Keeping Professional Development Continuous During Coronavirus

CALS remains committed to offering tips, advice, and learning recommendations so that our graduates and job seekers are better prepared to fulfill professional, academic, and personal goals and achieve career success. As a range of containment measures are implemented to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, consider how you can make the best use of your time. The following activities can help you gain valuable work skills to stand out in today's competitive job market.

1. Attend class! Attendance in class is a big indicator of your reliability and performance. Be in class and take advantage of the expertise and experience offered by our faculty.
2. Work on your resume and cover letter. Create these documents from scratch or customize existing ones. The Office of Career Services at CALS has moved to a remote format of service but remains available to assist students and alumni and can provide sample templates and expert advice.
3. Craft your elevator speech and define your professional persona.This is a brief but compelling summary (1 minute or less) of your background and experience and what skills you offer. It should be short but adequately explain who you are, what you can do, and why you should be considered. This introduction can be used during interviews, when you meet a potential business connection, at networking events, job fairs, career expos, in your resume, and on social media profiles.
4. Clean up your social media presence. Hiring managers look at social media accounts and posts to learn about potential candidates and their personalities, interests, and activities. Assess your online presence from an outside perspective, implement privacy settings, and scrub material that might be considered inappropriate. A regrettable post or photo could hurt your job search.
5. Create a professional e-portfolio and link it to your resume. An electronic portfolio is a digital compilation of work and other activities and evidence that showcases student learning, skill development, and career progression. It is assembled and managed on the web and typically includes files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks. Your class assignments can be used to customize and personalize the collection.
6. Access free online tutorials to improve your writing and typing. Many lessons are available that address spelling, grammar, punctuation and keyboarding skills. Online learning tools and resources can help you build upon your academic and technical skills.
7. Listen to podcasts and webinars.There is a rich landscape of informative recordings that support professional skills development and provide practical tips and inspiration on how to develop and succeed in your career.
8. Continue learning and reading. Employers value candidates who stay abreast of the latest industry trends and engage in activities that deepen their knowledge and improve career readiness.

There is fear and uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 situation. We are all grappling with it in different ways. However, you can take steps to keep your professional development continuous and strengthen yourself personally during this crisis. Hang in there!