Written by: Ed Brodka ’85, ’87, Career Design Consultant at the Career Design Center | đź“– 5-minute read
At the Career Design Center, we like to talk a lot about the 3Ps to finding a job or internship–Postings, Prospecting and People.
Postings
Postings are when you find a position posted on sites like Bullseye powered by Handshake, LinkedIn, Indeed, or Interstride, where you simply apply. When you do this, one of three things is going to happen. You will either:
- Get an interview.
- Not get an interview.
- You may get a generic email that they received your resume and will get back to you.
So, this strategy alone is not a very effective way to get a job or internship.
Prospecting
The next P is Prospecting, which is targeting employers where you would like to work. For example, if you were a Robotics engineer, you would want to look for employers that typically hire robotics engineers or have hosted interns in the past. You might already know of employers you would like to target, or you may need to discover new employers by looking where other UB students have previously gotten a job or internship. That leads to the third P, which is People.
People
Once you find postings and different employers, you can work on the third P, People. This is also known as networking, or as we like to call it, making professional friends.
Making professional friends means finding and reaching out to people, especially UB alumni, who work at companies with opportunities and/or companies where you would like to work. We know that 80% of all jobs come from networking, so if you’re only applying to postings, you’re missing a significant amount of opportunities.
Many employers have referral programs, which means that if someone works at the company you’re interested in, and if you get that job they referred you to, they get paid a bonus. I know of a local health care organization that pays $1,000 to an employee who refers a candidate for a job and gets hired. Therefore, you’re actually helping others by introducing yourself to them, getting to know them, and being referred for a job.
And remember, if 80% of all jobs and internships come from networking, then when you reach out to someone who works at your favorite employers, there is an 80% chance they got their position through networking, so why wouldn’t they help you?
Tools + Tips
Here are some awesome tools and tips that can help you make professional friends.
Bullseye powered by Handshake
Bullseye powered by Handshake is the ultimate job and internship spot. Check out how Bullseye powered by Handshake can help you with all three Ps.
Discover opportunities you like.
Bullseye powered by Handshake takes the information you share in your profile to show you opportunities for which you’d be a good fit.
💡 Pro Tip: Bookmarking jobs and internships helps train Bullseye powered by Handshake to serve you better recommendations based on the stuff you want to see. Bookmarking also saves them to your dashboard to make it easy for you to apply. Plus, you’ll get reminders to apply before the deadline.
Keep up with your prospective employers.
Start following employers to get alerts when they post opportunities, have interviews scheduled or attend events.
Ask for Directions
You can check out the Q&A to ask other students for advice about employers, interviews, job roles and more!
Check who’s hiring right now in Bullseye powered by Handshake profile
Career Communities
No matter which Career Community you’re following, the 3 P’s will help you. Joining a Career Community (or two) will help you find people to network with and make professional friends. Plus, get invited to Career Community only events and slack channels to connect with UB alumni and employers with the next best job + internship opportunities.
Interstride
Interstride is the one-stop-shop for everything international. Find US and global opportunities along with visa and immigration support, webinars, workshops and tools to help you stay on track.
You can use LinkedIn to follow companies and to join industry-focused groups, or to connect with UB alumni.
Once you have a good LinkedIn profile, you can browse through the 165,000+ UB students and alumni. Find an alum you want to connect with and send a connection request with a note about wanting to have a conversation about your career path.
