Use a combination of job search strategies, allocating about 80 percent of your search time to proactive strategies and about 20 percent on reactive strategies.
Proactive job and internship search strategies are all about networking. They generally take more time and effort to cultivate, but connections made through networking tend to pay off better in the long run. The strategy here is to start early and keep at it—continually identify people working in positions and/or organizations you’re interested in and connect with them.
- Identify industries, organization, and job positions of interest to you.
- Focus on building relationships—reach out to people in your immediate network and communicate with them what you’re looking for. Ask if they know of someone working in a related industry or in a position you’re interested in and proactively reach out to them.
- Use LinkedIn’s alumni tool to identify UO alum and others in your extended network to connect with.
- Go to campus career fairs, networking events, and employer presentations. Continually seek out and attend any events where you can meet people.
- Conduct informational interviews to expand your network and learn more about a specific organization or position.
- Keep an active list of your contacts, follow-up, and stay in touch.
Reactive job and internship searching is the process of identifying open job and internship postings and applying for them.
Here are some resources to get you started.
UO does not make material contributions to the creation or development of the content that third parties post online. Due to the volume of postings received, UO is unable to fully investigate the legitimacy and validity of each organization or person that posts a job or internship vacancy or to guarantee that all jobs and internships are still available. It is the responsibility of each individual job and internship seeker to research the integrity of the organization(s) to which they are applying and to verify the specific information pertaining to the job or internship posting. Job and internship seekers should exercise due diligence and use common sense and caution when applying for or accepting any position.