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In addition to the Career Preparation program requirement options, Nā Hokua supports students in exploring other steps that are beneficial for developing career readiness. These activities include information and resources for:
Crafting a successful résumé;
Demonstrating your experiences through an ePortfolio;
Requesting references or letters of recommendation; and
Composing an effective cover letter.
For your reference, here are some general resources for career exploration:
University of Hawaiʻi Career Centers & Services
Hawaiʻi Community College: https://hawaii.hawaii.edu/career-job
Honolulu Community College: https://www.honolulu.hawaii.edu/services/career-services/
Kapiʻolani Community College: https://www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/support-and-campus-life/employment-prep-center/
Kauaʻi Community College: https://www.kauai.hawaii.edu/careers
Leeward Community College: https://www.leeward.hawaii.edu/careercentral
Maui College: https://maui.hawaii.edu/careerlink/
Windward Community College: https://windward.hawaii.edu/services-for-students/career-center/
University of Hawaiʻi, Hilo: https://hilo.hawaii.edu/studentaffairs/careercenter.php
University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa: https://manoa.hawaii.edu/careercenter/
University of Hawaiʻi, West Oʻahu: https://westoahu.hawaii.edu/career/
Résumé
Résumé
A résumé or curriculum vitae is an important document to develop and evolve over the course of your career. The résumé you submitted as part of the Nā Hokua program requirements is a starting point. Through your time in the program, you will work with your coach to identify and utilize resources that will assist you in improving your résumé. At the end of the academic year, you will include a review of your resume as part of the final meeting with your coach.
We are planting this seed early in your career to encourage you to curate your academic and work experiences in a way that supports your résumé development over time. Taking note of key dates, responsibilities, and people you work with will make résumé updates easier and more accurate.
On the topic of people, know that most job and academic applications will ask for references which could be a list of three professional contacts or letters of recommendation. Are you doing really well in a class or at a job? Consider asking those who can vouch for your performance if they would like to be a professional reference in the future. If they agree, be sure to get their contact information, and follow up with a thank you note. It is common to list a reference's name, title/position, phone number and email address, so be sure to ask for that information if you don't already have it. Also make note of any highlights from your experience with that reference - good class participation or grades, strong performance at work, etc.
References are more typical during a job search, but letters of recommendation may be required in academic and scholarship applications. In either case, it is good form to contact your reference to reconnect and confirm that they would be willing to serve as a reference. You may even need/want to remind them of your work with them and even provide them an update on your most recent academic or career accomplishments. If it has been some time since you last spoke with your reference, a little reminder can go a long way. If a letter of recommendation is required, we suggest you provide your reference with a template that they can work from. This template should include any important contact information (e.g. name and email for the employer or institution you are applying to), highlights of your interactions with your reference (e.g. you were active in class discussions, you led the night shift at work, you were great with customer service, etc.), and if applicable, include some of the achievements you have made since last talking with your reference. You might even go so far as to provide a pre-written letter of recommendation and ask your reference to use as much or as little of your sample as they would like. The easier you make if for your reference the better.
Résumé vs. Curriculum Vitae
Résumé vs. Curriculum Vitae
Résumés and Curriculm Vitae (CVs) serve similar purposes. CVs are more commonly found in academic and research settings where résumés are standard just about everywhere else. This article is a concise description of both with great writing tips.
Résumé Resources
Resume Writing Guide (UH Hilo)
9 Resume Tips for College Students (Indeed.com)
ePortfolio
ePortfolio
You know that you will need a résumé and a cover letter when you start applying for jobs. But, as a student, you may not have a lot of formal experience to include in your résumé. This is a common concern for college students, and employers understand this as well. So, how do you stand out from the crowd? How do you demonstrate your academic and career development interests and achievements outside of a résumé?
An electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is a purposeful collection of sample student work, demonstrations, and artifacts that showcase your learning progression, achievement, and evidence of what you can do and what you are interested in. The collection can include essays and papers (text-based), blog, multimedia (recordings of demonstrations, interviews, presentations, etc.), graphics and photos.
In some career fields (e.g. architecture, graphic design), a portfolio is essential to the hiring process, so students in those fields are thinking about and building their portfolios from day one. In the context of career preparation, we are encouraging you to develop an ePortfolio of your own, even if it is not traditionally used in your particular career field.
An ePortfolio is also a tool to help you build and protect your personal brand online. Without your direct input, what is discoverable about you may come from social media and other sources of personally identifiable information on the internet. You might have been tagged in a photo or otherwise connected with something that you would rather not be, in a professional/career context. While you can try to remove those online associations, we recommend building an online presence that would benefit your career goals.
**Quick exercise: Google your name and review the results. Google Nā Hokua staff members, Sean Nagamatsu, Esben Borsting, and Kepano Kekuewa. Note the sources of those results.**
What a portfolio is NOT: A portfolio is not a placeholder for all or random student work. In order to ensure that the portfolio process is educational and that it serves as a way to assess student learning and career preparedness outcomes, carefully consider what you include in your ePortfolio and if those assets help to tell your story.
How to get started
How to get started
If you haven’t documented career relevant activities in your life, start doing that today. Journal and take photos of the things a future employer might find interesting. Informal activities such as projects around the house or mālama ʻāina volunteer work could help a hiring manager know more about your passions and work ethic. Pictures or videos of you in action can be powerful assets for your ePortfolio.
**Tech Tip: clean the lens on your phone camera and have someone take a photo or video of your activity in landscape/horizontal mode.**
As you develop your visual assets, put your interests and activities into words. This is not academic writing, but good grammar and spelling are equally important here. Communication skills are highly desirable in any field, and demonstrating your ability to clearly articulate your thoughts is crucial. At the very least, don’t let poor writing negatively impact your efforts here.
Consider what employers are looking for as you describe your activities. You may not think much of the work you did in retail, for example, but there could be great qualities worth pointing out. Stocking shelves - attention to detail and organizational skills; cashier - responsibility with money and customer service; helping with the family business - financial and business skills; etc.
Creating your initial ePortfolio as part of Nā Hokua’s career prep efforts is a starting point (approximately week 6). When you feel you have produced a viable ePortfolio, please share the link with your coach and schedule time to discuss with them (approximately week 12). Consider their feedback to improve your ePortfolio and continue to look for content to add over the course of each semester. At the end of the semester, or at any point where you may have made significant updates to your ePortfolio, schedule follow up reviews with your coach.
Minimum of four sections:
Minimum of four sections:
About Me/Overview
Skills/Academic accomplishments
Work/Volunteer experience
Educational/Career goals
Samples
Samples
Platforms
Platforms
Google Sites (be sure you are logged in to your UH Google account)
References & Letters of Recommendation
References & Letters of Recommendation
During the job application process, you may be asked to provide references. This is a list of people who can confirm your work experience as described on your resume, and ideally, people who would speak positively about you. Professional references are people who are directly familiar with your work experience such as a manager or a co-worker. Professional references are almost always preferred by hiring managers. There may be situations where a personal reference - i.e. someone who knows you, but has not worked with you in a formal/professional capacity - might be helpful. As an early-stage career participant, you may not have many professional references to call on. You may look to mentors or leaders of organizations like clubs or church groups who know you and can speak positively about your attitude and character in lieu of a professional reference. For entry-level positions with minimal work experience requirements, personal references may suffice. Family members are not appropriate references unless you had a formal work relationship with them that is reflected in your resume (e.g. you worked for a family member’s business). Another possible benefit of a personal reference is if that reference is a well known figure in your career field or industry or if the personal reference is an employee at the company where you are seeking employment. The latter is sometimes called an internal referral, and some applications may even ask you to list anyone at the company you know who could vouch for you.
The best time to build your list of references is before you need them. Along with current supervisors and co-workers, consider asking your faculty members to be professional references. If they agree, ask them if you can include their phone number and email address when you list them as a reference in the future. When you do eventually need to provide references, you should get in touch with them and let them know that you are applying for a job and plan to list them as a professional reference. This is a great opportunity to refresh their memory about who you are if you have been out of touch for a while. You might let them know about the job opportunity and update them on what you have done since you last interacted with them. If you have a good relationship with the reference, they will be open to learning how they can better help you in your job search. Let them know about any new skills or education you have gained that would support your application efforts, and they might echo some of those positive updates when they speak to the hiring manager. Relationships take time and energy to maintain - keep in touch with those you want to keep in your network.
Letters of recommendation are not commonly requested as part of a job application, but consider using similar strategies to call on your network if you ever do need a letter of recommendation. While you are in school, you might want to ask faculty, counselors, and administrators for generic letters of recommendation that you can file away for future use. You can make it easier on them to write a template for them to follow, highlighting your academic success and any special things you’d want an employer to know that your supporter would be familiar with. If you know what kinds of things employers are generally interested in such as strong communication or organizational skills, include those in your template. Ask them to print their completed letter of support on official letterhead - this is a letter template that includes the organization’s logo and other official information about their organization and lends credibility to their letter of recommendation. As mentioned earlier, if you have been out of touch with your contact, it may be helpful to update them on what you have been up to since your last interactions with them. If a specific opportunity requires a letter of recommendation, you might even write the ideal letter of recommendation that addresses the requirements of the job, and offer it to your reference as a template for them to use. Unless you are falsifying or embellishing things in your template, most people would welcome your initiative. Writing a letter is extra work for them, and the more you can do help them, the better your chances of them writing a great letter of recommendation for you.
Reference/Recommendation Resources
Cover Letter
Cover Letter
Where a CV/résumé lists the essential facts of your education and work experience, a cover letter is usually included to help you express your interest in the job and to make connections between your experiences and the position requirements, especially if those connections are not obvious. For example, if you worked in retail or in food service, you might point out your strong customer service and communication skills or responsibility with financial transactions and handling money. A number of jobs will list minimum qualifications (MQs) and desirable qualifications (DQs). You can use the cover letter to list each MQ and DQ and describe how you meet them. Some of this may be a bit repetitive from your résumé/CV, but making it absolutely clear that you meet all of the MQs (and, hopefully, hit a number of the DQs) will help move your résumé forward. Make it easy for your résumé reviewers (it's often a committee) see that you at least meet the MQs for the position. Don't make them hunt for those connections in your résumé. If the reviewer cannot identify that you have met the MQs, your application will very likely be rejected without further consideration.
Customize
Customize
At this early stage in your career, your résumé/CV will likely be fairly generic. But, as you identify job opportunities to apply for, you will want to tailor your résumé/CV to match those positions. This could mean moving more relevant experience to the top or otherwise highlighting relevant experience. Perhaps consider removing or shortening non-relevant experiences. For example, if you were a deckhand on a SCUBA charter for a summer, and you were applying for an EMT position, your safety certifications and responsibilities may be more important to highlight than your ability to serve snacks to customers.
Activity
Activity
1) Review the links below for relevant résumé/CV writing advice and update your résumé based on what you have learned. Create a general cover letter. Review with your coach.
2) Find the career support center on your campus and schedule a résumé/CV and cover letter review session with them. Report back to your coach on that experience.
3) If you have an immediate job opportunity, customize your résumé and cover letter and review with your coach.
4) If you don't have an immediate job opportunity, find a job you'd like on LinkedIn or Indeed.com (or other job listing site) and customize your résumé and cover letter for that position. Identify the gaps between your actual résumé at this time and the MQs for the job. Discuss with your coach.
5) At the end of the academic year, identify three individuals (non-family members) and ask them if they would be professional references. These could be people at work, faculty members, or people at organizations you volunteer with. Provide this list to your coach and discuss.
6) Write a sample letter of reference from the viewpoint of one of your listed references and share with your coach for discussion.
7) At the end of the academic year, update your résumé and highlight any significant academic or work related achievements. Share with your coach.
Cover Letter Resources
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