Career Development Workshops Prepare SJSU iSchool Students for Job Market

News

Graduate students and alumni are highly encouraged to take advantage of the free career development workshops hosted by Jill Klees, a career counselor at San José State University (SJSU) and career center liaison to the School of Information. The online workshops are an excellent way for SJSU iSchool students and alumni to learn about the career resources available at SJSU and prepare themselves for the job market.

The first workshop entitled “Your New Career Starts Here!” is scheduled for Sept. 10, 2014. According to Klees, it was designed specifically for new students, but it is also useful for continuing students and alumni, too. “This topic also targets those students who have yet to connect with the career development resources,” said Klees. “The iSchool provides some really outstanding career resources and yet there are still students and even alumni that are unaware of what exists or have not taken advantage of what is available.”

On Oct. 1, 2014, Klees will be hosting a workshop on the topic of “How Do You Represent Yourself to the World Online?” which will help students and job seekers learn how best to use online resources such as LinkedIn to represent themselves to future employers. The third in the four-part career workshop series, taking place on Nov. 5, 2014, will showcase the best strategies for filling out applications, designing resumes, and other paper-based aspects of the job search. On Dec. 3, 2014, Klees will cover how to best prepare for job interviews.

The workshops are hosted via the web conferencing platform, Blackboard Collaborate, and are open to all students and alumni. Klees enjoys having a lot of attendees at the virtual workshops. “It creates great energy and helps to make the workshops even more interactive,” explained Klees. “I always encourage participants to ask questions.” Students do not need to prepare for the workshops in advance, but if they want to familiarize themselves with the materials on the career development website, which she helped to design, Klees will be more than happy to answer any questions that might arise.

According to Klees, it is important for students to use the career resources available to them as soon as possible upon enrolling in the graduate degree programs at the SJSU iSchool, and to keep using the career resources throughout their time at SJSU and after. “A key to job search success,” she explained, is “getting connected and taking advantage of the variety of resources available, whether it be participating in Career Colloquium sessions with professionals, attending my online workshops and asking questions, reading my monthly newsletter with career tips and strategies, or familiarizing themselves with career resources on the web, just to name a few options.”

Klees also recommends that students take advantage of the various opportunities available to them in the library and information science field early in their careers as students and often. She suggests that students “network with professionals in the field, volunteer and gain internship experience, join and get involved in student and/or professional organizations, attend workshops and conferences, [and] work with the iSchool faculty on special projects.” Klees added, “I find that the students who have really maximized their student experience are the ones who are most successful in their job search.”

The career workshops run from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm Pacific Time, and are recorded for students and alumni who cannot attend the live workshops. Recordings and transcripts will be made available on the career development website. For more information and links to the Blackboard Collaborate workshop sessions, see the workshop series web page.