Reference no: EM133382044

This will be your first submission of Section 1 of your portfolio which is focussed upon your job search and career. In this section, you will answer three basic questions:
• what do I want in an employer and a career?
• what are employers looking for from prospective employees?
• what skills, qualities, attributes do I possess?
• how do I find and get the job I want?

To properly answer these questions, you will first need to learn more about yourself starting with simple ideas such as introvert/extrovert, prefer country/rural setting or prefer urban/suburban setting, what is most important to you (e.g. money, benefits, fit, company culture, travel, . . .), and many more questions too numerous to list. I suggest visiting the RU Center for Career and Talent Development where they have many assessments available to help you answer some of these questions. If you are not already registered with the Center, you should be. You can also find all kinds of assessments online and in the library to help you answer these questions. What I am looking for in your portfolio is a succinct statement of who you are and what you want with citations for how you came to that conclusion. By the way, don't forget that discussions with family, faculty, mentors, faith leaders, etc., can be a part of this process.
The second step is to discover what employers are looking for. To do this, you need to explore advertisements/announcements for jobs. You may use any method you wish to document what you find (i.e. spreadsheet, text, . . .). Someone will surely ask, "how many jobs do I need to find?". The answer is, enough, and you will know it when you see it. Specifically, you need to be keeping track of specific skills, qualities, education, experience, etc., that employers are seeking. Keep in mind that soft skills are often listed in these advertisements and you need to keep track of those as well.

The third step is take a hard look at the qualities, skills, attributes, education and experience that you possess and critically analyze how that matches up with the ads that you are finding. Be honest with yourself in this section and be careful to separate proficiencies from those things with which you are familiar. For example, if you have written one program in Python, you are familiar with Python not proficient in it. On the other hand, if you have had three semesters of Java completing 15 projects in the language, you are proficient in Java. Don't forget any certifications you may have earned in this section as well.

The last step in this section is to build a sample cover letter and resume. For this exercise, you are to build a cover letter and resume for a specific job from the list that you put together for the second step. Be sure that you are addressing the specifics for their ad!