Making Progress During Winter Break

By: Sadie

Your semester is slowly coming to an end and winter break is right around the corner. You’re tired. Tired from endless studying, tired of the food on campus, tired of getting out of bed at 9 am for a lecture class, and you just want to go home. You want to see your friends, family, eat your mom’s home cooking, and lay in your bed and binge watch Netflix until it’s time to go back to school. After a couple of days of fun and relaxing, you ought to start being proactive and complete those tasks you’ve been putting off.

Here are some of the tasks I am referring to that you can do over winter break:

Sick of your family asking you what you want to do with your life? Finally decide on a major or a minor:

• Take one of our career assessments, or one of our not-so-in-depth assessments offered on our website to help you figure out what you want to do with your academic career.
• Search the majors and minors offered here at UMD.
• Make an appointment with one of our career counselors and an advisor in the college your major is in.

Write your resume, cover letter, or personal statement (or all three!):

• Use our online Career Handbook to help you develop your resume, cover letter, and personal statement.
• Visit our resume drop-in hours for one-on-one, immediate help.
• Or if you don’t have time to sit down with someone, fill out a review request form to drop off or email your resume/cover letter/personal statement to be looked at.

Now that you have a rockstar resume, search for a job and/or internship:

• Visit the U of M’s online database, GoldPASS, to post your resume and search for a job, internship, or volunteer opportunities.
• Plan to attend one of our workshops or presentations for tips and advice on how to land a position.
• Plan to attend a job and internship fair.
• Schedule a time to job shadow a position you are curious about.
• Take a look at additional resources offered on our website.

Found your dream job? Now practice your interviewing skills.

• Practice interviewing online with InterviewStream.
• Set up an appointment with one of our career counselors for a mock-interview.
• Visit the Career Resource Center located in the Career & Internship Services office that has books with sample questions and tips for interviewing.

PS: The Netflix can wait, these important opportunities can’t.

Read Sadie’s other posts