The MSEM program recently had a career workshop with career counselor, Yesame Kinfe, and with three MSEM alumni, Jill Dale, Jonathan Hung, and Rhianna Frank. In case you couldn’t make it, here are the big takeaways to help guide your next career move. Whether you’ve just started the MSEM program or are about to graduate there’s valuable information for everyone.

Career Advice from Yesame Kinfe

What You Can Schedule at the Career Center:

  • Resume or cover letter help whether it’s editing a current one or starting from scratch
  • Gain LinkedIn advice and help (LinkedIn is a very important tool to use and recommend to join if you haven’t already)
  • Salary negotiation skills
  • Career assessment to find what jobs might be a good fit for you and how to look for them
  • Networking strategies
  • Interview prep and mock interviews
  • Job/internship search
  • General career exploration

 Important Job Search Tips:

  • Research companies you might be interested in working for and have a folder with all their career pages to be sure you’re seeing the most current open positions
  • Keep track of the skills needed for certain roles so you can build on them while in school
  • Check out the USF LinkedIn page and look at the alumni to see what kind of roles previous students are currently in
  • Utilize filters and niche job sites for the industry you’re looking for
  • Have an effective resume and cover letter tailored to each role. This is most important as you should hit key words from the job’s description in your resume to make sure you’re telling the company you can do what they’re looking for
  • Practice for you interview
  • Network with people in roles you hope to be in one day, network with alumni, network with people within your current company, and ask people who you should connect with next…keep the network growing

MSEM Takeaways & Career Advice from Alumni

What they had to say about the MSEM program:

  • “MSEM was the most valuable investment for my career” – Jille Dale
  • “A master’s degree really makes you stand out, when we look for candidates at my job we look for candidates with a master’s, it’s like the icing on the cake” – Jonathan Hung
  • “When I was in the MSEM program I took a real mixture of classes because I wasn’t exactly sure what direction I wanted to go in and I wanted to keep my doors open” – Rhianna Frank

Best practices while job hunting:

  • Be aware of certifications that my be needed for certain roles you may be interested
  • Take at least one GIS course, it can open many doors
  • Don’t look at climate as just environmental, look at it with an equity lens too
  • Highlight transferable skills meaning take your experience and tweak it to fit the job description
  • Even if you don’t think you’re a good fit for a job still apply because the interview process is just as important to practice as you search
  • In an interview if asked a multi part question break it down into the different points and highlight how you’re skilled in each area
  • Explicitly state at some point “I want this job because…” as strange as it may feel saying it, that can be the reason your get the job over someone else
  • If you’re an international student looking to work in the U.S. starting as an intern can be a good way to get your foot in the door with a company you’re interested in