As WSU Academic Staff or Faculty, students may approach you with questions about choosing majors, resume writing, job searching, finding internships, or interviewing assistance. Maybe you already have a career component or teach a career course in your class. Academic Staff and Faculty can help students with their career development by encouraging them to take advantage of Career Services early in their academic career before starting an internship or job search.

As educators, we are all responsible for encouraging our students' workplace readiness upon graduation. The following are ways faculty and staff can incorporate career education into their courses, helping further prepare our students for their future in the workplace.

15 ways to engage students with careers in the classroom

1. Share the Career Services 4-Year Career Readiness Plan (pdf) with your students.
2. Embed the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 8 Career Readiness Competencies (pdf) into course requirements.
3. Incorporate a resume writing session into your course and share a resume example for 2023 by experience level or industry. 
4. Offer students extra credit to download the App Store's Handshake mobile app and activate their WSU Handshake account, where they can find professional development workshops, internship and full-time job postings, and campus career fairs. Have them log into their free account with their WSU Access ID and password.
5. Require students to attend 2-3 career development workshops listed on Handshake.
6. Offer extra credit to students who do a Career Counseling Appointment during the semester.
7. Require students to attend a campus career fair listed on Handshake.
8. Offer extra credit incentives to attend career development sessions and career fairs on Handshake.
9. Offer extra credit to students who participate in a Virtual Mock Interview.
10. Require students to submit a reflection assignment about their career fair experience, including describing the employers they met with at the fair and the opportunities they learned about.
11. Share the Senior/New Grad Checklist with your students.
12. Incorporate a Salary Research assignment, instructing students to determine their dream job's low, median, and high salary.
13. Incorporate a Career Self-Assessment assignment so students can identify their career readiness skills and what jobs match their skill set.
14. Require students to do a practice interview for their field using Career Services online AI interviewing tool, Big Interview.
15. Offer extra credit to students who can conduct online research to create a list of 10 companies to work for in their field and identify a job or internship they could apply to at each company.

Bonus idea: Copy and paste Career Services information into your syllabus or add a link to Career Services to your course website.

Referring students to Career Services

Encourage your students to meet with a Career Counselor at Career Services for a one-on-one appointment. You can also recommend students attend our workshops and events.

Common student career questions include:

• General career or job search advice
• Resume, CV, and cover letter assistance
• Networking and interviewing skills
• Identifying and preparing for part-time, internship, and full-time jobs

Resources for classrooms and cohorts

WSU Career Toolbox - Canvas module

The WSU Career Toolbox module is available to all WSU faculty and staff that use Canvas. This readily designed career module will help your students access essential job and career resources. Add this module to your course as a resource for students or incorporate the information and resources into your teaching. The module includes a 4-year career readiness plan for students, career competency information, career planning and readiness resources, links to the Handshake platform and Big Interview, and other valuable career resources for students. 

To import the module into your Canvas course, please follow these steps:

1. After logging into Canvas and selecting your course, from the right-hand menu, select "Import from Commons."
2. A new page will open. Along the top menu bar, click "filter." Then, ensure "Wayne State University" is selected under the "Shared with" title at the bottom of the menu.
3. In the search bar at the top of the screen, type in "WSU Career Toolbox."

• You may preview the content and then, on the right-hand menu, click "Import/Download."
• Click on the module that shows the author as "Susan Crowley."

Career competency development

Career readiness is critical to ensuring successful entrance into the workforce. Career readiness is a foundation to demonstrate requisite core competencies that broadly prepare the college-educated for success in the workplace and lifelong career management. For employers, career readiness plays a vital role in sourcing talent, providing a means of identifying critical skills and abilities across all job functions.

In 2021, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) identified eight new key career competencies for career readiness. Wayne State University Career Services advises that students understand, develop, enhance, and learn to articulate these competencies to transition into the workplace successfully. Utilize the resources below in your classroom or with your cohorts to help them be career-ready.

Understanding the 8 NACE Career Competencies

Career Competency Quiz (please email ad1112@wayne.edu if you would like an answer key)

Career Ready Guide Course - Based on the 8 NACE Career Competencies

Resumes and cover letters

5 tips and resources to work on a resume:

1. Find a job posting BEFORE trying to write a resume. The posting tells what to talk about and include in resume content.
2. One page is typically appropriate for an undergraduate resume; two pages are acceptable for graduate students.
3. Formatting: Use font sizes 10, 11, or 12 for text. Margins should be .5 - 1" as long as they are identical (top, bottom, left, right).
4. Be sure the format is conservative, consistent, and easy to read. Avoid using too many elements (bold, underline, italics, capitalization). Your resume should be formatted for an applicant tracking system.
5. Use bullet points for descriptions and action verbs to begin each bullet point. Be sure to incorporate skills, keywords, and competency phrases from the job posting if you have those skills/competencies.

• Resume template 1 - Print version for emails and in-person networking events
• Resume template 2 - Print version for emails and in-person networking events
• Resume Template 3 - Online version to upload when applying through a website Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
• Resume Rubric (pdf)
• Resume Action Verbs
   
• Cover Letter Guide
• Cover Letter Rubric

Job Search Guide

Do you teach a career course on campus? Are you a Campus Career Advocate? The job search guide contains content for a 6-hour online course vetted by industry and higher education professionals. It includes 36 short videos and 18 learning activities. Use this content to build lessons for classes or cohorts. Are you interested in using this content? Send an email to ad1112@wayne.edu for access and details.

Topics include:

Starting your job search

• Choosing the Right Career Path
• Finding and Building a Career You Love
• Finding Purpose in Career
• How to Find Company Review Websites
• Researching a Company
• Webinar Series on Remote Jobs

Resumes and your writing

• How to Write a Skills-Based Resume
• How to Write Work Experience Section in Resume
• Keywords and Applicant Track Technology
• Networking Email Tips
• The Do's and Don'ts of Cover Letter Writing

Networking and professional brand

• Branding Yourself on Social Media
• Designing a Purposeful Personal Brand
• Elevator Pitch Examples
• How to Create an Elevator Pitch
• Importance of Personal Brand
• Networking Essentials
• Networking Questions to Ask
• Networking Tips for Introverts

Preparing to interview

• Behavioral Interviewing Questions with Example Answers
• First Impressions Are Everything
• Guide on Informational Interviews
• How to Dress Professionally
• Researching a Company Before Your Interview

Your interviews

• Common Phone Interview Questions
• Interview Tips
• Overcoming Interview Mistakes
• Questions to Ask an Employer
• STAR Technique

Interview Follow-up and Offers

• 15 Follow Up Email Templates
• Negotiating an Offer
• Second Interview Do's and Don'ts
• Second Interview Questions
• 4 Strategies for Interview Follow-Up

CareerSpots Videos

Career Services has a video channel with career-related advice videos to empower students to launch their careers. These fast, fun, career-related videos, 1-4 minutes in length, contain real-world advice from global experts. Work these videos into your coursework or cohort content to help students be career-ready.

Review our videos using the below and email ad1112@wayne.edu with the videos you would like to use with your students, and we will forward you a link to embed the video in your content. 

Review the videos below.