Virtual Toolkit for Students 

     

During this period of USM campus closures, students are encouraged to dedicate some time to individual career planning and development.  While there are numerous virtual resources available online, the following are some recommended resources available to students at no cost.    In accordance with our efforts to ensure students are provided the most current information possible, these resources will be continuously updated throughout USM's campus closures. 

Career Readiness Virtual ELearning Modules

Professionalism and Work Ethic
This course will increase your self-confidence and independence by equipping you with a broad range of professional skills. You will learn proper professional employee etiquette, including how to communicate via email and meetings, how to dress as you hope to be perceived, and how to be a reliable coworker. You can bring these skills with you for the rest of your professional career!
 
Networking 101
Networking isn’t a transaction, it’s a relationship that begins by finding connections and showing interest in others. Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, you can become successful at networking by learning mindsets and skills to prime yourself for effective networking and by creating a personalized networking strategy that centers on your strengths and goals. Explore your personal network and learn how to prepare for networking opportunities in this quick course.
 
Write an Impactful Cover Letter 
This course increases your self-confidence and independence by equipping you with career readiness skills to set you on the path to earning an internship or job offer. With these skills, you are heading on an action-oriented path to achieve your first internship or job offer, and you can apply these skills to every job application in your future.
 
Create a Winning Resume
This course increases your self-confidence and independence by equipping you with career readiness skills to set you on the path to earning an internship or job offer. With these skills, you are heading on an action-oriented path to achieve a job offer, and you can apply these skills to every job application in your future.
Enroll in Module
 
Practice a Mock Interview
This course increases your self-confidence and independence by equipping you with a broad range of career readiness skills. You and your mock interviewer will review a list of potential questions that could be asked in a job interview and practice your responses to position yourself as an attractive candidate for the job or internship.
 
Prepare for a Job Interview
This course will equip you with interview preparation materials to boost your self-confidence in job interviews. Your materials include a set of personal cliff notes, a list of potential questions that could be asked, and a framework for optimistically answering interview questions with the STAR technique. These are designed to position you as an attractive candidate for the job or internship. You can bring these skills with you for the rest of your career!
 
Mastering the AI Interview
Artificial Intelligence, otherwise known as AI, is being integrated into the hiring process for many companies. For companies, the benefits of using AI are clear: it streamlines the hiring process, reduces time spent, and helps avoid biases in hiring decisions. For job applicants, the AI hiring process is new and evolving and may be intimidating. With this course, you will learn about AI interviews, how they are being used by companies, and how to successfully navigate this new technology. You will even practice doing different types of AI interviews.

Featured Virtual Services     

Students and recent graduates from programs at USG enjoy exclusive access to the following virtual career platforms (all usage fees paid by USG):

Career Planning - Focus 2 Career (Access Code: usg)
Log on for exclusive access to a personalized career planning system
 
Interview Preparation - Big Interview
Learn and practice your interview skills in the virtual world
 
Exploring Careers -  Virtual Job Shadow
Explore various jobs and industries through short video clips
 
Internships & Jobs Around the Globe - Goin Global (Coming Soon!)
Career and employment resources for globally minded individuals who want to expand their horizons
 
Career Intelligence - Vault (Coming Soon!)
Company rankings, reviews, and industry guides
 

Personalized Career Planning System

Focus 2 Career (Access Code: usg)
Log on to Focus 2 Career for exclusive access to a personalized career planning system.  Students at USG have access to the following tools:
 
My Career Planning Involvement        My Academic Strengths        Am I Career Ready?
Work Interest Assessment        Values Assessment        Personality Assessment        Skills Assessment       
Leisure Assessment        Major & Career Exploration        My Education Plan        My Professional Development Plan
 

Self-Assessment Tools

CareerOneStop Self-Assessments 

MyPlan.com

16 Personalities

123Test.com

CareerFitter.com

Career Exploration

CareerOneStop - Job trends, credentials, and salary information nationwide as well as by state.  

Careers.org

O*NET Online

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Lifeworks: Health & Medical Science Careers

Job & Internship Search

Cool Works - Connects adventurous job seekers with exciting seasonal and year-round job opportunities in" wild and beautiful" places around the world

Idealist - Job listings, articles, and tools for people interested in the nonprofit sector and careers for the "public good"

Internships.com - Provides over 100,000 internship listings from over 60,000 employers searchable by industry and location 

InternMatch - Provides thousands of listings for internships and entry-level jobs for recent college graduates

Indeed - One of the largest job listing platforms in the world which provides job listings searchable by industry and location 

LinkedIn Job Search

CareerBuilder

WayUp

ZipRecruiter

Glassdoor

Monster

AfterCollege

CollegeRecuiter

SimplyHired

Resources for Career Changers

Careershifters

Developing a Career Change Plan

Ten Step Plan for Career Change

Transitioning to a Nonprofit Career

Identifying Transferable Job Skills

Finding Your Career Passion

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Federal Government Jobs

USAJobs

Pathways Internship Program

Pathways Recent Graduates Program

Pathways Presidential Management Fellows Program (PMF)

Regional Resources

Montgomery County Government Careers

Maryland State Jobs

WorkSource Montgomery

Montgomery County Volunteer Center

Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation

Rockville Economic Development

Nonprofit Montgomery

Military Careers

Military Careers

United States Army

United States Navy

United States Marine Corps

United States Air Force

United States Coast Guard

Maryland Army National Guard

Salary Information

NACE Salary Calculator - Hosted by the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE)

Salary Data by Occupation - Hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor Career OneStop

Starting Salary Projections: Class of 2020 - Provided by the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE)

Cost of Living by City - Hosted by CNN

Veterans Resources

GI Jobs

Feds Hire Vets

LinkedIn for Veterans

Hire Heroes USA

Hire Veterans

Professional Development Resources

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com)

Master Class - Learn from hundreds of free or low cost lessons from "masters" in their field as they share stories, skills, shortcuts, failures, and successes

Beyond the To Do List (iTunes Podcast)

iTunes What Great Bosses Know (iTunes Podcast)

Managing Your Career (LinkedIn Learning)

Managing Teams (LinkedIn Learning)

Managing for People Who Hate Managing (American Management Association)

Introduction to Project Management (Udemy)

21 Critical Lessons for Entrepreneurs (Udemy)

Negotiation Fundamentals (LinkedIn Learning)

Getting Started with Google Analytics (Udemy)

Additional Resources

Occupational Outlook Handbook - Information about employment by industry, job growth rates, salaries, and education requirements

Career One Stop - U.S. Department of Labor information including employment trends and salary data

The Career Project - Career profiles from experienced professionals including work environment, income, benefits, job satisfaction, and "a day in the life of" various careers

Projections Central - Short and long-term career projections by state