An image of three people sitting at a desk.

Job Search Guide

Are you looking for a new job?

The Temple Job Search Guide organizes all the resources to help launch your job search, showing employers why being Temple Made makes you stand out.

A header image for the Alumni Job Search Guide

The Basics

While everyone’s job search is unique to their own situation, best practices and common themes exist that will help you to execute a successful job search. Here are some basics to get you started.

Determining Your Career Direction

If you know you are ready for something new, but unsure of what that is, here are three resources to help you gain clarity. These activities can also help you to identify your skills and strengths, so you know how to market yourself in your job search.

  • Audit your resume. Reflecting on your past experiences will help you figure out what things you found most fulfilling and want more of, and the tasks you are ready to leave behind. Learn more about this activity.
  • Evaluate your current work. If you are currently working, take two weeks and try to notice when you are most engaged in your work, and when you’re not. This activity can yield surprising results.
  • Career self-assessmentTo add to your own reflections, consider taking a career assessment like O*NET My Next Move. You can read more about this assessment on our Alumni Career Services page and see how it can help you find the clarity you’re looking for.

Evaluating Potential Jobs

Whether you’re reflecting on your current work or envisioning potential future careers, it can be challenging to evaluate what fits and what does not. Try using these four career lenses to guide your evaluations of potential career paths.

Getting Organized

Job searching is a complicated task, and while it can feel productive to send out application after application, a better strategy is to get organized, and be proactive in your process. Check out the Three-Category Approach to job searching to see how to keep yourself organized and pursue your job search proactively.

Preparing Your Resume

You know you will need your resume to be in top shape in order to land that next position. Check out the Alumni Resume Guide for actionable resume advice.

Cover Letters
A cover letter helps you make a clear and compelling case as to why you are the best candidate for a role. Check out Jobscan’s Cover Letter Guide to help you write a captivating cover letter.

Preparing to Negotiate

You should consider negotiating for any job offer you receive. The legitimate worst-case scenario is that the employer simply won’t budge. (If they rescind the offer, you’ve likely escaped an employer who’s not comfortable with employees who advocate for themselves.)

Career Tools

Temple offers career tools to help you optimize and accelerate your job search process:

CareerShift

CareerShift is your one-stop shop for organizing your job search. And it also aggregates job postings from across the internet. Check out how to use this resource to its full advantage. To use this resource, you must create or update your AccessNet account.

Jobscan

As you start identifying roles you’re ready to apply for, use Jobscan to optimize your resume and other application documents to ensure you’re showing the hiring manager how aligned your skills are with the job description. See how easy it is to optimize your resume using Jobscan. Fill out this form to request your premium account provided by Temple, so that you can use the power edit feature to easily update your resume.

Big Interview

Landed the interview and need to prepare? Check out Big Interview—it helps you practice common and industry-specific questions, allows you to record your answers so you can review how you are doing, and even scans your responses using its AI system to ensure you are putting your best foot forward.

Fill out this brief form to set up your Big Interview account today.

Networking Guide

Use the Networking Guide to find and contact Owls who can help you advance your job search.