As COVID-19 tears across the country, millions of Americans are suddenly out of a job and millions of students are getting ready to graduate from college. Finding a job suddenly seems impossible!
It is a scary time, but as a senior in college and a job seeker myself, I have come up with some tips and tools for you to try.
Tips-
- Update that LinkedIn profile… RIGHT NOW!
Seriously people, your LinkedIn is MORE important than your resume when looking for cybersecurity jobs. Recruiters will be looking at your profile and you might even get a job offer from a company you were not aware of. So, go fix these issues RIGHT NOW-
- Make sure your profile picture is professional
- Is your profile public and does it include key search words?
- How many connections do you have? Have you connected with any and all classmates and coworkers?
- Make “cold” connections (they are the new cold call I promise!) look for recruiters and managers in companies you are interested in
- Get those endorsed skills sorted out and ask friends, classmates, teammates, supervisors ANYONE to endorse them
- Make sure your location and contact information is current
- Network, Network, and Network!
- Not just on LinkedIn
- Join any alumni organizations online that you can even if you have not graduated yet
- Ask friends and family if they know anyone that works at whatever companies you are interested in and ask for an introduction
- Go to cybersecurity conferences. Yes, it can often be a big investment, but the connections can last a lifetime
Tools-
Check out these websites for help with your job search-
- I cannot say enough good things about Cyber Seek. I will be dedicating a whole post to this site I love it so much so keep an eye out for that! As a student, it can help you locate the best geographical areas to look for jobs. It can help you sort out what kinds of certifications give you the most marketability. It also can show you how much money you can expect to make. https://www.cyberseek.org/
- Learn what job you are actually looking for and what its name is. Read the NIST article that describes all the different fields that are considered part of cybersecurity. https://csrc.nist.gov/csrc/media/publications/sp/800-181/archive/2016-11-02/documents/sp800_181_draft.pdf