NIU Career Services is dedicated to making a positive impact on NIU students by offering a strong foundation for career development success. As the gateway for future careers, NIU Career Services continues to develop new resources to help students best market themselves as they navigate their job search. (Editor’s note: February 11, 2020 is the Career Fair Prep Workshop; and February 19, 2020 is the All-Majors Internship and Job Fair.)
“While we are known for reviewing resumes, we offer a wide range of resources and services to guide students at each stage of their career preparation,” said Joyce Keller, associate director for career development.
Career Services has several new programs that broaden their service delivery to the NIU community. From LinkedIn workshops to one-on-one LinkedIn profile review sessions, a team of experts are ready to help.
“We recognize that LinkedIn is an important tool for job searching, networking, and professional branding, and are here to support students in acquiring the skills they need to present themselves on this platform,” Keller said.
Career Services offers both basic and advanced workshops to teach LinkedIn skills to students. Keller said the basic workshop teaches students how to create a LinkedIn profile as well as how to get more mileage from their profiles by doing things a little differently.
“Our goal is to get students the maximum value out of their LinkedIn profiles so they can showcase themselves at their very best,” Keller said. “We help students understand the differences between LinkedIn – their professional social media – and their personal social media and also to understand how LinkedIn fits into the many job and internship search tools they are acquiring while at NIU.”
Students bring laptops or mobile devices and work on their LinkedIn profiles while they are attending the workshops.
“I gained a lot from this experience,” said Molly Tomei, a senior majoring in Actuarial Science. “I was able to learn the key features of the program and some features that I think I would have missed if I did not take this workshop.”
Tomei said the free workshop is something fellow Huskies should add to their to-do list.
“If you are someone like me who just kept putting off making a LinkedIn account because the idea of making an account was stressful, I would really recommend going to this workshop,” Tomei said. “The moderators were really friendly and I felt comfortable enough to ask questions.”
Tomei left the workshop with a fully functional LinkedIn profile that will help her with her job search.
“I’m really glad that I went because I definitely feel more comfortable using LinkedIn,” Tomei said. “I learned how to make a well-rounded profile and received extra tips on what employers were looking for.”
Also new this fall is the career check-up, a 30-minute session where students meet one-on-one with a Career Services team member. These sessions are available during drop-in hours from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. when school is in session or by appointment.
“This new service allows any student to get a quick review of their career planning progress and leave with customized recommendations,” Keller said. “Some students will leave with the peace of mind that their career planning is in great shape while others will get the timely guidance they need to prevent more serious career concerns later on.”
The career check-up is suitable for students at any stage of their academic career but it is ideal for first and second year students or for transfer students.
“It’s for students who would like to know what they are doing well and for those who want to get some recommendations for what they need to be doing to keep their career planning on track,” Keller said. “It’s also a time to identify any career planning issues that are of concern.”
Keller said it’s an opportunity to be proactive with career planning rather than reacting to a challenging situation.
“Often students visit us to address a problem that is fully emerged,” Keller said. “This is an opportunity to take the steps that will help later on. Our goal is to prevent career concerns as much as possible and guide students along the way.”
For more information, go to Career Services, call 815-753-1641 or email CareerServices@niu.edu.
Fall 2019 events offered by Career Services include:
Oct 24 – Nov 19 Career Services Overview
Oct. 29 How to Use Huskies Get Hired
Oct. 30–Nov. 20 LinkedIn: Beyond the Profile
Nov. 4 Resume Writing: The Basics
Nov. 7 Nervous about Networking?
Nov. 11 LinkedIn Basics
Nov. 12 How to Use Huskies Get Hired
by and reposted from NIU Today, with light edit by M. De Jean, NIU Business Marketing Director
