We know students often approach the wonderful and knowledgeable faculty at Kogod for career advice and assistance. Career Development wants to support faculty in having these meaningful career conversations. We have compiled a few common examples of student career questions that you might receive (based on feedback). Always reach out to the Career Development staff for additional support.
The staff in Career Development have their pulse on market trends and the industry. A few of them recently came from industry. I would recommend reaching out to your career coach. You can find the correct person on their website and schedule in the Kogod Talent Network. If you would like to email them to start an initial conversation, reach out to the Associate Director of Undergraduate Career Development or Associate Director of Graduate Career Development.
Career Development has templates linked on their website for undergraduate students, graduate students, and MBA students.
In addition, Career Development partners with a system called Quinncia, which will score your resume similar to the way corporations score resumes. Quinncia will evaluate your resume in comparison to a job description and how it will interact with an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), which is used by 90% of companies/organizations.
The short answer is RESEARCH: company, position, and market. You should also work with a career coach, as Kogod career coaches have had great success in preparing students for interviews. Students who have prepared with career coaches have landed jobs at Microsoft, Amazon, Marriott, PWC, large banks, and more. Reach out Career Development to conduct a mock interview via the Kogod Talent Network or contact your career coach directly.
You can also start the process with Quinncia. Quinncia will customize interview questions based on your experience and the job description. It will score your interview based on nonverbal communication and content.
If you are hoping to secure positions in consulting or anywhere that uses casing, start months in advance. The methodology behind case interviews is too much to learn 2 weeks before an interview. This comes from student and personal experience! Career Development has a great resource to get you started in case interview preparation – Case Coach.
If students come with specific questions you can answer right away do so! However often times they are looking for a sounding board. Here are some tips:
- Ask open ended questions
- Help them breakdown their concerns or ideas into SMART goals or bite sized steps
- Share resources, contacts and your expertise to help them grow their understanding of careers, or to help them see other opportunities
- Brainstorm with them ways they can learn or gain experience in those areas of interests (class projects, student clubs, research, etc)
Typically, markets ebb and flow. If you are passionate about the industry, you should pursue it or figure out additional skills and experiences that can help you break into the industry later in your career. Talking to industry professionals via coffee chats and informational interviews are a great way to determine necessary skills and experiences. You can look at current job market and market trends through MBA Exchange (MBAs ONLY) or Careernomics (Undergraduates and MS students). Note: these are sister platforms.
How have you been searching and applying? Mass applying to 500 jobs will not work. Have you looked at the positions posted in the Kogod Talent Network? Positions are posted under “OCI and Job Listings.” These are jobs posted specifically for Kogod students, and the Industry Engagement professionals might have significant contacts at these companies.
Have you looked on Careernomics (undergraduates and MS students) and MBA Exchange (MBAs ONLY). These websites focus on careers in business and highlight key development programs and other great internship and job opportunities.
Finally, remember the power of networking to uncover hidden jobs. Networking is responsible for 75-85% of jobs secured. Career Development can help with your job search strategy. Schedule your appointment through the Kogod Talent Network.
This is very common first start off with reframing this indecision as open-mindedness! It is okay to not have a plan, that leaves you open to exploring the wonderful and varied world of work, but first we also should learn more about them, remember they are V.I.P.S.
Start by digging into what are they tasks or projects/assignments they’ve liked working on? What skills do they enjoy using? What are your interests? What gets you passionate or motivated? What is your style of work or decision making? How does your personality or identities impact how you work? What are your values for work? What do you need from a job or company?
Some sample questions:
- What have you learned about yourself since coming to AU?
- What is troubling you at this moment?
- What are you hoping to discover?
- What have been your most enjoyable or eye-opening courses so far?
- Tell me how you have shown up in group assignments?
- What are some steps you can take to continue your exploration?
Another area to get them exploring is the world of work, see if they know about the different industries or sectors available to them. Talk through function and positions for them to think about the set of tasks they would be doing. We have some great resources for this as well!
Do you need a letter of recommendation or a reference? A reference is normally required by a company or organization. There are times when you need to provide a list of references when you apply for a position. Other times, perspective employers will request references once they have interviewed finalists and are about to make a hiring decision. If you are being asked for a reference, you will need to provide my contact information including:
Name
Title, American University, Kogod School of Business
Phone Number
For a reference, the company will call me and ask me about your work and course performance. Please note, that they will also ask me about the duration of our professional relationship. I will be honest with them so please make sure I am your best advocate.
It is rare that a company would request a letter of recommendation. If they do, please provide me with instructions and guidelines including the position description and your resume.
The different tasks or divisions of labor students have in their homework and projects is a great way of understanding what functions or tasks they like to do and this can be very helpful in students thinking about their future careers options.
If you notice your student leaning towards more detail-oriented work or data they could be interested in Accounting or Analytics roles. If they tend to take on leadership or management of the project they may be interested in Management roles. If they are constantly solving problems before anything else, have them look into Consulting or Entrepreneurship opportunities.
The best way to have these conversations is to ask the student about their career interests first. See what they are considering. Ask them open-ended or ‘why’ questions to hear their reasonings. Consider paraphrasing or summarizing what students are sharing. This allows them to hear their experience through someone else’s lens, provides additional descriptive language that previously may not have been considered, and reaffirms how the experience may or may not connect with their values, interests, skills and goals.
Finally you can offer your insights and share what behaviors you’ve seen from them and how certain roles may be best for that student to look into next or what skills they should develop to grow into that career. Offer resources to get them started as well as connect them with our office and resources.
Let us know if you have any other concerns or questions about having career conversations with students by emailing kogodcareers@american.edu with any questions or concerns.