Winning the Game
3.6b Reflecting on Workplace Values
In previous sections, we’ve discussed the importance of being able to clearly articulate your skills, knowledge, and experiences regardless of your career path. It’s necessary to complete this type of self-reflection on a regular basis throughout your college experience and practice talking about it to potential employers. In addition to reflecting on the strengths you bring to a potential workplace, it’s important to reflect on what you want and need in your work environment. These are known as your Workplace Values. Some areas to consider when examining your Workplace Values would be the types of work environments you want to be in, interactions you have with coworkers and supervisors, and activities or projects you want to work on. This helps to ensure that your values align with the career paths you’re considering and can also aid in narrowing down your career options.
4.1 Professional Connections and Organizations
Through Career Fairs, student organizations, summer jobs, and maybe an internship or two, you have already begun to develop a strong professional network. This section will look at how you can use events on campus to grow your professional network and how Handshake and LinkedIn can help. Handshake As you have progressed on your career journey, your utilization of Handshake can grow with you. The events hosted by the UWSP Career Team can be a great place to continue developing your network. By participating in events such as the UW System Career Treks and our Career Fairs, you can talk to professionals one-on-one and create a strong first impression. Prior to these events, be sure to do your research. Handshake can help you connect to employers in advance by providing company overviews. These sources can provide you with information to ask relevant questions and showcase your professional preparation. LinkedIn LinkedIn can help you take your preparation a step further. You can look at company profiles, gain additional knowledge about those attending UWSP events, and connect with employers after events. Before events, you can view company profiles, positions not listed on Handshake, and how the organization interacts with professionals. After you meet someone at an event, invite your contacts to connect using a personalized message. Once you have connected, you can see the groups they are active in and consider following them as well to grow your presence in professional circles in your field.
Evaluate your Workplace Values by asking yourself: • What kind of life do I want to have, and how do I want to work to fit into it?
• Do I want to live in a specific geographical area? • Is it important to help others as part of my career? • Are workplace relationships important to me? • Is stability an important factor for me?
Knowing the answers to some or all of these questions will help you to evaluate the qualities you want in a career and how you would fit into the work environments of potential employers. Go ahead and check out Step 4 - Winning the Game for the next pieces of the job search process.
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