YOUR CAREER STRATEGY: The 3-month mark

Dear MSF Students, 

Greetings from Gies Career Services! Thanksgiving/Fall Break is here and we wish you a week of relaxation and renewal, to prepare for a strong run through the end of your first semester.

It’s been slightly over 3 months since the MSF orientation/Career Boot Camp so we hope you have settled in and adjusted to your classes. To recap, there were several employer information sessions and career-related workshops/events this Fall so we hope many of you carved out time to attend and invest in career-related activities!

In addition to taking time off to relax during the Fall Break, this is a great time to pause and reflect on all that you have learned and experienced over the past 3 months. It's also a good time to plan and write down what you hope to achieve in Spring.  

With this in mind, we created some handouts to help students stay on track and plan for Spring and next Fall. For students seeking industry opportunities, please check out the following resources. 
 

MSF CAREER ACTIVITIES LIST
Preparing and planning ahead is important because you're only here for a short period so it is to your advantage to invest the effort and time towards your career (regardless if you’re targeting the U.S. or other countries).

Set aside a block of time every week to focus on career-related activities. Why? Because opportunities can come knocking at any time (unfortunately, employers and their opportunities will not wait for candidates until they are ready so you want to be ‘ready-to-go’ when an opportunity presents itself).

To help you stay on track, please review the MSF Career Activities List (see attached). This list is not meant to create more stress or overwhelm you. It merely serves as a general road map to help you plan for next Spring and your final semester.

Before you start submitting hundreds of applications, it is a good idea to review this list so that you have a better grasp of your ‘career-readiness level’ and which areas you need to focus on from now until you graduate!

Note: For your convenience, the document is also saved in Gies Groups > MSF page > Files tab > The Essential Career Documents - you will need to log onto Gies Groups first)

MSF RECRUITING TIMELINE
We distributed this timeline to all students who attended the MSF Career Boot Camp during orientation. Here it is again for your reference (see below and attached). Note: The Spring Gies Business Fair will be on February 11, 2021. More details to come later. 




Key Points:

• Utilize both on-campus recruiting (e.g., career fairs, employer information sessions, Handshake job board, practicum, case competitions, educational workshops, etc.) AND off-campus recruiting channels (company website, external job boards, LinkedIn, other social media platforms, personal and professional connections/network, 3rd party search firms, etc.)
• Don’t solely rely on one job search channel…rather utilize a mix of channels. You never know what opportunities you will find so be resourceful!
• As current graduate students, you may have to get creative with the channels you tap into and apply a strategy that is different from when you were an undergraduate student. The impact of COVID-19 on the global job market has also brought upon many challenges for job seekers (and employers).
• Students often ask when is the best time to apply for internships? When is the best time to apply for full-time roles? There is not an exact answer as it all depends (each employer is different and may have varying timelines depending on their own strategy and location. Many randomly post roles all throughout the year and some recruit much later than others so every organization is different). Having said this, here is a very, very general guideline:
  • From early August 2020-March 2021 > the focus is on applying for summer internships. Although many of the summer internship deadlines have already passed in Fall, that doesn’t mean your search is over! There is still a period (mid-January until mid-March) where employers are seeking to fill internship roles so be prepared for early Spring.
  • From early July 2021-end of October 2021 > you can begin to focus on applying for full-time roles. If you apply too early (let’s say in February 2021) and you don’t graduate until December 2021, the question is “Will the employer wait for you until you graduate?” Consider your graduation date before applying.

MSF JOB RESOURCE GUIDE

If you’ve been reading the “Job Corner” emails this semester, you already know that we have a Job Resource Guide with suggested job sites (U.S. and global) and career tools to help with your search. I'm sending this to students again for reference (see attached). 

We created this guide to provide a “one-stop shop” for all resources we think you would find beneficial. We organized the sites by the following categories:

• US. Job Boards
• International Job Boards
• Finance-related sites
• Consulting-related sites
• Company Research sites
• Illinois Student/Campus Organizations
• Off-Campus Conferences and Fairs
• English-language resources
• Networking and Professional Associations
• Financial and Business News

Note: The guide has also been saved on Gies Groups > MS Finance page > Files tab > Click “The Essential Career Documents” (you will need to log onto Gies Groups first).

FINAL WORDS

Gies Career Services is here to support you with your career development and job search. If you haven’t already arranged a one-on-one session with a career advisor, we strongly encourage you to do so before Spring semester so that you feel confident when submitting applications, reaching out to alumni and recruiters or if invited to interviews!

Feel free to schedule an appointment on Handshake. Here are some sample topics that you can discuss during one-on-one advising:

• Internship or Full-Time Search (e.g. how to discover opportunities, career resources, submitting applications, work authorization questions, etc.)
• General Career Advice (e.g. how to communicate with employers and alumni; career exploration; effectively communicating one's value to employers, etc.)
• Career Document Reviews: resumes, cover letter, LinkedIn
• Practice Interviews: practice interviewing and/or ask questions about the interview process
• Offer Discussion/Negotiation
• Review of Chinese Resume: for students applying for roles in China and need their Chinese resume reviewed (available until Dec 10th)
• Consulting Case Mock Interviews

Note: We have timeslots available from now until December 18th. After winter break, we will have timeslots available starting January 4, 2021. Check Handshake for the most updated availablity. 

Ok, that’s enough for now at the 3-month mark ­ƒÿè If you have any questions regarding the above information, please directly reach out to me, Deb Hom at dhm@illinois.edu. 

Thanks and wishing you a relaxing Thanksgiving and Fall Break!

Regards,

Deb

Deborah Hom
Associate Director, Career Services
1033 Business Instructional Facility, 515 E. Gregory Drive, Champaign
217.300.3274 | dhm@illinois.edu
Have a career-related question? Want to practice interviewing? Schedule an appointment here.