All posts by Sandy Rochon, director Career Services

Opinion

Career Services says get LinkedIn for success

 

LinkedIn is an essential resource for college students to prepare for and begin careers. It provides an opportunity to connect with people, build a professional network, develop and showcase skills, projects, and experience to potential employers, search for positions, research companies, organizations, and individuals, and more.

It is important to create a professional LinkedIn profile that highlights your skills, experience, and education. This includes a professional profile picture, a catchy headline, and a summary communicating your strengths and goals. You can also add relevant courses, projects, and volunteer experience to your profile which can give employers a better understanding of your skills and interests.

LinkedIn allows you to request connection with professionals in your desired field, people you’ve connected with at NECC, classmates, professionals at internship sites, and NECC alumni. This can provide opportunities for informational interviewing, networking, and developing or expanding your knowledge of a particular field or industry.

Another great feature of LinkedIn is the job search function. You can search for openings based on location, industry, and job title, and set up alerts for postings that match your criteria.

When preparing for interviews, LinkedIn is an excellent resource for researching companies and the people who work there. It allows you to see who you could be interviewing and working with, see their career path, experience, and what is important to them by what they follow and post about.

As an NECC student, you have free access to LinkedIn Learning which provides online courses and tutorials on a wide variety of topics such as Excel, graphic design, communication skills, business development, and much more. There are thousands of high quality on-demand courses and they are free using your NECC login. For details, search LinkedIn Learning from necc.mass.edu or through Blackboard.

LinkedIn is a valuable tool for college students as they prepare for their future by building career networks and accessing opportunities.

By creating a professional profile and utilizing the platform’s features, students can increase their chance of success.
Career Services can help with profile development and review and we invite you to join us for an upcoming LinkedIn event:

Get LinkedIn For Success with Career Services
Free professional profile pics
LinkedIn workshop
1:1 LinkedIn profile reviews
Tuesday, April 25 at the Lawrence campus
Wednesday, April 26 at the Haverhill campus
11 a.m.- 2 p.m.
For more information contact careerservices@necc.mass.edu

 

Opinion

Handshake and LinkedIn, your career platforms

 

Handshake is NECC’s career platform, featuring internship and job postings, connections to employers, and the opportunity to attend virtual events to learn about companies, careers, and industries. It is the #1-way college students get hired and is very commonly used in many colleges and universities. If you are planning to transfer to a four-year school, odds are good that this will be the platform your next school will be using for career information as well. Not ready to look for positions yet?

Handshake offers lots of ways to learn about careers now so you are better prepared when the time comes to actively search!
If you haven’t activated your Handshake account yet, here’s what you’re missing:

  • Internship and job postings
  • Online information sessions about resumes, interviewing, networking, and more
  • Virtual recruitment events to connect directly with employers
  • Employers DMing you about opportunities that might be a fit. Set up your profile and preferences so employers can reach out to you
  • Career Services info and resources
  • Your Handshake account is already set up, use the QR code below to claim it by logging in with your NECC credentials.

LinkedIn is another free online platform where you can network, find career information, search for positions, research companies, join groups related to career areas of interest, and more. Need help setting up your LinkedIn profile or have questions about it? Career Services can help! Free professional
headshots

This semester you can get a free professional headshot for your LinkedIn profile. Activate your Handshake account so you don’t miss notification of the dates for this or connect with Career Services.
LinkedIn Learning

As an NECC student, you have free access to LinkedIn Learning. Take advantage of this access now to explore thousands of courses to increase your knowledge on study or presentation skills, business, technology, learning, communication, interpersonal development and much more!

Learn more at https://www.necc.mass.edu/learn/online-programs-courses/linkedin-learning-necc/

For more information, contact us at careerservices@necc.mass.edu

Campus Life

Career Services wants to connect with students

and  

NECC’s Career Services office is here to be a resource to students at all stages of their academic journey and career development, and to support recent alumni after graduation.

Many aspects of career development are helpful to start early and we encourage students to connect with us.

We have career exploration resources to help those who are undecided research and learn about different occupational areas and set career goals and plans.

We also have tools and support to help those who already know the path they want to go and are ready for their next steps.

Career development is a process best started early to maximize opportunities and includes:
• career exploration and identifying interests, values, and priorities
• researching companies, occupations, and industries
• understanding networking: what it is, how to do it, and why it’s so important
• preparing targeted job search tools such as resumes, cover letters, and online profiles
• utilizing LinkedIn
• developing and practicing interviewing skills
• job and internship search strategies
• using the Handshake platform
• and more!

We encourage students to use the many free resources offered by NECC, including Handshake.

It is the #1 way college students get hired and is a great tool to use long before you are job or internship searching to learn about companies, attend virtual events, understand different fields, and hear what employers are looking for. It’s also a great place to start networking, an area that is important to start early.

Another place to start networking is right here at NECC.

The faculty and staff here want to help you succeed and the students that you interact with in your Academic Center and your classes are the people who are going to be working in your field.

Building your network with these connections helps you stay in touch and maintain these valuable contacts and we are here to help with all of these things!

To meet with Career Services, schedule an appointment through Navigate or reach out at careerservices@necc.mass.edu.

Appointments are available on Zoom or in-person at either campus in the Career Services office or the Academic Centers.

Access Handshake at https://app.joinhandshake.com/edu or through the link on the Career Services page of the NECC website  and log in with your NECC credentials.

Reach out any time if we can be of any assistance, we look forward to working with you!

For more information: