Graham Haederle, October 26, 2019.
Attending a large, public research university such as the University of Maryland has its perks when it comes to career readiness. With high quality resources that are provided for free by the university, why don’t more students use them? The answer may lie in a lack of confidence concerning the value of a college education. A study conducted by Gallup and Strada showed that only a third of students believe they will graduate with the skills and knowledge to be successful in the job market (34%) and in the workplace (36%). Just half (53%) believe their major will lead to a good job. Given this concern, it is necessary to bring awareness of the powerful career tools at our disposal to current UMD students. Here are three of the best underused career tools we have on campus, and how you can use them to advance your careers:
Adobe Products
There are many Adobe products to be used for all types of learners, and for students at the University of Maryland, they’re all free! Through the Creative Cloud package, we receive access to many of Adobe’s most popular Creative Suite applications and cloud services. Among the apps offered through Adobe Creative Cloud are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Edge Animate, Muse, as well as Adobe’s new Touch Apps for mobile devices. Current students can unlock these features by going to https://terpware.umd.edu/Windows and selecting “Creative Cloud Apps - Student” to start installing for free. All you will need is your directory ID and password and to follow the instructions listed on the website depending on whether you’re downloading for Mac, PC, or Linux. Adobe products can be used by all majors, and it is extremely useful when marrying talents and interests to business. For example, if you are a biology major, you can learn to utilize software such as ADOBE solutions to better present yourself when applying to medical school.
For marketing students, being proficient in Adobe is an essential element for your business journey. Adobe’s software includes options such as data analytics, content management, campaign execution, personalization, advertising, and more, that can be utilized during projects that you’ll need to have in your portfolio. Many of the world’s most successful technology companies use Adobe products to grow their multi-million-dollar companies into legacy brand names such as “Apple” and “Google.” For marketers, Adobe is as important as the necessary programming languages that a computer science major needs on their resume. To be effective in the marketing world, you need to know the technical ins and outs of Adobe products to stay competitive in the workforce, and UMD provides that resource for free!
LinkedIn Learning
It’s no secret that employers prefer candidates with tangible skills rather than personal endorsements. To bridge the gap between employers and applicants, LinkedIn offers LinkedIn Learning, a free service where anyone can pay a fee to take a course in any area of study and earn certification. This is free to all UMD students, yet many don’t even know about it. With the huge variety of courses LinkedIn Learning provides, anyone can find instruction to directly certify a skill in a specific area. Another great feature is that the variety of course options that range from 30-minute, formal lectures to famous professionals giving career advice to workers in their field. Formerly, the LinkedIn learning service was called Lynda training, which the University of Maryland also provided. LinkedIn Learning is a valuable tool for all students at the University of Maryland as it provides an online library of instructional videos covering the latest software, creative, and business skills. If you truly want to stand out among applicants, acquiring accredited certification is a large boost which will certainly raise employers’ eyebrows and help you to stand out in any applicant pool.
University Career Center
The University Career Center is a great tool for all UMD students to take advantage of at any time. With walk-in hours from 9-3 every day, the career center can assess each student’s career readiness on an individual basis using the many resources they provide. Some of these include resume workshops, industry talks, internship search, career fair prep, and more. They also manage a resource for students called Career4Terps which connects employers looking to hire UMD students for internships and full-time offers. The best part of all of this is that it’s free! No matter where you are in your job search or how strong your applicant profile is, the Career Center has everything to offer and should be the first step for every Terp to take when seeking employment!