How to Use Tech to Help Graduating Students Find Jobs

The end of the school year means graduation for seniors. If they aren’t going to college, they’re job hunting. Sara Stringer, Ask a Tech Teacher guest blogger, has several ideas on how to make that more efficient:

As a teacher, you’re fully aware of how much the world is advancing through technology. Undoubtedly, innovation has touched many aspects of how you teach. The Internet has made it easier to gather, evaluate, summarize and disseminate information. If for example, you’re a math teacher, you may refer students struggling to grasp the Pythagorean Theorem to view Khan Academy videos so that they can catch up with the rest of the class.

Since you have probably used the Internet to post your own resume, you know how powerful it can be and how important it is to make your online presence as professional as possible. You can also use your knowledge and experience in job hunting to guide those students who don’t plan on going on to college on how to get internships and entry-level jobs after graduation. Job searching has changed remarkably over the past few years, and if your students are to succeed in the real world, they will have to take a very different approach than your previous graduating classes.

Here are 3 tech tips you can use to point your graduating class in the right direction:

Tools to create great resumes

The resume still remains an essential element in job hunting. A well-written and well-formatted resume can make even modest talent and insufficient experience appear to be minor constraints. Using a free resume builder like the one found at http://www.hloom.com/resume-builder/ can make the job hunt so much easier because it provides step-by-step guidance, offers supportive tips, and provides template designs. The resume becomes easy to import and export. It can be delivered as an online resume or emailed, or it can be printed out and mailed or hand-delivered.

A Monster.com post roundup on job hunting tips provides this insight from HR News Daily on how to boost a resume through social media:

“Perhaps the place where social media has had the biggest influence is talent management. Job searches, recruitment and candidate administration are all essentially social structures—a two-way street custom-made for social media. Hiring has never been a one-sided proposition. Your resume is no longer just on paper, it’s also online. Companies are just as likely to examine social media to learn about you.”

Best places to network for jobs online

Job hunting requires networking and one excellent way of networking is to create profiles and search for jobs on highly-trafficked websites. Here are a few to consider:

• LinkedIn is a place where thousands of the largest companies in the world post job listings. This site is also a good place to create a profile, hook up with colleagues, join special interest groups, and connect with top companies.
• The Muse is a lot like LinkedIn, except it’s more geared toward Millennials. Although there are no profiles, but there are plenty of job listings. The site is best known for its articles. Job-hunting articles offer tips on everything from distributing resumes to interviewing well. Articles on company interviews give insights about a company’s corporate culture.
• Twitter and Facebook. These are good platforms for researching a company, for meeting fellow job seekers, and for connecting with influencers and company reps.

Tools for easier job searches

There are many websites that provide tools to make job hunting easier:

• Hired helps users find jobs. After someone posts their profile, the website shops their resume for them, including sending an offer from an interested company. However, this is only useful for students interested in the tech sector.
• AngelList lets job seekers browse through startups and click on an “I’m interested” button. This notifies recruiters to check out their profile. If they think it’s a good match, the recruiter then sends an interest back response.
• Glassdoor provides job hunters “insider” information about what it’s like to work for a company that they have an interest in joining. Anonymous job reviews from current or former employees provide insights about what it’s like to work at a certain company and how to prep for the interview.
• Pymetrics is a popular quiz site for identifying job-related skill sets. Entertaining games and mind puzzles track personality traits and identify strengths and skills. Personality quizzes help young people acquire insights about their own personality to help select jobs that suit them. The website matches up job skills with companies that have open positions for people with those skills.

Finding a job is difficult for everyone, especially young people with no work experience. Using these tech tips will make it easier to find or internships or entry level jobs for graduating seniors.

–Sara Stringer is a former medical and surgical assistant who now does freelance business consulting. She enjoys blogging and helping others. In her spare time (translation: the time spent doing what’s most important), she enjoys soaking up the sunshine with her husband and two kids.

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.