Sue Scholm wants all of her students to land their dream job. With a background in corporate recruiting, Schlom has the unique perspective of knowing what businesses are looking for and what stands out on a resume.

In fact, in her Career Coaching Course offered at no charge to students in the Digital Marketing Fundamentals Certificate Program, she walks students through the recruiter interface on Linkedin to demonstrate how recruiters find candidates in order to better inform their job search process.

“I purposely start my course focused on job search strategy, not resumes,” said Schlom. “I want students to think about where they want to go, what types of companies they are interested in and what roles they want to pursue.” In this 5-week course, Schlom also covers how to target a resume, effective networking, interviewing, and how to negotiate an offer.

Stay Focused on Steps for Career Advancement

In order to pursue career advancement or a career transition, School recommends students articulate what they are passionate about, take a few courses to learn the skills that they need to do the job, and figure out how get the experience that is needed to advance in their career. “Volunteering for projects in a current job, finding volunteer work in the community, or getting an industry certification like the certificate from UVM’s Digital Marketing Fundamentals course,” says Schlom, can help students move closer towards their career goals.

Go Beyond Transferable Skills

Companies are looking for the right fit for their organization when hiring new employees. Transferable skills such as the level of emotional intelligence, ability to analyze data or strong creative skills, are the baseline skills that companies are looking for, but Schlom says transferable skills are not enough in a competitive job market.

Career transitions will likely happen to everyone at some point. “That’s a great time to engage in learning and understanding what it takes to get the job that you’d like to move into,” said Schlom. She recommends going onto job boards or researching companies that might be of interest and read job descriptions to learn what’s involved and to build your network.

Authentic Networking

LinkedIn is still the gold standard in networking because it’s self-updating according to Schlom. (Check out a recent blog series on how to get the most out of LinkedIn). To build your network, she says the idea isn’t to reach out to everyone, but to connect with classmates, professors and recruiters on LinkedIn. And as you grow in your career, she recommends that folks join online groups, like a Digital Marketing group to build the network online and in the community.

The career advising opportunity through UVM’s Digital Marketing Fundamentals provides students with an added layer on top of the new skills that they just acquired in digital marketing and it can be a very powerful benefit.

Schlom says when you can layer a targeted resume, contacts, learning in a course or certificate program, and experience when apply for a job, that is a solid strategy to landing your dream job.

Explore UVM’s Career Coaching Program and the Digital Marketing Fundamentals Course.

Registration is open, but space is limited.