The Four Year Plan

PACS is here to help you in your career process from the moment you enroll at the University. See what steps you should take during each year of your term at USIU to land a job or start up your own business before/ as you graduate.

FRESHMAN YEAR – SELF EXPLORATION – Interests, Values, Skills

Resume & Cover letter review -
A resume and cover letter are your first opportunity to sell yourself to an employer. PACS provides advising and resources to make your resume and cover letter as effective and professional as possible.

When writing a cover letter remember:

• The exact title of the position you are seeking. If that’s not possible, then the general type of work for which you are applying.
• Why you want to work for the company. Remember the company wants to know what you can do for them.
• A dazzling sample of what you know about the company: product lines, marketing strategies, their quality and quantity of clientele and where they stand among their competitors. For example, “I understand you will be introducing your new robotic CNC widget assembly system in the Australian market this fall. I have several ideas that may help you compete with Intel’s established line.”
• Personal attributes, or “soft” skills—just don’t overdo it. One or two lines is enough, and keep it as objective as possible: “My peers would tell you I’m self-motivated and energetic, with a sharp eye for detail,” or, “I feel certain my skills in personal client relations, networking and communications will expand your client base and develop strong repeat business, as demonstrated in my position with XYZ company.”
• Whether you’re willing to travel or relocate. Omit this if it’s not requested or if you are not willing to travel or relocate.
• Other specifics about yourself or the job. If the posting says: “Include salary requirements” and not salary history, give them a desired salary range and avoid a specific number. For example: “Upper Ksh. 40,000, negotiable, depending on benefits.” You may include this in a letter, but if they ask for salary requirements and salary history, include them on a separate salary history sheet and end the page with Salary requirements are open to negotiation.”

Link to Electronic Resumes

Of course, nothing is perfect, and document scanners can make mistakes. If your resume is scanned from paper into a computer system, letters and sometimes entire words may be read incorrectly. Underlining, italics, and certain typefaces can be misinterpreted, and essential keywords may not be picked up. That’s why emailing has become the most popular way to send your resume to employers, recruiters and large job boards, such as nsoko.com and brightermonday.com. Depending on the requirements of the website, you can send your resume as a fully formatted, MS Word attachment or as part of an email. However, if you’re on a site that asks you to complete an online form, then save your resume in stripped-down text format (that is Plain Text), with no graphics except asterisks (*) for bullets, and all the copy flush left. That way, there’s very little chance of words being misread.

Describe characteristics and industry-specific experience in keywords to accommodate the electronic/computer search process. Use these guidelines to enhance the processing of text-formatted, keyword resumes through the electronic system:

• Left-justify the entire document.
• Utilize a basic, Courier font, about 10 or 11 points. Most software will default to Courier when you save a file in text format—it’s the most basic, generic typeface.
• Avoid tabs.
• Avoid hard returns whenever possible.
• Avoid italics, script, underlining, graphics, bold, or shading.
• Avoid horizontal and vertical lines.
• Avoid parentheses and brackets.
• Avoid compressed lines of print. (Typesetting and proportional spacing may cram too much into one line if there’s a long word near the end of the sentence.)
• Avoid faxed copies, which become fuzzy.

Internships

Internships are an essential part of the college experience. PACS encourages you to complete at least one internship before graduating. Internships provide you the opportunity to test-drive a career field, make contacts, build marketable skills and figure out your likes and dislikes within specific industries. Students with internship experience have better success with their job search or graduate school application process.

Interviews

Interviews are a critical part of the job search, and it is important that you be prepared for an interview with an employer. The Placement and Career Services office has tips, resources, mock interviews, and workshops to help you get ready for interviews.

Networking & Outreach

A great way to make connections and find 'hidden' opportunities is to network. Networking is talking to people to gain insight and information into career fields. PACS has tips and information on how to network effectively.

Remember the number-one way to get that new position is through networking. How you present yourself on paper, on the phone and in-person should be clear, strong and most of all, consistent. People are drawn to consistency; it’s calming, comfortable, attractive and memorable. That’s what you must become throughout your job search, and for that matter, your entire career.

Search Skills

Find out how to hone your job search skills with workshops, information sessions, career advising, and other resources at PACS.

• Will the career's job duties capitalize on my strengths?
• How successful will I be performing specific job tasks?
• Will I enjoy doing the tasks?
• How comfortable - and confident - will I feel doing this job?
• Will I be happy?

WHY USIU-Africa

• Quality is the hallmark of the USIU-Africa programs.
• Hiring of USIU-Africa graduates assures your organization of quality services.
• The USIU-Africa student possesses attributes such as professionalism, punctuality, maturity, self-discipline, adaptability and flexibility necessary to excel in the work environment.

WHAT SETS USIU-Africa STUDENTS APART?

• Multicultural Perspective -The University’s mission includes a strong commitment to providing students with a global understanding and a multicultural perspective.
• Technologically Savvy -USIU-Africa students are trained to be able to meet technological challenges in the work place.
• Smart and Well Trained Students -The students are highly motivated and self-driven with an emphasis put on self-confidence and team work. Students through research and group work. Competency in critical, creative and quantitative skills in thinking, writing and speaking are reinforced in the curriculum.
• Articulate and Equipped to Lead -Through our Student Affairs activities we ensure students have opportunities to enhance leadership ability while participating in sports, club activities, club office bearers and leadership retreats for student leaders

PARTNER WITH PACS

At the Placement and Career Services Office (PACS), we are focused on engaging our industry partners in the following areas:

• Recruitment
• Free online job posting
• Resume collect
• Mentorship
• Employability and Entrepreneurship skills training
• Networking workshops
• Volunteerism
• Annual Career Fair
  • Guest speakers
  • Job search strategies
  • Discussion panel on topical issues
  • Networking and etiquette
  • Pre Career Fair
  • Exhibitions

Recruitment

Recruiting is your direct link to reaching students for employment and internship opportunities. We'll find a time that best fits both your schedule and the USIU-Africa academic calendar to allow you to talk and recruit our students.

Free online job posting

Careerlink is a jobs portal for Career Services at USIU-Africa that will enable you to better meet your students/graduates recruiting needs. You can post positions, review resumes and job applications right from your desk.

Students enrolled in the schools listed above will be able to view your internships and full-time jobs. Only those students who meet the criteria you set will be able to view information sessions and apply for your positions.

To register and post jobs on Careerlink go to www.usiu.ac.ke/careerlink

Information Sessions

We also invite you to share your expertise with students at career information sessions. This is a customized, extensive recruitment strategy designed to enhance your hiring efforts on campus. This will allow you to communicate information about skills needed in the workplace and different career paths within your company or organization. Participating in such a session on campus helps build your organization’s brand among the students. This individualized plan will allow you to attract and engage the right candidates for your positions. This opportunity will also allow you to share your company's success, culture and why students should work for you.

Resume Collect

We understand that a visit to campus may not always be a possibility for you and thus encourage you to work with the Placement and Career Services office to advertise and collect the CVs for you.

Resume collects have many benefits:

• We will help advertise your opportunity to our students through a variety of marketing strategies.
• Students are encouraged to have a resume review and meet with a Career Counselor before making the applications which means that you get polished students who have benefited from one-on-one advising to strengthen their interviewing skills and identify their career interests.
• We will streamline and email you a bundle of all applications depending on your application deadline.

Annual career fair

Our annual Career Fair is an excellent recruiting opportunity, as it exposes you to a wide variety of students, providing additional visibility for your organization. Areas of participation at the Career Fair include:

Exhibitions set up with employers in mind to showcase their services and engage students on opportunities in their industry and hiring culture

Talks by industry professionals from various companies to enlighten students on thematic issues in specific industries

Sponsorship – In cash or kind to contribute to the office of Career services and the student programs we create and coordinate.

For information on upcoming career fairs, email careeroffice@usiu.ac.ke

On-campus interviews

On-Campus Interviews allow you to meet with many USIU-Africa students in one day. We are flexible, allowing for half or full day schedules.
To make your visit as simple as possible:

• Let us to help you develop and maintain your job or internship posting.
• Use a venue at PACS as interview rooms.

Employability skills training

As an employer, you have identified skills gap in graduates transitioning into the workplace in one occasion or another. We therefore acknowledge the importance of including employability skills training in the learning experience to student. This we do through creating training opportunities for professionals, who impart such valuable skills from their rich industry experiences.

Mentorship

A mentor is one we define as a person experienced in their career and provides guidance, encouragement, advice and wisdom to a less experienced mentee. Whether you are looking be a mentor or a mentee we have opportunities for you to get involved as well as provide support through training and reporting your mentorship endeavor.

• One year/six months structured program– monthly f2f meetings between mentor and mentee(s). Focuses more on personal, academic and career development aimed at easing the transition from college to career.

• Group mentorship– various departments within the organization can choose to have a number of mentees whom they train on various skills. This forms a great pool for prospective employees.

• Roundtable mentorship– a group of 15-20 students are brought to your office where they meet with senior executives and learn as they ask questions. The session could be an hour or two depending on availability and may be preceded by a company visit.

Class Talks/Guest Lectures

These are an integral part of learning for students. Corporate professionals from different industries are invited through the Career Services office to share their valuable insights from their extensive experiences in entrepreneurship and employment, on issues or challenges faced and how they dealt with them. These sessions help to complement the theoretical knowledge that students gain with the first hand perspectives from industry professionals and also appreciate the different innovative ways of handling present day business challenges.

U-shadow

This program aims to match undergraduates with employers, alumni for short-term job shadowing and mentoring experiences. This could be over a few days and weeks or a one-day experience. It is an opportunity for students to gain an understanding of what a particular job entails, observe daily operations, and make connections in organizations.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF PARTNERSHIP

§ Market your brand and position yourself as a potential employer to the students upon graduation.

§ Featured in publications, website, social media and any other form of media used by the Career office/USIU.

§ Inclusion into efforts to improve the quality of human resource in this Kenya and Africa as a whole, bringing to fore a lot of latent talent and capabilities in young people.

§ Reinforce your commitment to giving back to the community and demonstrate your collaborative organizational culture

We welcome your partnership in any of the areas mentioned above that would suit you and your organization. For more information and discussion with our team contact us or visit us at:

United States International University,

Freida Brown Student Centre, 1st Floor

Telephone: (254)730 116 796/778

Email: careeroffice@usiu.ac.ke

All services offered to students are open to our alumni. Whether looking preparing for a career, looking for employment or changing careers, the Placement and Career Services office will help you through the journey.

We have the tools to help you get to your next level.

Mentorship opportunities

We encourage our former students to participate in the mentorship of younger students. Our office organizes and supports the mentoring relationships through training, matching and reporting to ensure the best outcome is achieved.

At the placement and Career Service (PACS) Office – located at the Freida Brown Student Center - we encourage students to come for guidance with regards to interview skills, resume writing and any other questions you might have regarding careers.

Placement and Career Services Office (PACS)
United States International University
Tel : 0730 116 778/ 779 / 796 Email: careeroffice@usiu.ac.ke