UMW Career Services- Graduate and adult students

The UMW Career Services- Graduate and adult students blog will be temporarily inactive as the staffing changes in the Office of Career Services. Please visit the UMW undergraduate Career Services blog or our online resources.

Career Day is the fall recruiting event for the University of Mary Washington. This event combines employers who are recruiting for full-time positions and internships with alumni who are willing to share their career experiences. The event is open to all students and alumni of Mary Washington. Students attending other institutions are also welcome.

The event is held on the Fredericksburg campus in the Great Hall, Woodard Campus Center each fall semester. Career Day 2010 will be October 21st, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. *Parking is available on the top floors of the UMW Parking Deck.

Career Day 2010 Booklet

Written by Joe Mont in Boston; Sept. 28
Persistent, double-digit unemployment has spared no industry, and with millions of Americans out of work, competition for a paycheck is fierce.

The key to landing a job isn’t so much what you do, says career coach Ford Myers, as what not to do.

Myers, author of Get The Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring (John Wiley & Sons, 2009), spoke to TheStreet about 10 common mistakes made by job hunters.

MISTAKES:
1. RESPONDING TO ONLINE JOB POSTINGS
2: MAILING UNSOLICITED RESUMES
3: LOOKING ONLY FOR JOB OPENINGS
4: INEFFECTIVE NETWORKING
5: LEAVING YOURSELF OPEN TO MANY KINDS OF JOBS
6: LACK OF PLANNING
7: SEARCHING ALONE
8: LETTING OTHERS CONTROL YOUR SEARCH
9: NOT PREPARING WELL ENOUGH FOR INTERVIEWS
10: NOT KNOWING YOUR MARKET VALUE

Read more by visiting Newsweek.com.

Got questions? We have answers! A Career Counselor will be staffing a Career Services Information Table Tuesday, Oct. 5th from 5-6 p.m. Feel free to stop by to pick up resources or ask career related questions.

Location: South Building Lobby
Time: 5-6 p.m.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is currently seeking candidates for the Presidential Management Fellows (PMF) Program! This highly selective, rigorous leadership program recruits outstanding graduate students for a two-year developmental fellowship at various Federal Agencies.

Students working on their graduate degrees in the following fields are strongly encouraged to apply:
*Accounting/Finance/MBA
*Information Technology
*Engineering
*International Affairs/Policy
*Health/Medical Science
*Business Administration
*Public Policy
*Human Resources
*Public Administration
*Environmental Sciences
*Statistics
*Law
*Other

Fellows Receive
*Two-year paid fellowships
*80 hours of training each year
*Competitive pay and benefits
*Potential accelerated promotions
Mark Your Calendar to Apply October 1-15, 2010!

Eligibility and application information is available at www.pmf.gov.
OPM 1900 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20415

By GREGORY BEYER
Through movies and pop culture, you’re probably aware of certain government jobs: the dashing FBI agent, the jet-setting State Department diplomat. These agencies appreciate all the attention, but work to manage expectations and get out the word that every agency offers many different job opportunities. (The CIA’s recruitment packet, for example, includes a myth-busting pamphlet offering assurances that you probably won’t have to carry a gun and definitely won’t have to spy on your family.)

Paths to Professions
“In general, the hard-to-fill jobs are those that aren’t typically thought of as government jobs,” said Tim McManus, vice president of education and outreach for the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that advocates government employment. “If you look at government and each individual agency, each is like its own business to some extent.” That means there may be more opportunities than you realize.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
If you’re considering working in government, there are certain questions you should ask yourself. Do you want to be rich? Do you want to work in a fluid, adaptable work environment where you have the power to influence and even change the way things work? If you answered “yes” to either question, you might want to look elsewhere. “If you’re free spirited and dislike authority, government may not be for you,” said Dennis V. Damp, the author of “The Book of U.S. Government Jobs.”

Government pay is also highly structured, using a system that matches your level of education and experience to a set salary. (There are exceptions: certain in-demand jobs, usually in the scientific, technical and medical fields, may have higher starting salaries. And the government makes slight salary adjustments geographically, to account for different costs of living).

While the salaries often don’t match those in the private sector, the government offers incentives to woo talented graduates, including student loan repayment and signing bonuses. And the benefits package and job security are legendary.

“It literally takes an act of God to terminate an employee,” said Shalisha Dapaa, director of recruitment at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Chrystal McArthur, the associate director of the career center at Rutgers University, said her students are increasingly willing to make a little less money if it means having the kind of security a government job provides. “There has to be another really strong motivation. Dedication to public service has to be there,” said an economic analyst for the CIA who could give his name only as Tom.

NOW HIRING
In the coming year, a projected 50,000 full-time, entry-level federal jobs will be available, according to the Partnership for Public Service. And only 16 percent of all government jobs are based in Washington, D.C. The aging of the federal workforce is a big factor in job vacancies, said Mr. Damp. Due to the recession, fewer employees are retiring early, he said, adding that “the competition is keen across the board.”

You should know that applying for government jobs will be an experience different from what you’ll encounter in the private sector. And it will almost certainly take you longer to get through the hiring process. Indeed, government recruiters say one of their greatest challenges is the months-long hiring process.

“We know that is our Achilles’ heel,” said Ms. Dapaa, of the National Nuclear Security Administration. While private sector companies are sometimes able to make job offers on the spot at career fairs, government agencies have more red tape, as well as rigid eligibility guidelines, she said. For example, the government gives preference to veterans for some jobs. Recruiters stress the importance of reading through to the end of online job postings, since many applicants waste their time by applying for jobs they aren’t eligible for.

Most government jobs require you to apply through the government’s Web site, www.usajobs.gov, though some agency Web sites list additional opportunities. Barbara Adams, president of CareerPro Global, a consulting company that advises government job seekers, said she commonly fields inquiries from prospective clients who have been applying unsuccessfully for years, or who have never figured out how to correctly fill out the application. “A lot of students give up, because it’s so daunting,” she said.

A sampling of agencies currently hiring:
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
*Government Accountability Office
*Smithsonian Institution
*National Security Agency
*Central Intelligence Agency

Hiring Timeline

Career Services presented a Resume Writing workshop that included information on developing an effective resume, a teaching resume, what to highlight as a career changer, how to create an electronic resume, and tips for writing a cover letter.

The workshop highlights are listed below:
• Employers are looking for easy to read resumes that include examples of the candidate’s skills, related qualifications, and strengths.
• Create section headings that highlight your specific strengths as well as the skills related to your industry. Avoid utilizing templates that include generic headings.
• Teaching resumes: focus on lessons taught, populations you have worked with, technology used, experience with parents, research completed, presentations created, enthusiasm for teaching, student teacher supervisor contact information.
• Career changers resume tip: focus on transferable skills, lump similar experiences together under a functional heading (even if it was 10 years ago), highlight your accomplishments, display how your interest for the new field has developed.
• Create an electronic resume to apply for positions through email and online application systems. Check out the Riley Guide for tips on preparing your resume or Job-hunt.org for tips on creating a “cyber-safe” resume”.
• Tips for creating a cover letter.

Request an individual appointment with a career counselor to review your resume by calling 540-654-1022. You may also email your resume and industry of choice to casv@umw.edu to request a resume or cover letter review over email.

By Lori Montgomery and Jenna Johnson – Washington Post Staff Writers – Thursday, August 5, 2010; 1:05 PM

A $26 billion plan to save the jobs of thousands of teachers and other public employees cleared the Senate on Thursday and was headed back to the House, where Democratic leaders have scheduled a Tuesday vote to approve it and sent it on to the White House.

After beating back Republican attempts to extend expiring tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, the Senate voted 61 to 39 to approve the package.

Two Republicans crossed party lines to advance the $26 billion package, handing President Obama a victory in his campaign to bolster the shaky economy. With many governors struggling to close gaping budget deficits, administration officials feared a fresh round of state layoffs or tax increases could knock the nation’s wobbly recovery off-course.

The aid package would not entirely close those budget gaps. Hampered by election-year anxiety over the mounting national debt, congressional Democrats were forced to slash Obama’s original request for state aid nearly in half and come up with a plan to pay for it. Meanwhile, lawmakers in both parties signaled that the measure probably marks the end for spending bills aimed at boosting economic activity.

“I think that this should be sort of the final down payment,” said Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), a key swing vote who helped break the impasse Wednesday and overcome a Republican filibuster. Sen. Susan Collins, also of Maine, provided the second Republican vote, allowing the package to clear its last major hurdle on a vote of 61 to 38.

Obama hailed the vote as “an important step towards ensuring that teachers across the country can stay in the classroom and cash-strapped states can get the relief they need.”

Read more here!

Newsweek.com reports that the “recession is accelerating a cultural shift in the corporate world toward more flexible workdays”. Read this entire article to assess whether you can use a flexible work schedule as a bargaining chip in your next salary negotiation.

Fredericksburg.com – State’s jobless rate down a bit in May.