In January, Walden University launched the Career Services Center Web site to offer comprehensive professional development tools covering the complete career planning cycle.

The cycle begins with self-assessment, and the site links to external tools that help students evaluate their interests, values, skills, and personality to determine the types of careers that will best suit them. Then, the research section offers professional development resources organized by school, with a general interest section for undergraduates. Students can also search for jobs based on specific criteria.

Networking
To Lisa Cook, Walden’s director of career services, one of the most important aspects of career development is networking, and one section of the site focuses exclusively on that topic. “Many of our students are pursuing new careers, and networking is an important part of that,” she explains, adding that up to 80 percent of jobs are non-advertised. It is this “hidden job market” to which networking gives access.

“You should always be networking,” Cook emphasizes. “Even if you’re not making a change, but just want to enhance your current career, you need to network for that promotion.”

Resumes and Interviews
Also important is tailoring a resume or CV to highlight your accomplishments, rather than submitting a “one-size-fits-all” resume; a section of the site is devoted to this subject. There is also a section on interviewing that gives candidates an approach to answering traditional interview questions as well as “behavioral” questions, “because those are becoming more prevalent,” says Cook.

She adds that “when you walk into an interview, you want to think about the employer’s challenges and how you can help solve those problems. People are reluctant to toot their own horns, but you really need to get in the habit of doing that in a nice, humble way.”

Offers and Salary
Finally, to round out the career development cycle, the Offers and Salary section helps students calculate and compare salaries by profession and location, and to consider “the entire job offer—including benefits and retirement—not just the salary,” says Cook.

Cook hopes students will take full advantage of the Web site’s resources and, if necessary, use individual counseling sessions as a supplement. “The key to career advancement,” she says, “is to keep asking, ‘How can I continue to develop myself in my field?’”

February Ponder front page