Scott Caldwell
5 Things You Can Do to Land a Great Job
Summary
Scott works for Toyota's North American Design as the Team Development Assistant Manager.
During his presentation he gave us the give most important steps into landing a great job when we graduate from BYU-Idaho. Being a former student at BYU-Idaho, Scott had a lot of great things to say about how to make your time worth while here at school.
His first step was to get involved both on campus and in the community. He said to find organizations that you care about and then to stick with them. He said most employers look for more than just good grades when you were in college, they want to know what else you did to be involved in school activities and community activities.
The second step he suggested was to make the most of your jobs during school. He said even if it is not a job you want to persue in the future it is still important to make the best of it and learn everything you would need to know for your career. He also suggested to set up informal, and unpaid internships because it pays off in the long run even though you may be losing money at first.
The third step is to make the most of your career resources. By this he means to start early in your education at college to become actively in part with internship expeditions, practice interviews, resume critiques, career and internship fairs, career workshops, career exploration classes, and the BYU-I Alumni Association. He said that the BYU-I Alumni Association is probably the least used resource on campus and that he has never received a call from it and he wishes he did so he can help out students find a job.
The fourth step is to broaden your vision of opportunities. He highly recommended that we as students don't get caught up in one single industry we can apply for. He said we should look at all industries no matter what because there could be a great opportunity that we didn't know about.
The last step of the five is to build a genuine network. He said that this is based on building relationship with someone you have mutual connections with. He highly suggested to start building those professional relationships now before we are looking for a job. And to add value in conversations. Also, he said to find mentors now and not beat around the bush with them when we call them about looking for jobs.
My Thoughts
I really enjoyed Scott Caldwell's presentation. The reason why I personally thought it was so beneficial was the fact that he made us write up our own action plan to follow through with during his presentation. I thought this was helpful because it forces me to get up and do something now instead of sitting around waiting for a job to come to me.
Part of my action plan is to join the Whitney Society and Marketing Society and to do some volunteer work in the community. I also want to explore more of the BYU-I Alumni Association and give some of those people a call about a possiblity of a job in their field. I have to get the sports industry out of my mind and think of other industries that I can work in such as finances or banking. I do not have a linked in account and I think it would be beneficial to have one of those.
Extra Credit Location
I want my extra credit on the midterm (all 3 points).