Career toolkit: Finding jobs, internships, and opportunities

Hello, and welcome to MIT career advising and professional development’s career toolkit video series. In this video, I’ll be sharing with you the different approaches to finding jobs, internships, and other opportunities. I’m going to be going over resources that you can also find on our website at capd.mit.edu.

CAPD staff are all able to support you with a variety of career-related questions, whether you are certain about pursuing academia or industry, uncertain about what you would like to do, or find yourself at any point somewhere in the middle, CAPD is able to help you navigate your needs.

CAPD appointments are a great way to get tailored support on topics including major selection, job or internship search strategies, resume writing, cover letter writing, interview preparation, salary or offer negotiation, medical or graduate school applications, and more.

To schedule an appointment, click on Career Center in Handshake. There, you will see a button for appointments and can schedule a new appointment. You will select the type of appointment you need and can see available time spots.

Appointments vary in length, but most are between 30 minutes to an hour to accommodate your schedule. And appointments are offered year round. If you have an urgent need or do not find a time that works for your schedule, email CAPD at mit.edu to find possible options.

Now there is no one way to find a job, but there are some best practices to include as you do. Diversify your approach. Use multiple strategies concurrently to maximize your efforts. Make a plan by structuring your work so that you can hold yourself accountable.

Invest your time by finding an opportunity that will take time, energy, and effort. Be wise with your investment. Research your options. With the variety of opportunities that are out there, don’t feel like you have to focus on what is convenient, obvious, or easy.

Keep an open mind by being open to new experiences, connections, or approaches, and might help you find the perfect opportunity. Leverage your network. You are never alone in your job search. Find others who can support you on your journey. Stay motivated. The job search can be difficult. But if you find your right motivators, it will be less so.

Now, how have your peers been looking? According to recent graduating student survey data, a vast majority of your peers have diversified their approach in networking with alumni, friends and family, going to the career fair, utilizing employer websites, using CAPD or Handshake, and finding things through external job listings.

You’ll notice that there’s not necessarily one way to find a job, and so we encourage you to not only diversify your approach, but also research your options. To best help understand a little bit of the complexity of the job search, let’s take a look at the construct of the hidden job market.

In many ways, candidates tend to work at the top and start on down. Candidates typically will start with the job boards, maybe go to career fairs and events, but it might take them some time to build into their network individuals who can help them identify new opportunities.

What’s interesting about the hidden job market is that employers tend to work in the reverse direction. They tend to try and find candidates internally, and then utilize job boards as a last resort. If you know how to properly leverage the variety of opportunities that exist and diversify your approach, you might have a more successful search overall. And your network can help you find a job.

Ask yourself, do your networking contacts know what you’re looking for? You might want to share with them the types of roles you are considering, maybe organizations that you are interested in, and maybe even the timeline in which you are looking. They may know someone and could introduce you.

And a great way to do this is to ask for referrals. Really, it can be a referral for a consultation, a review of further action, or even a job. Referrals can help you build a connection with others simply through your shared relationship with someone else.

Even if your network may not directly work in the industry or organization you are targeting does not mean that they don’t know someone who is. And referrals are somewhat easy to do from a networking approach. Simply by connecting individuals, they might be able to connect you with a prospective employer.

It’s important to get organized to help you stay focused. We have a company connection finder based on Steve Dalton’s two-hour job search that you can access through our website. Starting with a focused list of organizations can help you identify networking connections that may help you grow your specific career pathway.

You can then prioritize your list based on the availability of connections, your personal interest level in the organization or employer, and the types and appeal of jobs they have available for you. Professional associations, host conferences, and events for networking provide professional development, and may also promote job opportunities to their members.

You can access things like CareerOneStop’s Professional Association Finder, O*Net’s occupation list, typically include relevant information about professional associations, and faculty and alumni may also have memberships and connections to professional associations and could recommend one to you.

Here are some of the ways professional associations can help you find a job. They use your networking skills to make connections, seek out credentials that may help certify your skill set among interested employers, access mentorship to become a leader, utilize niche job boards.

In working with recruiters, it’s important to understand what is their role and what type of recruiter they are? Recruiters are people whose job it is to enlist or enroll people as employees in the armed forces or as members of an organization.

The two types of recruiters include in-house recruiters. These are individuals who work for the company they are recruiting you for, interested in your experience, and maintaining the employer brand, and work closely with the hiring manager and work with you through the full cycle.

External recruiters serve as a third-party or vendor for the company. They can be more aggressive, fast-paced, and inconsistent in their approach. And typically, they’re focused on initial screening and sourcing and less on full cycle.

In communicating with employers and recruiters, keep in mind CAPD provides recruiting guidelines. All communication should be courteous, professional, and timely. Avoid bumping for a faster response.

Respond to employers within one to two business days. Not responding or ghosting can have a negative impact on an employer’s perception of you. Remember that your actions do not only impact the employer’s perception of you, but may also impact the greater MIT community.

In using job boards, there’s a wide variety of ways to find opportunities. Handshake, LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter are all job boards that typically have a wealth of opportunities listing for you. But you might also consider career pages on company websites, industry, or sector-specific job boards, and of course, professional association job boards.

Use keywords to find opportunities. Beyond searching for job titles, consider using other keywords relevant to your background. Consider adding technical skill names, programming languages, tools, or techniques, jargon specific to your previous work or research, topic areas you are familiar with that are related to your target occupations.

And certainly, use filters to find opportunities. Some boards may list thousands of positions, but do not apply for all of them. Consider how filters can help you focus by experience level, location, salary information, or certain other qualities you might have, such as your major, school year, graduation date, or GPA.

Passive searches are ways for employers to find you. For example, on LinkedIn, incorporating relevant keywords into your profile can help recruiters find you. It’s important to keep your profile up to date so they can identify your recent activity.

Handshake operates fairly similarly by keeping your profile up to date with new information, adding in areas of interest, courses, and other sections. The more you add, the better it is for them to find you.

Some job boards also allow individuals to upload a resume. Be cautious as access to these platforms may not be secure, and personal information on these documents can go into the wrong hands.

If you utilize a passive search strategy, make sure you check your inboxes. Recruiters may reach out to you at any time to invite you to events or an interview. Make sure you’re not missing anything by checking both your current inbox, as well as occasionally checking your spam folder so you’re not missing any sort of important opportunities.

In responding to recruiters’ outreach, make sure you review the message carefully to make certain it is not malware or a phishing attempt. If you suspect it is, do not interact. Conduct additional research on the recruiter and organization they work for or represent to determine it is not spam. If you suspect it is, do not respond.

Determine if the position described is, of course, of interest to you. And respond to the recruiter in a polite and professional manner if the position is of interest to you. If the position is not of interest to you but the organization is, or if the position and the organization are not of interest to you. Recruiters who have a positive impression of you are more likely to reach out again in the future.

So to recap, make sure when you invest your time, you’re finding a job, can be a job itself. There’s really no right way to find a job. So diversify your approach. Keep organized, keep focused by making a plan.

Research your options as plenty of information is out there. Leverage your network, not only to seek guidance, but also to seek support. Keep an open mind. Be flexible and adaptable. And finally, stay motivated. Keep your heart in it and stay positive.

So moving forward, we have several resources on our website, such as finding a job or internship and Handshake 101. You might also be interested in the CareerOneStop Professional Association Finder or O*Net Online.

Certainly, utilize these tools along with connecting with MIT alumni, attending employer events, booking an appointment on Handshake, or checking out any of our other career events. Thank you so much for joining me. And certainly check out all of our career toolkit videos. Topics include resumes, cover letters, elevator pitches, networking, the job search, and interviewing.