Tag: resume tips

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Exclusive Global Career Resource for Students and Alumni

Did you know that as a student or graduate of Columbia School of Social Work, you have free access to GoinGlobal, an international career resource for both domestic and international candidates?

Whether you are interested in pursuing an opportunity across town or around the world, take a look at GoinGlobal, including their country and city career guidesdirectory of employers, H1B visa employer listings, and opportunities in 120 locations worldwide.

With the changed employment landscape due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they have recently added a wealth of new resources to support your job search.

Take a look at the links found on their homepage sidebar “Job Search During COVID”:

    • Working During a Pandemic – forward thinking job search and networking tips
    • COVID Career Advice – timely news articles covering a range of topicsGlobal
    • Employment Briefings – areas of job promise in key countries

You can also find new economic information in their country career guides under “Snapshot” and “Job Search Overview.” Note every country guide has a dedicated section under “Finding a Job” about “Telework and Freelance.”

To learn more about the site’s features and resources, take a look at their user training schedule.

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Quick Tips to Strengthen Your Resume

As you prepare your resume for 2nd year field placement or for a post-grad job, keep in mind that strong resumes don’t simply share a history of your education, work experiences, and job duties. Instead, they:

  • Tell a story about how you’ve made an impact through your various roles, and the knowledge and skills you used to facilitate this impact
  • Highlight the specific populations you’ve served, the fields in which you’ve worked, and the issue areas you’ve addressed
  • Incorporate keywords that showcase your relevant qualifications

By taking the time to explicitly highlight these details of your knowledge, skills, and success, those who review your resume will be better and more quickly able to assess what you can do for them and how you can help their organization. Let your value shine!

Not sure if your resume is doing the job? Refer to our Resume Checklist for tips. Additional resources are available in the Document Library within Career Connect.

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Highlighting Your Soft Skills in Resumes and Interviews

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As if crafting a resume that aptly and succinctly highlights your background and skills within a 10 to 15 second glance isn’t hard enough, highlighting critical soft skills, such as interpersonal skills — an essential qualification for any job — can be especially challenging.

So how do we tout such skills without saying that we simply have them? Start by thinking critically about what these skills look like in action-and-result form. For example:

  • Collaborated with a team to develop a new intake process.
  • Trained a group of student leaders on conflict resolution and mediation skills.
  • Developed partnerships with community organizations to streamline the client referral process.

Using concrete language to demonstrate your ability in these ways (i.e. showing versus telling) is far more effective than simply stating that you have good “people skills” or that you “work with well people”.

For more tips, review the resources in the Document Library within Career Connect.

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4 Steps to Crafting a Competitive Resume

Drafting a compelling resume that immediately captures the attention of a prospective field supervisor or hiring manager takes work. Whether you are updating your resume for field placement or for a job, taking the following steps in the process can help you get noticed.

  1. Identify your target. Towards what issue or causes do you want to direct your energy, and how? Think not only about the nature of the job or role, but the type or organization, work setting, and population you want to serve.
  2. Assess the organization’s needs and goals. To demonstrate how you can best contribute to an organization, you need to understand the knowledge, skills, and abilities they’re seeking first. Review organizations’ websites and job descriptions to get a better sense of their mission and goals, and the type of talent they need to achieve those goals. Students preparing resumes for 2nd year field placements can gain additional insight into the different organizations, their work, and the qualities they seek by speaking with the Associate Directors of Field Education and 2nd years currently in those placements. Job seekers can reach out to their personal and professional network, including those within the CSSW LinkedIn Group.
  3. Brainstorm relevant experience. The best way to convey that you would be a strong candidate for any position is by aligning the organizations’ needs with your demonstrated qualifications. Think of examples of how you’ve successfully accomplished similar goals, projects, and initiatives. (Tip: Use their job description — in particular, their section on tasks and responsibilities — as a guide.)
  4. Create impact statements. Now that you’ve collected evidence of your sought-after abilities, draft concise bullets that highlight the action that you took (knowledge or skill that you’ve applied) and the impact that you had on your organization and the communities you’ve served. Effective impact statements start with strong action verbs and provide specific and concise details about what you achieved, how you achieved it, and for what purpose.

For additional tips and strategies on how to write effective resumes, go to the “Resume Writing” folder in the Document Library within Career Connect.

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