Whether you are looking for an AWE work term, a full-time position after graduating, part-time work, or a summer job, here are some tips to help improve your work search.
1. Use LinkedIn ! In terms of work search, LinkedIn can be used in a variety of different ways.
- LinkedIn can be used to find ‘relevant organizations’ or other companies you should check out!
- To do this, select a company page, take a look at their ‘LinkedIn Activity’ then scroll down and you will see a list of similar companies you can research.
- Look up alumni profiles associated with your University as well as your degree program! You can use this information to find out what alumni with your degree are currently doing or have done in the past. Speaking from experience, this is your best way to find different companies and positions to search.
- There are job postings on LinkedIn. I use my LinkedIn account to follow companies I am interested in and I am able to see the job postings they post on my feed.
Fun Tip! If you are confused where to start or you are interested in revamping your current LinkedIn profile, pop by the Career Center for LinkedIn seminars and advising appointments!
I recommend that you use the Advanced Search features of the search engine and sort by DATE not by relevance since most relevant job postings will be those that are expired.
3. Apply on the company website!
- Some companies may opt out of posting on vertical search engines so you may be losing access to many jobs that you qualify for.
- Companies may have public positions available on Indeed but creating an account with the company gives you access to other postings you wouldn’t necessarily see on a vertical search engine.
- Set a calendar reminder to check the company job board to check it weekly for new jobs!
Fun Fact! Vertical search engines scrape from all the major job boards, as well as recruitment firms, professional associations and employer pages provided that these job postings are not password protected.
3. Search on CampusBRIDGE!
As students you all have access to different modules within CampusBRIDGE. Your account will include AWE (Arts Work Experience) opportunities that differ from other faculties. You can also use the “Student and Alumni” Job board to search for other opportunities.
- Refine your job search by ‘area of study’.
- Click ‘search’, click ‘New Search’ to refine it
- Scroll to ‘Job Postings Information’
- For a broad areas of study, like Humanities and Arts, click ‘area of study’ then ‘search by program clusters’
- For a more specific program like jobs with an Anthropology degree, click ‘area of study’ then ‘search individual programs’
Fun Fact! What makes CampusBRIDGE so special and reliable is that we have a team of people at the Career Center who manually sift through job postings to make sure they are trustworthy and beneficial for UofA students!
Work search can take a back seat during this busy time of the semester; however, taking even 10 minutes out of your day to search effectively can make all the difference. Whether you are applying to full-time work or a summer position this year, I hope these tips are beneficial. Keep pushing during this busy time of year!
