Thursday, September 27, 2012

What's Your Career IQ?

Being smart about your career aspirations will help you to conduct an effective and efficient job search campaign. Your objective as a student should be to constantly seek ways to increase your Career IQ in parallel with your Academic IQ. As a student, you will always have academic evaluations in the form of test scores, peer evaluations, and professor ratings. But who is responsible for evaluating and testing your career education? How will you measure your career-readiness and preparation? The first step is to recognize what you know, and what you don’t know:

1.     Know which companies hire students/graduates with your academic background.
2.     Know your KSA’s (knowledge, skills, and abilities) that are relevant to the companies/industries/jobs/countries you desire.
3.     Know what resources are available to assist you in achieving your career goals.


Achieving A High Career IQ
Research. Learn. Do. That is the secret to obtaining a high Career IQ. There is no other substitute. Out-read your job seeking competition. Research yourself. Research companies of interest. Research job descriptions. Research industries. Research target countries. Learn how to get the skills you need to be competitive. Learn who you need to speak with to get career information. Learn how to effectively communicate your value proposition during an interview or informal conversation. Do the things that will set you apart from the competition. Do the internships. Do the exchange programs. Do the thesis with business value. Do the case competition.

Who will judge your Career IQ? Recruiters and Hiring Managers for starters. What metrics will be used to measure and evaluate it? Below is a short-list of ways you can monitor the growth of your Career IQ:

1.     X number of Networking Contacts that refer you to a Hiring Manager at your target companies.
2.     X number of Hours per day/week spent reading about your target companies/industries/job functions/countries.
3.     X number of Hours per day/week spent meeting new contacts that can aid your job search.
4.     X number of Hours per day/week spent practicing interview strategies and project pitches.
5.     X number of Career/Professional Development Workshops attended as a student/graduate.
6.     X number of relevant Contacts and Professional Groups on your LinkedIn profile.
7.     X number of followers on your Blog/Twitter feeds for content you produce/share that is related to your professional interests.
8.     X number of Job Interviews obtained from jobs to which you apply.
9.     X number of Job Interviews converted into job offers.
10. X amount of Salary/Compensation you negotiate for a fulltime job.

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About Roderick Lewis

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