Career Starter

Issued by FHI 360

Through a five-part eModule series and guided activities in an accompanying workbook, earners will gain a sense of what skills are needed in the workplace as well as how their strengths and interests may match with various career opportunities. Earners will explore professionally marketing themselves in written, verbal, and online formats, how to begin searching for a job, and discover what may be needed to show up professionally in an interview.

Type Learning
Level Foundational
Time Hours
Cost N/A

Skills

Earning Criteria

Earners will complete an initial assessment to gauge what they may already know about career basics.
Earners will learn about hard, soft and nine essential skills needed for work and learning. Earners will identify their own skills (using skills self-assessments), how they are useful in the workplace, and how to continue to improve upon or expanding their skills.
Through strengths assessments and peer-assessments, earners will learn what their personal strengths and interests are, and how those may align with career opportunities. Earners will learn what an elevator pitch is and how it can be used, and will practice creating an elevator pitch of their own.
Earners will learn the basics about how to professionally market themselves, including Master Resumes, Job Specific Resumes, and cover letters. Earners will update or create their own Master Resume and a basic cover letter, then will practice how to create a Job Specific Resume and tailored cover letter to an actual job posting.
Earners will learn the most common methods for finding jobs, including job boards (targeted and general) networking (the hidden job market). Earners will learn what networking and social capital are, why they're important and how building connections can lead to career opportunities. Members will practice identifying their existing connections/network, and how to strengthen those connections as well as build new ones.
Earners will be able to identify common interview types and methods, including Behavioral Based Interview Questions, screening interviews, panel interviews, and others. Earners learn how to professionally represent themselves in an interview and how to conduct an informal informational interview. Earners will practice conducting an informational interview and using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method to answer interview questions.
Earners will complete a post-assessment to gauge what they learned about about skills, strength and interests as they relate to careers, how to professionally market oneself, how to conduct a successful job search, and about interview knowledge and preparation.