It's that time of year again—degree project panic time!
Evans School students in their final year are busily finishing their projects and looking forward to graduation. It is always hard to balance the job search with academics, but especially at this time of year. Hopefully, though, you can find a few minutes to start thinking about what you'll be doing after graduation. One way to do this is to start thinking about how you can use your degree project to help you with finding a job. There are three main ways to do this:
1. Use your degree project to build a new skill. Hopefully, you have stretched your analytical muscles on your project, and can use these in a new job. Or perhaps you've chosen a degree project that required you to learn a new technical skill, like GIS mapping or strategic planning. Maybe your degree project has exposed you to a new issue area or sector, or allowed you to work with people at a different level than you have before. Start reading job postings in your field to see how you can strategically use these skills in a new job.
2. Use your degree project to meet people. No, you shouldn't use the degree project as a thinly-veiled way of cold-calling future employers! But certainly, degree projects that require you to conduct stakeholder analyses or surveys may allow you to meet new people. Think about the people you have worked with in your client organization and consider mentioning to them that you would be interested in an informational interview. Use your informational interview to find out as much as you can about the organization and similar organizations, ask about professional organizations you can join, for career advice and job search tips, and for referrals to additional networking contacts. Ideally, people you meet through your research will remember you and tell you when a new job opens up in their organization, and they might even recommend you to others. Many Evans School students have landed jobs this way through either their degree projects or internships.
3. Bring your DP into your resume—or bring it to an interview. Some students have listed their degree projects almost the same way as you would a job listing. If you worked closely with a client organization, almost at the level of an internship, you might list yourself as a "student consultant" for them. Or you can list your degree project under your education section and add some bullet points highlighting what you researched. Lastly, you might consider bringing some of the salient parts of your project with you in a portfolio when you go to a job interview (along with copies of your resume and references printed on good resume paper). You can offer them as examples of the work you've done; employers can sometimes be quite impressed by such work examples.
Evans School Career Services is glad to meet with you to help strategize the best way to include your degree project on your resume, follow up with your networking connections, andhelp you jump-start your job search process. Feel free to contact us at evansjob@u.washington.edu to make an appointment.
Published on May 27, 2010
