Taking Inventory and Acquiring New Skills for the Workforce

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:20:56 -0400
freshmen, sophomore

The skills you’ll acquire throughout your academic life offer more to your future career than you might realize! As a student, you develop technical skills related to your major. Engaging in a wide range of experiences outside the classroom will help you build well-rounded, transferable skills to enhance your academic work and make you stand out.

By reflecting on some of the following questions, you can start to figure out what types of meaningful experiences could complement the academic field you are pursuing:

What do you consider your overall strengths?

What are some interests you have outside of your academic major?

How would you rate your communication skills?

Do you have any leadership experience?

Do you enjoy working in groups or by yourself?

Do you consider yourself creative?

What’s your approach to problem-solving?

Here are some ways to help you build transferable skills at UMBC!

Join a student organization - Besides being a meaningful way to connect with your peers over shared interests, being involved in a student organization is a great way to take the initiative on projects you care about and work together outside the classroom. You can also add your voice and find your place within our campus community. You can also stay connected through both virtual and in-person campus life initiatives!

Gaining real-world experience through an internship, research, or co-op is one of the best ways to make yourself a competitive candidate for full-time jobs and graduate/professional school. The Career Center offers career advising and counseling, networking events, on-campus recruiting, on-campus interviews, career and professional skills education, and applied learning opportunities (internships, co-ops, and research) to help prepare you to envision your future career opportunities!

Consider adding a minor to your degree—Complementing your primary major with a minor or certificate program can be a great way to add extra knowledge and new skills to your bachelor’s degree. It can also be a great way to explore other personal interests you might have and make you unique in the eyes of future employers. Exploring programs such as foreign language studies or entrepreneurship can greatly enhance any major. Check out all the possibilities and talk them over with your advisor!

Get involved with Service Learning and Community Engagement through the Shriver Center – Ever want to apply what you’re learning outside the classroom? The Shriver Center has you covered! You could step outside the school's boundaries and experience the real world through its Service-Learning and Community partnerships. Through The Shriver Center’s many opportunities, the UMBC community can continue to serve organizations through capacity-building projects and digital delivery of services.

Consider becoming a student worker – UMBC has many job opportunities for students. This can be a great way to apply what you’ve learned at UMBC to help other students and gain proper job experience! From tutoring to working in various offices around campus, check out Handshake and the Federal Work-Study job list for campus job postings throughout the year!

These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about all the different experiences UMBC offers and how they might benefit your overall success! What experiences at UMBC have helped you build your skillset?