Before you can market your amazing skills to employers, you have to be able to articulate them clearly and weave them into a persuasive and memorable narrative. Use the tips below to consider how you will share your marketable skills in your cover letter, on your LinkedIn profile, during an interview, or while networking.
Identify Your Skills/Interest
Use the self-assessment tools below to identify your natural strengths and capacities. Once identified, you can start building your professional brand.
FOCUS2 online- identify your natural strengths by taking a personality preference self-assessment.
Career Values
- Career Values Self-Inventory, examine your career values and then add meaning to your responses.
- CultureX created a website that aggregated the data of more than one million employee reviews of companies on nine different culture markers on Glassdoor.com. You can search for and compare companies using these nine markers to determine if they would be a good match with your values.
Skills
- Skills inventory- determine your current strengths.
- Skills Matcher- Rate yourself on 40 key workplace skills to be connected with a list of career titles.
- Career Readiness Competencies- Access yourself for the most in-demand competencies.
Interests
- BSOS majors only: Strong Interest Career Inventory
- O*NET® career exploration includes an ability and interest profiler.
- CareerShip matches interest area with potential job titles to explore.
- Interest Assessment is a 30-minute assessment that connects responses to job options.
Use these tools to craft a compelling story to support your internship/job search or application to graduate school.
Market Your Professional Brand
- Create your “go-to” introduction to be used during interviews or while networking
- How to Look Better on Zoom and Other Video Conferencing Tips, by Vault
- What to Wear to Appear More ‘Trustworthy’ and ‘Authentic’ in Zoom Meetings, by Vault
- How to Choose Colors for Your Brand Identity (and Why It Matters)
- How to Pitch Your Value in Interviews
- Your Personal Brand Workbook, pwc
Use this tracking sheet to organize your accomplishments. This information will be helpful for crafting your resume and speaking about the experience in job interviews later on.
EPortfolio: Offers UMD students the opportunity to highlight skills, experiences, and learning through a set of curated works in an online platform, Portfolium
Creating a LinkedIn profile resources
Building a strong professional presence online
One Button Studio: Students may use the One Button Studio, located in Tydings 0103, to record video resumes, class presentation videos, etc. A One Button Studio (OBS) is a simplified recording studio that gives users the ability to create a high-quality video recording without any previous video production experience. UMD’s One Button Studios provide everything needed to create a polished video project.
Protect Your Image
According to a recent survey, 92 percent of employers conduct background screening on applicants.
BSOS Career Exploration Toolkit
A guide to reflect on your own career values, exploring career interests, and develop a plan to gain experience.
