Whether you are a mid-career professional or a recent college graduate, it never hurts to keep an open mind to different ideas about working and the new technology that is constantly shaping the job market. Last Thursday in class, Former Director of the Stony Brook Writing Program Gene Hammond came as a guest speaker and shared his ideas about working with us—a class full of aspiring undergraduate and graduate students. He presented many anecdotes about his professional life and career choices that illustrate many of the ideas he was presenting—new ideas to many of us. One idea that I really took note was one’s style of approach when it comes to career choices; the debate was on taking control of the present versus going with the flow and letting everything fall into place on its own accord. This discussion ended with the great point made by a peer: it is important to create a plan to guide our career choices yet if new opportunities come up along the way, we should not hesitate to take them. Therefore, it is important for any working professional to be proactive about maximizing one’s job prospects, and one way to do so is to keep up with new technology.
The rapid growth of new technology has paved the way for a new method of resume showcasing and self-marketing—it is the blogfolio. The blogfolio is a newly coined term that essentially means the combination of blogging and e-Portfolios (or digital web-based portfolios). According to a piece titled “Showcase Hybridity: A Role for Blogfolios” by Geoggrey Middlebrook and Jerry Chih-Yuan Sun, the presence of blogfolios in higher education is only at its infancy and faces the challenges of being incompatible with the school curriculum and posing an “information overload” to students and teachers alike. However, I would like to argue that having an Internet presence in this day and age is very important, and an example is the rise of professional networks on the web like LinkedIn. It will be increasingly important to prepare students for the workforce and have them acquainted with job searching and professional networking; therefore, blogfolios is a very relevant issue to address.
At Stony Brook, I am currently taking a class on Writing for Your Profession, and a big part of the class is developing an online presence—I am in fact in the process of creating a blogfolio for this class. During the process, I learned that blogging in conjunction with developing my professional identity has taught me to think more critically about shaping my career path and using resources at my disposal. I blog about assigned readings and connect the ideas presented in the readings with other readings, my own life experience, and ideas discussed inside and outside of class; it encourages me to think critically and form my own opinions about relevant issues.
Another important issue Dr. Hammond brought up is the transferability of skillsets, where we can tap into our experiences in various disciplines and fields to enhance our resume. This is important especially for recent graduates because many of us had part-time jobs such as being a food server or a teaching assistant during college and they might not necessarily align with our career path. However, these jobs are our resource for showcasing skillsets that can be transferred over a vast number of disciplines; customer service and communication are examples of transferable skillsets. I currently work as a writing center tutor and a teaching assistant for chemistry, and both positions offer me plenty of experience in peer tutoring, communication, application of learning strategies, time management, and listening skills.
In conclusion, to be a strong candidate in today’s job market, which is shaped largely by new technology, one needs to adapt to the changing times. Developing an Internet presence to showcase one’s professional identity and tapping into transferable skills would be a good way to start. My way of preparing for the changing job market is by taking the Writing for Your Profession class, and as a result, writing this very blog post.
December 6, 2015 at 1:26 AM
Hey Anthony! I liked your conclusion because I totally agree that in order to be a strong candidate, one needs to be able to adapt to changing times! I also wrote a blog about how important having internet presence is and I think whatever I had left out, you have covered! Great Job!
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