The 2022-2023 school year is kicking off! As you welcome a new class, you’re planning to keep students engaged with career services and see this year’s seniors through their final leg of early career preparation. Your head is probably spinning.

Summer is in full swing, yet, we can’t avoid that it is also winding down! In just a few weeks, students will be back on campus. You’re rightfully concerned that students may have lost sight of future career objectives while working summer jobs and working on their tans. They deserve a break, and so do you! But you also want to be sure the leads students need to network, build their portfolios, and apply for internships don’t go cold.

Social media is a hot spot to post and find job listings, but it’s not always clear what is legitimate. Unfortunately, scammers have mastered targeting and taking advantage of desperate job seekers and people fall victim to jobs that are too good to be true every day.

Fortunately, some of those jobs DO exist. You don’t have to report every recruiter who dangles the too-perfect remote job, salary, or experience in front of you on social media. You just need to know which opportunities to respond to and when to hard pass.

Here are a few tips to help you spot red flags when looking for jobs on social media and through social networking:

Everything is digital nowadays. You likely shifted to sending out regular email campaigns to keep students informed years ago. Unfortunately, your outdated newsletters are likely going to the trash bin, and it’s unlikely students are opening the links buried in career resource pages.

Even the best intentions to engage students can fail if you’re not keeping up with the pace of technology and expectations of today’s job seekers. The good news is, you may not need to do more to grab their attention. You just need to do it differently. And sometimes less is more.

Here are a few ways you can create career resources that get through to students:

It’s almost the new year — what will 2022 bring for you professionally and personally? Take matters into your own hands this year to set attainable goals that you can achieve in the new year! 

Throw out resolutions and start creating real goals to help you develop better personal and professional habits with the concept of measurable steps.

Creating measurable steps gets you closer to achieving your goals by helping you track your progress and improvement. Seeing that success in real-time helps boost confidence and simplifies the job search as you set and achieve goals for the new year. 

In a survey by Statista, 1 in 5 responders said that pursuing a career ambition was one of their resolutions for 2021. Whether it is a lifetime career goal or a newfound area for improvement in your job, taking a few steps can turn your dreams into attainable goals for 2022.

Work within your lifestyle, budget, and interests with these tips to set attainable goals in the new year: 

Many business owners are concerned about the impacts of the skills gap and talent shortage, so they are zeroing in on trainability in the hiring process. In fact, according to a recent LinkedIn Learning Report, 64% of L&D pros globally agree that L&D shifted from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” in 2021. 

The skills required for many positions will change in the years ahead, meaning job seekers don’t need to scramble to meet all the skill requirements before applying. Instead, job seekers who can show they are able to enrich and develop skills independently prove to future employers that they are willing and motivated to learn. After all, the top area of focus for L&D programs in 2021 is upskilling and reskilling (with 59% of pros saying it’s their top priority, up 15% since June 2020), according to the LinkedIn report.

Demonstrating determination and desire to develop personally and professionally proves they will be easy to upskill and reskill down the line. It’s important to encourage job seekers to dive into independent learning through experiences such as apprenticeships, part-time jobs, internships, and volunteering. Here are four ways job seekers can be even more intentional with their learning and development: 

Organization is key when you’re on the job search, especially if you’re holding out for the right role and may be on the hunt for months. It’s easy to lose track of important details about job postings when you’re applying for every relevant job post you find. This could come back to haunt you when it’s time to pull yourself together for an interview.

Fortunately, we have a few simple hacks up our sleeves to keep your job search organized. Here is a list of the details you want to keep track of and how to maintain a minimalist organization style:

When students come to the Career Center asking for help with an internship resume, you know you’re doing something right. Your reach should expand beyond just identifying the right major or starting the job search process. All those steps in between, including landing a great internship, should take up a significant part of your wheelhouse as well. 

As you begin to search for a job, something to consider is your personal branding. Your online presence and persona are available to more than just your friends and family in a digital age. For many millennials and generation z, an internet presence is nothing new.