1. Create your master resume. Your master resume isn’t a document that you submit to employers. Rather, it’s an organized, running list of every single job you’ve had, award you’ve won, volunteer work in which you’ve participated, major project you completed, etc. The holidays are a great time to sit down, review your records, and think back about everything you’ve ever done in your career/professional life, and to get that on paper–so that you have plenty of content to use when you create resumes for specific jobs, or when you work with one of our expert career coaches.
2. Create or update your portfolio. This one is for you creatives–writers, designers, photographers, animators, app developers, etc. You know the saying, “show, don’t tell.” That absolutely applies to your job search. Hiring managers need to see samples of your work. Take this holiday down time to put together or update your website or online portfolio. If you’re not web savvy, try using Wix or Weebly. Also, read this article for more recommendations on free online portfolio resources.
3. Do interview prep. Even if you don’t yet have an interview scheduled, prepare yourself now so that you have plenty of time to hone your answers and decide which you want to ask the hiring manager. Check out our blog on which questions you’ll probably be asked during interviews and which questions are illegal for someone to ask you. If you need inspiration for types of questions you can ask during interviews to get more details about the job and company (and, let’s face it, to impress the hiring manager), check out this article.
4. For students: write accomplishment stories. If you’re finishing up your semester and are about to embark on winter break, congratulations! Once you’ve recovered, take some time to write 3-4 accomplishment stories that you can put into your resume or mention during interviews. Here’s what you do:
- On a sheet of paper, list the most relevant, challenging, and significant papers, projects, or presentations that you worked on over the past semester. Go through each item and write your answer the following questions:
- Title of your project/paper/presentation?
- What was the objective or purpose of the project?
- What was your role? Were you a researcher? Writer? Presenter? Designer? All of the above?
- Did you communicate with anyone else to complete this project? Other students? Organizations on or off campus? Campus resources? People in the surrounding community?
- What challenges or problems did you face while trying to complete this project?
- How did you resolve or overcome those problems? What actions did you take?
- Finally, what were the results of this project? Did you create a report? Was your presentation well-received and/or recognized by your professor, campus administrators, or community figures? Did you provide recommendations that are being considered or implemented?
- Turn your answers into polished paragraphs about 5-7 sentences long. You can then refer to these when creating resumes or cover letters, completing applications, practicing for interviews, and more.
