Your Career Success Starts Here
Career readiness is key to ensuring your successful launch into the workforce. It’s never too early, or too late, to get started.
Use this Career Readiness Roadmap for guidance and inspiration during your UO experience. Build skills, knowledge, and relationships to confidently launch into your future.
Your first steps
Build your career foundation in your first year at the UO.
- Complete the VitaNavis career assessment to get ideas about possible majors and careers.
- Activate your Handshake account to access the UO database of career opportunities, including part-time and full-time jobs, internships, and networking events.
- Talk with advisors, faculty members, mentors, and fellow students about how your interests and identities connect with majors and careers.
- Create or update your résumé shortly after arriving on campus so you’re ready for opportunities. Explore our website for resources and tips, or meet with a career readiness coach for advice.
Your next steps
Increase your career readiness each year at the UO.
- Learn more about possible careers through job shadowing, informational interviewing, and/or participating in career networking events hosted by the University Career Center and other departments on campus.
- Complete your Handshake profile. Once you fill out your profile, Handshake will curate a feed of jobs, internships, and events that match your interests and skills.
- Build experience on campus through employment, research, volunteer work, and on-campus involvement.
- Seek internships to build your résumé. If you want to earn academic credit for your internship, enroll in UGST 404 or another internship reflection course.
- Create your LinkedIn profile.
- Grow your network by reaching out to advisors, career coaches, family, friends, and Duck alumni on LinkedIn for career preparation insights.
- Increase your skills using the free online courses available to UO students on LinkedIn Learning.
- Build relationships with faculty or others who can attest to your abilities so they can eventually be professional references or writers of letters of recommendation.
Work across differences
Enhance your understanding of the impact equity and inclusion play in your personal experience and the experience of others.
- Familiarize yourself with events and opportunities where you can interact with those who come from different backgrounds, cultures, or countries than you (different genders, ages, abilities, sexual orientations, races, ethnicities, national origins, etc.).
- Strengthen your critical thinking skills by considering the viewpoints, perspectives, and/or voices that are missing from your in- and out-of-class experiences.
- When you talk with people from organizations that interest you (at workshops, networking events, and interviews), ask them how equity and inclusion are addressed within their organizations.
Prepare to launch
Successfully launching your career may require you to plan a year or more before graduation.
- Refine your résumé and LinkedIn profile, and tailor them based on your desired industry.
- Strengthen your skills in writing cover letters.
- Develop your interviewing skills. Use the online Big Interview platform or conduct a practice interview at the Career Center.
- Meet with a career readiness coach at least six months before graduation to develop a job-search plan.
- Use Handshake to search for part-time jobs, internships, and full-time positions.
- Attend career fairs and other career events to learn about prospective employers.
- Apply for jobs or graduate programs—and start early! Some applications will be due a year before the opportunity begins.
Online tools for UO students
VitaNavis
Learn how your interests can connect with career options and UO majors by taking a quick assessment.
Handshake
Find jobs, internships, and career events related to your goals.
LinkedIn Learning
UO students have free access to thousands of online courses to achieve personal and professional goals.
Big Interview
This online interviewing system combines training and practice to help improve your interview technique and build your confidence.
Want to talk to someone about your
individual career readiness path?
Set up an appointment with a career readiness coach.