Begin your job search with Career Coach

Learning objectives

• Prepare to find a job.

• Create a job search plan.

• Explore in-demand jobs.

• Search for jobs on LinkedIn aligned with career goals.

• Learn strategies to stay motivated and resilient during a job search.

• Leverage your network during your job search.

Lesson 1: Plan your job search

Estimated duration: 1 hour, Level: Advanced   

1. Watch the LinkedIn Learning course to learn about how to have a successful job search (49m).

2. Review job market insights and reports from LinkedIn to learn about in-demand jobs.

3. Go to LinkedIn. Identify companies that interest you and follow them for updates.

4. Reflect on your goals to start developing a plan. For example, do you want to work at a specific company or in a certain location? Do you want to have a certain role, or just work in a certain field?

5. Pair with a peer in-person or on Microsoft Teams and discuss the goals you identified and listen to their goals. Give feedback on how those align and discuss their plans to get there.

6. Get advice from career services or your faculty advisor. Reviewing your saved jobs and goals and ask for help identifying which jobs you should apply to or if they have other role suggestions.

Lesson 2: Strategies to stay encouraged during job search

Estimated duration: 1 hour, Level: Advanced 

1. Watch the LinkedIn Learning course to learn about staying motivated during your job search (23m).

2. Reflect on which idea from the course could help you the most. How can you start using that idea now?

3. Pair with a peer in-person or on Microsoft Teams and share which idea each of you are using. Discuss your plans to start using that idea now.

4. Get advice from career services or your faculty advisor about how to stay motivated and ask about their own job searches.

Lesson 3: Explore job options and apply

Estimated duration: 1 hour, Level: Advanced 

1. Open Career Coach. Select Profile. If you haven't already, complete your profile. Review your skills. Delete any you don't want in your profile.

2. Select Careers. Use Filters to search careers by your skills. Save careers that interest you.

3. Go into Saved Careers and open one. Scroll to the bottom to explore current postings related to your career interest and apply to ones that you are interested in.

4. Go to LinkedIn. Search for jobs based on your goals, skills, and in-demand jobs from LinkedIn. Turn Job alerts to on and save jobs that interest you.

   Tip: Check out this video to learn how to search for jobs.

5. Consider starting a list to keep track of applications you’ve sent in.

6. Get advice from career services or your faculty advisor about postings you’re applying to and the application process.

Lesson 4: Engage your network

Estimated duration: 1 hour, Level: Advanced    

1. Watch the LinkedIn Learning course to learn about networking to find open jobs (49m).

2. Reflect on who you can ask from your network to help you find jobs. Are there people from specific companies or industries you want to connect with or are already connected with? How can you make connections and ask for help using what you learned in the course?

3. Open Career Coach. Select People. Select Filters. Search for alumni by company, industry, or location based on your goals and interests. Select an alumnus to connect with. When you’re ready to connect, select Connect to send a personalized message. Select Add a note, then add a Greeting and Why you want to connect. Select Send LinkedIn Invite in the bottom right corner.

4. Get advice from career services or your faculty advisor. Ask if there are any alumni working in the field or who have the career you’re interested in. You can also ask if there are any alumni who have studied what you want to study, and you can find out more about their career journey. 

Lesson 5: Build your job search resilience

Estimated duration: 1.5 hours, Level: Advanced

1. Watch the LinkedIn Learning course to learn about how to build resilience (34m) and what to do when you feel overwhelmed (43m).

2. Reflect on the parts of the job search that are stressful to you. What tools and skills can you use from the courses to manage stress and stay motivated?

3. Pair with a peer in-person or on Microsoft Teams and discuss your job search experiences. Discuss how you can overcome roadblocks, ways to de-stress, and other ways to manage the job search so it’s less overwhelming.

4. Get advice from career services or your faculty advisor about your job search and how you’re feeling so far. Ask if they have any suggestions to overcome roadblocks or how to make the experience less overwhelming.