positions they have available, what their job titles are, and then drill down contacts within those companies to find the appropriate employees that will make a good networking contact. Broadening job search keywords by using students’ marketable skills is a great way to start to figure out what companies are their target companies.