Tessa Alexander

Describe your job search process. What were some challenges you faced or things you learned from the experience?

I will forever be grateful for the knowledge I have gained through my experience at Florida State and all the challenges I have overcome during my undergraduate career. My job search process not only involved utilizing the variety of Career Center services, but also my experience in SDS3340 that utilized easy access to mock interview trials and receiving in-depth feedback on how to better myself on answering interview questions. Some of the challenges I faced during my job searching process were not broadening my options or considering different positions. This made the job searching process very long and difficult because I was withholding myself from considering different opportunities solely because I wanted to work in one specific position. I learned that this is a very poor way of going about looking for a job because you should never cut your search short just to work either at one company or one position.

If you used any Career Center services, resources, or events to obtain your part-time job, what were they? How did they support your application process?

I used Quinncia for mock interviews, meeting with a Career Center employee to review and edit my resume, as well as the Experience Recognition Program to ultimately obtain my part-time job. Meeting with someone to go over my resume was a huge step in my job searching and application process because now knowing my current resume at the time was not going to land me any job. The individual I met with was very knowledgeable on what needed to be on the resume to make myself stand out and what information or skills were not necessary or important. They helped make my resume go from a high school assignment to a professional resume that landed me my current job. The Quinncia mock interviews were more than helpful and allowed me to be able to see myself after the interview so that I know what I need to work on as far as visual behaviors. Quinncia was also very detailed in all the feedback that was given to help me feel more comfortable and look more professional in an interview setting. The Experience Recognition Program was ultimately what really pushed me to get the job because I was short one class to be able to graduate and luckily ERP was an alternative way to get credit so that I could graduate on time.

What are some takeaways from your part-time job? How will these help prepare you for the next step after graduation?

Some takeaways from my part-time job would be learning how to be patient with myself and others and needing to have a balance between work, school, and personal life. I never understood how essential it is, mentally and physically, to require a balance to not get burnt out until I started working while still in school. Not allowing myself enough time to do school work because I was busy with work or wanting to hang out with friends quickly made me realize I need a routine to be able to balance all my tasks day to day. My job has also showed me how important patience is especially if you want to work with kids all day. These takeaways will help me after graduation because I can apply both to any aspect of life. There will always need to be a balance between hard work and play and not having patience for yourself or others will only cause you to be frustrated and not accomplish a lot.

What advice do you have for students currently launching a part-time job search?

Be patient with yourself because the right job for you will take some time to find and even more time and effort to pull off getting the job. Applying, interviewing, and starting in a new environment can all be very intimidating, but what I've learned most at my time at FSU is that change and being uncomfortable are an important part of life because those things will never change. I never realized how important it was to put a lot of effort into interviews or researching the company or position ahead of time because I was always under the assumption that I would never have any problems obtaining a job. Once I realized that job positions are competitive, it showed me that I need to apply effort to be an outstanding candidate to an employer and think about how I can be different than the other people that are competing for the same position.