Content and readings

Week 1 - Getting Started - Course introduction / Syllabus review

The Interviewing Skills course is intended to help you showcase your personality, strengths, interests, and abilities to potential employers. At this stage of your career exploration, you will have (or plan to) researched and targeted appropriate jobs and marketed yourself to these employers with an attention-getting resume and cover letter.

Tip: Throughout the course, I will share helpful tools - one of these, for watching and recording video and making notes is: TurboNote - available as an add-in for Google Chrome

• Transferable Skills worksheet

Unit 1 - Resumes & Cover Letters

• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Section 1: Purpose and Goal of a Résumé"
• Penn State University: Joe Schall's Style for Students Online: Chapter 8: Resumes" Page
• U.S. National Park Service: "Federal Resume Writing Workshop"
• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Section 6: Other Résumé Formats, Including Functional Résumés"

Unit 2: Key Components of the Resume & Cover Letter

Resume

• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Section 2: Header and Objective"
• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Section 3: Education Section"
• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Section 4: Work Experience"
• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Section 5: Skills, Additional Information, and References"

Cover Letter

• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 5, Section 1: The Cover Letter"
• Penn State University: Joe Schall's Style for Students Online: "Chapter 9: Professional Letters: Writing Cover Letters"
• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 5, Section 5: Sample Cover Letters"
• Education Program Manager Cover Letter

Career / Digital Portfolio

• Wikipedia: "Career Portfolio"]
• Digital projects / portfolio

Unit 3: Strengthening Your Resume and Cover Letter

Review Requirements

• Requirements for the Resume and Cover Letter assignment
• Transferable skills

Polishing Your Resume and Cover Letter

• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Introduction"
• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 4, Section 7: Documenting Problems: Gaps, Short Stints, and Merging Companies"
• 42Hire.com: Yu Yu Din's "3 Quick Tips to Help You Revamp your Resume or CV Effectively"
• Michelle Dumas' "10 Resume Writing Mistakes to Avoid"
• agoodresume: "Three Ways to Improve your Resume"
• 10 Resume Accomplishment Samples

Tailoring Your Resume and Targeting Your Job Search

Understand how to identify and target specific industries and jobs in your job search. When deciding to apply for a job, its best to identify the industry, the position, and the geographic location in which you want to work.

• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 3, Section 1: Three Elements of a Well-Defined Target" and "Section 2: Strategies to Match Your Interests to the Three Elements"

Going Online with Your Resume

• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 5, Section 2: The Online Profile"
• Six Steps To Job Search Success: "Chapter 11, Section 1: Social Media Sites for the Job Search"
• Social Media for Learning: Sue Beckingham's "400 million members – Why LinkedIn is so important for our students and future graduates"

LinkedIn: An Essential Job Search, Visibility and Networking Tool

• How to Create a LinkedIn Profile - don't click on the ads, please

Using Digital / Social Media to Research Jobs & Employers

Research Employers - Candidate + Hiring Manager's Perspective

Tip: As you are researching the organization on LinkedIn, DO NOT ask for connections to people who you don't know. You could seriously jeopardize your chances of success - because you don't know them.

Researching employers (organizations) you want to work for is also very important. It gives you insight into the news, leadership and financial health of the organization, the strategic priorities, values and mission and culture.

You can also learn about the products and services the organization provides and its key stakeholder audiences. An important resource is the Information Interview with someone who works in the organization, who can give you insight into the company culture, its hiring practices, norms and expectations.

Also of importance is the Organization Chart, and an organization's employees on LinkedIn. You can learn about job titles and responsibilities, who reports to whom, career paths, and more.

Always consider:

• What did I learn about the company?
• What did I learn about the hiring manager?
• What did I learn about the hiring process?
• What did I learn about other opportunities - where I could be of assistance / value?

Readings

• The Ultimate Guide to Researching a Company Pre-Interview, in Forbes. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
• Step-by-Step Guide to Researching Companies: How to Conduct Job Research, in LiveCareer.
• 7 Things to Research Before Any Job Interview, in GlassDoor.
• How to Research the Company Before the Job Interview, from WikiHow.
• Best 6 Steps to Find Keywords for Your Resume, Personal Branding Blog.
• Informational Interviews, Wikipedia
• 3 Steps to a Perfect Informational Interview, The Muse.

Special Situations & Strategies

• How to Use Google Search for Lesser Known Jobs, Fast Company
• How to Blog on LinkedIn and Generate Leads - Attraction, Engagement, Do Something (graphic)
• Why Self-Compassion beats Self-Confidence, NYT

Course Evaluation

• Form to be provided