Job Hunt Schedule
Early Junior Year
- Begin to identify your interests and preferences.
- Analyze your skills and values in relation to potential career choices.
- Join the Psychology Club.
The Career Center provides several sources of help including self assessment profiles, individual career counseling, and standardized vocational testing tools.
Junior Year
Become familiar with the services and programs available at the Career Center. Start gathering information about your occupational options to make effective career decisions:
- Develop a list of personal and professional contacts that will enable you to gather information about specific areas. Conduct informational interviews with these contacts. Use Psychological Sciences' Alumni Network to find W&M alumni working in fields that interest you.
- Enroll in non-psychology courses that will broaden your skill base or psychology courses that relate to your desired career field.
- Begin to investigate opportunities for summer jobs or internships. Make use of the resources in the Career Center, ask peers and alumni about their career experiences, and request suggestions from faculty. Develop a plan for "creating your own experience."
- Develop a resume.
- Prepare for interviews with employers who come on-campus to recruit for summer programs.
Summer Between Junior and Senior Year
This is the last summer before graduation, so try to make the best of it.
- Participate in an internship or fieldwork program.
- Continue to conduct informational interviews and begin to make preliminary decisions about career options.
Senior Year
September
- Review, revise/affirm your appraisal of your skills, needs, interests, and values.
- Continue to gather information about potential career areas.
- Apply for an internship or other "hands on" volunteer work.
- Revise your resume to include relevant summer experience.
- Visit the Career Center for help with job search suggestions, cover letters and resume writing, and job interviewing. Attend workshops on these topics when available.
October/November
- Participate in mock interview exercises.
- Establish a credentials file. Request letters of recommendation from appropriate contacts (faculty, past employer, internship supervisor, committee advisor, etc.)
- Register for on-campus interviewing and submit resumes for positions that interest you. Research company literature to prepare for interviews.
- Also develop an off-campus search strategy. Focus on several career options and establish a list of job leads. Most job leads come from a variety of sources: personal/ professional contacts, employer directories, want ads, job listing services, etc..
- Send out cover letters and revised, targeted resumes. Phone to follow-up within ten days. Attempt to schedule job interviews during winter break for off-campus contacts.
December
- Continue to develop job leads.
- Participate in office interviews as appropriate. Write thank you notes and send within one week after visit.
- Plan to attend special job fair events that take place during winter break.
January - May
- Attend additional seminars as needed
- Continue to participate in on-campus interviewing, when appropriate.
- Continue your assertive job searching techniques. Discuss strategies with Career Center staff to find out about previously overlooked resources.
- Persevere, persevere, persevere!
