Whether you are searching for a first job or looking to change career paths, the Brazos Valley has plenty of resources for success. We sat down with career development professionals for the top tips job seekers need to land a job. Here’s what they had to say.
RÉSUMÉS, COVER LETTERS & EMPLOYMENT GAPS
Writing and perfecting résumés and cover letters can be a daunting task in the run-up to applying for jobs. After finding minimal local resources in the area, Amanda Frank, owner of Rockstar Resumes, felt called to help people stand out in the job market. Whether it’s a résumé, cover letter, LinkedIn profile or basic career coaching, Amanda offers it all and works to make the process easy for clients.
What key components should be included in a résumé?
“A lot of people like to be really detailed with their bullet points. I don’t think it’s necessary because at the end of the day, the detailed, full sentence — they’re not reading it — they’re looking for keywords. As long as you have those keywords and you match the qualifications, they’re going to call you. Guess what? You have a whole interview to talk about this stuff. I don’t think anything should be over a page.
“I’m a big proponent of including education because I am a serial learner.
There are some résumés that education should be first, and those are more for your students who are looking for internships or part-time jobs while they’re in school, who don’t have a lot of skills-based background to back it up.”
Pro Tip: Integrate as many numbers, percentages or dollar amounts as possible into your résumé. Numbers stand out in bullet points and appeal more to the naked eye, they make statements more credible and valid.
What key components should be included in a cover letter?
“I think research is crucial with cover letters. You can absolutely leave it generic and just say ‘To hiring manager,’ but they are going to put it at the back of the pile. If there’s a job that you really want, take 15 minutes, look up the company, find out who the hiring manager is and address it to them directly.
“Once you have the job posting, overlook it, go back to it, put your cover letter right next to it and start pulling the relevant facts over.”
Pro Tip: Include a signature at the bottom of your cover letter to give it a personal touch; it’s rare to find something like that in a digital world and it makes you stand out from the crowd.
How does someone successfully change careers?
“The first thing is to look at what your key skills are. Say you’re a laborer, right? You build stuff; you do woodworking. You go online, and you look up ‘What are the top skills for woodworking?’ How many of those do you have? Then, put those keywords in and look for any other positions that would have skills similar.
“So, while maybe you don’t want to be like a contractor anymore — you don’t want to be working on job sites — but maybe there’s a position for a theater department looking for somebody to build their sets in-house. You would never have known that if you hadn’t looked up those keywords, but not industry-specific.”
How do you address employment gaps with employers?
“I think job gaps are kind of one of those things that it’s going to vary by job and by industry, but I think there’s two ways to do it. If it’s only a couple months, I don’t think it’s necessary to go into detail on your résumé. If it’s less than a year — I have a lot of clients who are stay-at-home moms entering the job force again — I think it’s not important to address it on the résumé, but it is in the cover letter.”
Pro Tip: If you have an employment gap and are struggling to justify it, look back on the skills you kept up with or developed during your time off and describe them in your cover letter. Just because you didn’t have a documented job for a few years doesn’t mean you didn’t learn or continue using the skills from before you left the workforce!
Rockstar Resumes is a local, virtually operated company that accepts inquiries anytime, seven days a week. Visit rockstar-resumes.com or email amanda@rockstar-resumes.com for more information.
KEY RESOURCES, CAREER FAIRS & INTERVIEW PREP
Whether it’s a networking event, career fair or interview, the key to securing the job you want is advance preparation. The Texas A&M Career Center offers career development services to students, alumni and even has resources for those who didn’t attend Texas A&M University. Desiree Wilson has been working at the Career Center since 2011 and was recently named executive director in June 2023. She says equipping students with the professional skills they need to succeed in the real world is the Career Center’s mission.
Who can attend the career fairs hosted by Texas A&M?
“The A&M Career Center serves all students at Texas A&M University campuses, and that’s different from Texas A&M System campuses. We serve those students at the College Station campus, at McAllen, at Galveston, at the law school, at the engineering academies [and] at the Qatar campus.
“Because the career fairs are run by a multitude of different organizations, it is the decision of each of those organizations whether to open the career fair event to other campuses.”
Pro Tip: Go to CareerCenter.tamu.edu and click on the “events and programs” tab for all upcoming career fairs, which will also list who is eligible to attend. If a former student wants to attend a career fair that isn’t listed as open to alumni, Aggies can reach out to the fair organizer to see if they can participate.
What interview and job search resources are offered by the Career Center?
“Some tools that are really, really helpful are overlooked sometimes. One of them is called VMock, which uses artificial intelligence to evaluate your resume and provide feedback. What the Career Center has done is worked to train VMock on what we would consider a professional resume.
It not only gives you feedback, but it gives you a score, so you can make edits and you can try again.”
“Within HireAggies — on the homepage, if you’re a student — there’s a tile right at the top that says ‘mock interviews,’ and it allows you to practice virtual mock interviews and gives you feedback. You put some profile information into the system: ‘What’s my major? I’m looking for an internship. I’m looking for full-time. Here’s the type of job; I’m looking for an accounting position,’ and you can go through a virtual mock interview process and get feedback on how to improve.”
Pro Tip: Aggie alumni can access HireAggies through the Association of Former Students website at AggieNetwork. com.
What other resources would you point people to and why?
“Look at our website and see what’s out there that may be useful to them. But also go back to their own institution — wherever they went to school — because many students don’t realize the resources they have in their career center while they’re in college. So, it may be there and available to them, and they don’t realize it.”
The Texas A&M Career Center is located on the Texas A&M University campus in the John J. Koldus Building at 125 John David Crow Dr. in College Station and is open Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visit careercenter.tamu. edu, call (979) 845-5139 or email inquiries to cc_advisor@tamu.edu.
INTERVIEWING
A smooth and successful interview is key to landing a job. Spherion helps both employers and job seekers during the hiring process. They recruit for employers and give career development advice — including interview guidance — to job seekers. Katherine Kleemann owns the Spherion franchises located in Bryan/College Station, Brenham, Conroe and The Woodlands. The Bryan Spherion office has been open since 2008.
What are the three most common interview questions do employers typically ask, and how do you effectively answer them?
“The first, most common — almost every interview starts this way — [is] you sit down, and they say ‘So tell me about yourself,’ and that can be very nerve-racking for people because they don’t know ‘Are you wanting me to launch into why I’m the perfect candidate for this job?’ And that’s usually not what they’re going for. They usually want to know just general things about you.
“After that, the other most common questions are usually worded in different ways, but they’re getting at what do you feel are your strengths, what you are good at, and what you might struggle with a little bit? The weakness question is another one that I feel people aren’t necessarily prepared for, and I recommend that you be prepared for that question because nobody’s perfect. Everyone has something they struggle with, and really being able to understand your weaknesses will show employers that you’ve got some self-awareness.”
Pro Tip: Mention casual things about yourself. Tell them if you have kids or what you like to do in your free time. Companies want to know what means the most to you and personal things about you.
How important is non-verbal communication, such as body language and eye contact, during an interview?
“Hiring managers claim they can make a decision in the first 90 seconds whether they’re going to move forward in the interview process. So, that means your nonverbal communication skills are speaking pretty loudly because you don’t even have time to say a whole lot in 90 seconds. Make sure that the brand you’re communicating is the one you want to be communicating. So, that’s your dress code, your eye contact, your smile.”
Pro Tip: The dress code for an interview should be elevated from what you would wear to that company every day for work. If the normal dress is business casual, wear business professional.
How important is research before an interview?
“It's important to prepare some questions that show you’ve researched the company; you’ve got some questions about their values prepared. You want to have at least one — you don’t need to have five — but if you’ve had five you’ve thought through and prepared from your research, you should at least have one left that you can ask that shows them you did your research.”
Spherion Staffing & Recruiting is located at 4101 South Texas Ave., Suite B, in Bryan and is open Mondays through Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit spherion.com or call (979) 846-7833.
