Summer Recap of Work On It Wednesday
Emily Young MA ‘16
I created Work On It Wednesday around
the idea of taking time each week to invest in long-term career planning and
building a personal image. During summer
I found that it was easy to put my long-term career planning on the back burner
when I didn’t have a set routine.
Therefore, each Wednesday when I’ve posted tips, tricks, and advice to
help improve your online image and achieve your career goals, I’ve been
following them too.
The Results:
I invested a lot of time updating my LinkedIn and the
results really paid off. I added
specific descriptions of my two summer jobs, changed my Headline, and updated
my Education/Awards Section.
The biggest fix was the Education and Awards Section. Originally, I had all of my college awards in the Awards Section, but while researching I saw an example that had all of their school awards in the Education Section and I thought it looked a lot cleaner.
My advice in the blog to friend all of your summer internship colleagues
during the last couple of weeks of your internship really paid off. I gained a lot of new connections and I am
still getting emails that people are looking at my profile.
Read it Here: LinkedIn
Twitter
is a tough platform to gain traction quickly, unless if you are famous. Through retweeting and posting more
frequently, I did gain a couple new followers.
However, like I said, Twitter is a great tool to see what influential
people in your field are saying and posting.
Some new handles I starting following since my post:
- @SBJCareerLink
- @LANow
- @TeamWorkOnline
- @OnionSports
- @TwitterSports
- @TwitterForNews
Read it Here: Twitter
I started thinking about writing Elevator Pitches after I had a couple of informational interviews. In both interviews I was asked what my career goal was and they were very impressed I had such a distinct answer.
I really enjoyed writing this blog because I believe that my path of finding my career goal resonates with a lot of college students today. Today, most college students are interested in a variety of things and it is hard to pinpoint a specific career field until you have had some true experience in it.
Read it Here: Elevator Pitch
After I wrote this blog, I ended up writing about 6 handwritten thank-you letters to my coworkers and supervisors for my summer internship. My boss was very impressed that I took the time to write him a personal handwritten letter.
I cannot stress the importance of a thank-you letter enough. Write them!!!
Read it Here: Thank-You
I love Facebook because it allows to me to say connected to friends and family in Illinois. They always comment on all the volleyball pictures that are posted of me, regardless of who posts them. In terms of updates, I deleted 3 albums from freshman year of college, a couple of old volleyball videos, and changed my profile picture.
In writing the post, I definitely learned a few tips. The “Other Inbox” was a shock. I had about 10 unread messages! Most were random, one claiming to be my aunt (not my relative), and a casting call.
I’m still looking at all the fun events coming up on campus and have all my friend’s birthdays in my phone now!
Read it Here: Facebook
If you haven’t been keeping up with Work On It Wednesday this summer, it’s not too late!!! All the links are under the career tab. Stay tuned for the coming semester!
~Emily
