In light of the ResetERA professionals thread, I thought it would be a good idea to create a space for those members who aren't quite where they want to be in terms of career prospects or education goals. Feel free to share your situation, advice for finding a job, or narrowing down a career path.
About myself: 22 year old guy, going to community college in January. I'm planning to take get an animation AA since it relates to my final goal of becoming an illustrator. After that, I plan to transfer to a large public university with a well regarded painting program. Right now I'm grinding away at a retail job and working on my portfolio at night. I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping there's someone here who's been in the same boat.
Resources and Links (send me links and I'll post them)
Occupational Outlook Handbook: A useful overview of careers, average wages, and the education requirements of a wide variety of fields.
Professional and Cultural Minority Organizations
Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA): An organization focused "to empower and develop Latino men and women as leaders of character for the nation, in every sector of the global economy." Has over 80,000 members.
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE): SHPE changes lives by empowering the Hispanic community to realize its fullest potential and to impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support and development. SHPE's vision is a world where Hispanics are highly valued and influential as the leading innovators, scientists, mathematicians and engineers."
National Association of Black Accountants (NABA): "The goals of the Association include encouraging and assisting minority students entering the accounting profession, and to represent the interests of current and prospective minority accounting professionals."
Society of Illustrators (SOI): "The Society of Illustrators' mission is to promote the art of illustration, to appreciate its history and evolving nature through exhibitions, lectures and education, and to contribute the service of its members to the welfare of the community at large."
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI): The SCBWI acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people." The organization has over 22,000 members.
The following is courtesy of bgbball31. Please take a look!
Hey Resetters, I remember having a topic on this previously, and figured it might be helpful the bring it on over with a bit more added to it (hopefully). I'll be posting links to job sites around the web, helpful links for resume building, tips for interview questions, and what to bring to an interview besides your resume, among other information. Feel free to let me know any other things you want to know or links to add to the opening post so that we can help as many people as possible! With that said, let's start!
First, let's find a job!
Job Sites: With all of these, YMMV. After making an account, if you so choose, make sure to go into your account settings and set whether you are currently looking or not, and what you are looking for, as well as upload a resume. Not everything you need to begin searching or opening yourself up to employers will be listed up front. Many of these sites have an easy apply option. The listed job site is a general job site unless otherwise noted.
Indeed
ZipRecruiter
Glassdoor
Monster
LinkedIn – A social media job site that is great for networking, but also acts as a job search site with a resume upload and a place to list your skills.
Dice – A site that focuses on jobs in the tech industry.
Science Careers – A site that, obviously enough, focuses on careers in physical, life, and health sciences (though there is an option for "other.") I will warn that a lot, though not all, are for post-doc/PhD level.
But what if I need to write a cover letter?
I personally like this guide by NPR, because it talks about where most cover letters go wrong and what to do. I've also found that doing them in this way it becomes a less monotonous experience writing them because each cover letter will be more than slightly different.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/201...-things-that-are-wrong-with-your-cover-letter
That's not to say this style is perfect, and many may prefer a more traditional cover letter, others may feel as though the position they are applying for should have a more formal letter. In that case, check out some of these links below.
https://careercenter.georgetown.edu...ver-letters/formatting-your-cover-letter.html
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c9_p2.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2014...e-t-cover-letter-the-only-type-worth-sending/ - This is a different type of cover letter, that conveys the information in a graphically different way.
Now, you got your interview, what should you do next?
Prepping for an interview is highly important. Walking into an interview prepared shows the interviewer that you care about their time and the position you have applied for. One interesting tip that I've been given is that when you set up your portfolio for the interview, put your resume (if it is two pages) in there so that both pages can show at once. Other tips can be found below:
https://www.fastcompany.com/1839723/10-job-interview-tips-ceo-headhunter
https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-ultimate-interview-guide-30-prep-tips-for-job-interview-success
https://www.pongoresume.com/articles/48/interviewing-tips-hiring-managers.cfm
Interviews vary from industry to industry, so I focused on general tips instead of specific. That said, it is a good idea to look up common questions asked in your industry, or on Glassdoor's website they have an interview question where people will post exactly what they were asked when they interviewed at the company you are looking at.
Also, have a list of questions to ask the interviewer! It again tells the interviewer that you are interested in learning more about the company and the job of interest. In this case, not all questions are good. Here are two links with questions to ask, and ones to avoid.
Avoid these questions: https://www.thebalance.com/questions-not-to-ask-an-employer-during-a-job-interview-2061107
Some questions to think about: https://money.usnews.com/careers/ar...artest-interview-questions-you-could-ever-ask
What if I don't like the industry I'm in?
This is where I need some help too, so I'm hoping people will fill in some gaps here. I got my degree in Education and don't want to be a teacher, so what are some options open to me, besides going back to school (though that isn't off the table for me)?
Hopefully the formatting holds, but feel free to use what you want out of it!
______________________
About myself: 22 year old guy, going to community college in January. I'm planning to take get an animation AA since it relates to my final goal of becoming an illustrator. After that, I plan to transfer to a large public university with a well regarded painting program. Right now I'm grinding away at a retail job and working on my portfolio at night. I know it's a long shot, but I'm hoping there's someone here who's been in the same boat.
Resources and Links (send me links and I'll post them)
Occupational Outlook Handbook: A useful overview of careers, average wages, and the education requirements of a wide variety of fields.
Professional and Cultural Minority Organizations
Association of Latino Professionals For America (ALPFA): An organization focused "to empower and develop Latino men and women as leaders of character for the nation, in every sector of the global economy." Has over 80,000 members.
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE): SHPE changes lives by empowering the Hispanic community to realize its fullest potential and to impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support and development. SHPE's vision is a world where Hispanics are highly valued and influential as the leading innovators, scientists, mathematicians and engineers."
National Association of Black Accountants (NABA): "The goals of the Association include encouraging and assisting minority students entering the accounting profession, and to represent the interests of current and prospective minority accounting professionals."
Society of Illustrators (SOI): "The Society of Illustrators' mission is to promote the art of illustration, to appreciate its history and evolving nature through exhibitions, lectures and education, and to contribute the service of its members to the welfare of the community at large."
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI): The SCBWI acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people." The organization has over 22,000 members.
The following is courtesy of bgbball31. Please take a look!
Hey Resetters, I remember having a topic on this previously, and figured it might be helpful the bring it on over with a bit more added to it (hopefully). I'll be posting links to job sites around the web, helpful links for resume building, tips for interview questions, and what to bring to an interview besides your resume, among other information. Feel free to let me know any other things you want to know or links to add to the opening post so that we can help as many people as possible! With that said, let's start!
First, let's find a job!
Job Sites: With all of these, YMMV. After making an account, if you so choose, make sure to go into your account settings and set whether you are currently looking or not, and what you are looking for, as well as upload a resume. Not everything you need to begin searching or opening yourself up to employers will be listed up front. Many of these sites have an easy apply option. The listed job site is a general job site unless otherwise noted.
Indeed
ZipRecruiter
Glassdoor
Monster
LinkedIn – A social media job site that is great for networking, but also acts as a job search site with a resume upload and a place to list your skills.
Dice – A site that focuses on jobs in the tech industry.
Science Careers – A site that, obviously enough, focuses on careers in physical, life, and health sciences (though there is an option for "other.") I will warn that a lot, though not all, are for post-doc/PhD level.
But what if I need to write a cover letter?
I personally like this guide by NPR, because it talks about where most cover letters go wrong and what to do. I've also found that doing them in this way it becomes a less monotonous experience writing them because each cover letter will be more than slightly different.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/201...-things-that-are-wrong-with-your-cover-letter
That's not to say this style is perfect, and many may prefer a more traditional cover letter, others may feel as though the position they are applying for should have a more formal letter. In that case, check out some of these links below.
https://careercenter.georgetown.edu...ver-letters/formatting-your-cover-letter.html
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c9_p2.html
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2014...e-t-cover-letter-the-only-type-worth-sending/ - This is a different type of cover letter, that conveys the information in a graphically different way.
Now, you got your interview, what should you do next?
Prepping for an interview is highly important. Walking into an interview prepared shows the interviewer that you care about their time and the position you have applied for. One interesting tip that I've been given is that when you set up your portfolio for the interview, put your resume (if it is two pages) in there so that both pages can show at once. Other tips can be found below:
https://www.fastcompany.com/1839723/10-job-interview-tips-ceo-headhunter
https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-ultimate-interview-guide-30-prep-tips-for-job-interview-success
https://www.pongoresume.com/articles/48/interviewing-tips-hiring-managers.cfm
Interviews vary from industry to industry, so I focused on general tips instead of specific. That said, it is a good idea to look up common questions asked in your industry, or on Glassdoor's website they have an interview question where people will post exactly what they were asked when they interviewed at the company you are looking at.
Also, have a list of questions to ask the interviewer! It again tells the interviewer that you are interested in learning more about the company and the job of interest. In this case, not all questions are good. Here are two links with questions to ask, and ones to avoid.
Avoid these questions: https://www.thebalance.com/questions-not-to-ask-an-employer-during-a-job-interview-2061107
Some questions to think about: https://money.usnews.com/careers/ar...artest-interview-questions-you-could-ever-ask
What if I don't like the industry I'm in?
This is where I need some help too, so I'm hoping people will fill in some gaps here. I got my degree in Education and don't want to be a teacher, so what are some options open to me, besides going back to school (though that isn't off the table for me)?
Hopefully the formatting holds, but feel free to use what you want out of it!
______________________
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