Online College Reviews & Opinions about Online Schools

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

hilmerjosita — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:04:32 GMT

Well, if you are having trouble getting a respond from employers, there can be multiple reasons. One maybe the school, others maybe your resume is not as attractive as others. You may try doing some freelance paralegal projects to boost up your resume. You can search on the net and find those opportunities.

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

Cajun — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:34:05 GMT

jaydog1212:

What city/state are you trying to obtain employment?
When I was applying to jobs it took 12 applications a day for 2 months before I got a job. I think it's a numbers game. It was my experience that career fairs were a joke. It was all talk and no action. Also, applying via monster and other huge job sites were also a waste of time for me. When jobs are posted to those sites they are flooded with applications. I got more hits (interviews) with contacting the company directly. Also be persistent, I did many follow-up calls and e-mails even when they seemed to forget about me. Also, Kaplan may have some type of career services.
My only criticism of online only program is the the lack of career services for students. It's OK if you have a load of experience (e.g. "working professional) but it's very important for someone trying to break into their desired field. I graduated from a newly formed state college. About half of my courses were online. I think the education I received was just as good as the big state university. However, it's not all about academics....it's also about connections. The newly formed college had some of the same professors as the big state university and mirrored the degree I obtained. The state college career services were basically non-existant. A lot of my graduating class had a hard time finding jobs in the cities major corps. The major corps recruited right on campus at the big university. :(

Ironically, some of the best career and job placement services I have ever seen were through schools like Devry and ITT Tech so it's not always the big boys that have the best placement services...

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

SteveFoerster — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:47:17 GMT

You might try employment agencies, like temp agencies. Sometimes they have "temp to perm" jobs, where they place you somewhere and if you do well the company hires you full time. I did this once, although it was a long time ago. They also often are willing to advise you on how to be a more attractive candidate, since it benefits them too if they can place you more easily.

Good luck,

-=Steve=-

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

tcord1964 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:43:23 GMT

Cajun:
They're only a total waste if you didn't learn something from the experience. Try reading your resume critically, think about some changes you can make which will garner interest, play with the wording a bit and get some outside advice. Sometimes even a change in font can help. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get a resume to stick out in a stack.

I will also repeat my advice (based upon my own fruitless job searches of the past, so I have experience!) that you cannot rely totally on web sites to find jobs. You have to network and call the places you are interested in working for to see if they have job openings. Did you know that most job openings are NEVER advertised anywhere? At my company, we either hire from within or dip into the stack of resumes we receive at the office. We figure if people are interested enough to send us a resume even though we aren't advertising any openings they must really want to work for us.

You got some good advice her so far. It's up to you if you want to use it or not.

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

jaydog1212 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 01:07:58 GMT

What city/state are you trying to obtain employment?

When I was applying to jobs it took 12 applications a day for 2 months before I got a job. I think it's a numbers game. It was my experience that career fairs were a joke. It was all talk and no action. Also, applying via monster and other huge job sites were also a waste of time for me. When jobs are posted to those sites they are flooded with applications. I got more hits (interviews) with contacting the company directly. Also be persistent, I did many follow-up calls and e-mails even when they seemed to forget about me. Also, Kaplan may have some type of career services.

My only criticism of online only program is the the lack of career services for students. It's OK if you have a load of experience (e.g. "working professional) but it's very important for someone trying to break into their desired field. I graduated from a newly formed state college. About half of my courses were online. I think the education I received was just as good as the big state university. However, it's not all about academics....it's also about connections. The newly formed college had some of the same professors as the big state university and mirrored the degree I obtained. The state college career services were basically non-existant. A lot of my graduating class had a hard time finding jobs in the cities major corps. The major corps recruited right on campus at the big university. :(

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

Cajun — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:03:00 GMT

They're only a total waste if you didn't learn something from the experience. Try reading your resume critically, think about some changes you can make which will garner interest, play with the wording a bit and get some outside advice. Sometimes even a change in font can help. You'd be surprised how hard it is to get a resume to stick out in a stack.

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

donald11 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:53:03 GMT

None of the places I applied to online called me. They were a total waste. However, I have some family members who might have some contacts that can help me...

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

tcord1964 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:40:29 GMT

Out of curiosity, have you found a job yet, donald11?

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

Shannon104 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:33:19 GMT

Hello,

I thought you might find this website helpful:

http://www.resuwe.com

This website is run by recruiters, and it will have a lot of information to help job seekers. It will also have a free resume optimizing tool. They have a blog as well that gives some tips for writing resumes and cover letters. I personally thought it was extremely useful. Here is part of one of their articles:

How can I build a boring/content rich resume?

1. MS Word doc only! MS Word doc files are the standard and easiest for Applicant Tracking Systems to upload and parse.
2. List your resume reverse chronologically - Most recent positions on top
3. One font throughout your resume - Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia, and Garamond are best
4. Black font color only
5. 10pt, 11pt, or 12pt font size only. Stick with one font size throughout your entire resume.
6. Let your resume flow to 2-3 pages if you have the experience (usually 10+ years or more)
7. List all start and end dates for your positions in the Month, Year format (ex. January, 2006 to June, 2009)
8. Optimize your resume content by including as many keywords relating to your skills, experiences, technologies, or activities you have worked with.
9. Proofread. Every text editor, MS Word, and Google Docs all have built in Spell Checkers. There are no excuses for typos!
10. Links to your professional blog or Twitter page to promote your personal brand. Only if you are 100% sure the content is professional.
11. Optimize your resume (coming soon) with ResuWe at http://www.resuwe.com

Hope this helps in your job search!

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

Cajun — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:47:50 GMT

In my experience, when it comes to government jobs the more specific hard to find skills sets are best. For instance a computer information security degree AND you can speak Farsi and Arabic. Or how about an accounting degree and you can speak and read Russian. That type of thing. Learning languages can be a huge boon to your effort and I don't mean Spanish and French, the government has plenty of that.

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

SteveFoerster — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:51:12 GMT

donald11:
Once I get an MBA, my goal was to work for the federal government, particularly in something related to international affirs, like at the State Department or as a civilian in the Defense department.

It's not that an MBA wouldn't help you with this, but have you also considered Master's programs in foreign relations and the like?

-=Steve=-

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

Cajun — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:13:03 GMT

donald, if you are not counting on this job to make ends meet (IE eat and keep a roof over your head) there are easier ways to get work experience to qualify for an MBA, these include:

Volunteer, you can do all sorts of cool and exciting things as long as you're willing to do them for free. You never know, this may turn into a real career.

Try working food service. Before you shut me down hear me out, getting into an MBA program is the key right? If you could become say an Assistant Manager at a McDonald's or something you will not only learn applied business skills, but you will gain experience in that most lucrative and undervalued of all business topics, people skills. You will be forced into a leadership role by motivating employees who are likely underpaid, undervalued and see you as a means to a paycheck. If you can motivate these people you're doing well. Secondly you will learn how to handle a customer on the line level. You'll see first hand the concepts you'll cover in any good MBA program:

Organizational psychology = remember the employees I mentioned above? Next time you go to a fast food joint look at the people working there, see if you can tell something about them, their lives, etc. in how they work. Notice how they work as a team, or don't work as a team. Do they gel? Do they mesh? Maybe their one thing in common is they don't like each other or being there... Who knows, but try it. Be observant.

Accounting = balancing registers, counting inventory, placing orders, etc. All in accounting.

Economics = how much food do you need next week on hand? How much have you used in the past? Are there any special events which will impact demand for food ie baseball season approaching, etc?

Human Resources = Tommy won't quit hitting on Amy, what are you going to do about it? You just fired Tommy and now need to hire someone new... How many HR issues are going on there?

Business Law = Amy decided you didn't act quickly enough and is hiring a lawyer to sue your store. Did you follow your company policies on sexual harrasment?

you get the point...

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

tcord1964 — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:45:10 GMT

By the time you find a job listed at Monster.com, it has usually already been filled. Don't depend entirely on sites like Monster, HotJobs, etc. to find your jobs. Also try the web site of the state bar association, network with people already in the profession, check out sites like Indeed.com, etc. During the recession of 1991, I lost my job and was out of work for six months. My unemployment benefits were about ready to expire, and I had a family to support. Out of desperation, I picked up the Yellow Pages and just started calling businesses within my career field and just asked if they had any openings. When I got to the very last business listed, the person on the other end of the line said "as a matter of fact, we do have an opening." This job wasn't listed anywhere yet. I told them I was available to come in and interview right away. Because I took the initiative, I got the job. After working there for a couple of years, I found a higher-paying job and moved on. By that time, the recession was over and businesses were hiring again.

Get creative. Don't rely only on job boards to find openings. You'll have to actually go out and search for those openings. Make obtaining a job your new full time job. You will get out of your job search what you put into it.

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

donald11 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:02:50 GMT

Once I get an MBA, my goal was to work for the federal government, particularly in something related to international affirs, like at the State Department or as a civilian in the Defense department.

Re: Current Kaplan University Student With Possible Regrets

SteveFoerster — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:03:59 GMT

donald11:
Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm only 21 so I have no work experience at all. But that shouldn't be a problem because all of the paralegal jobs I applied to (I'm in NYC) are entry level jobs. I applied to them directly from Monster Trak. As far as what the job market for paralegals is like, I really don't know. But I'm not really interested in staying a paralegal for long. I just want to get 1 year of work experience so that I can enroll in a strong MBA program.

In a recession, you're definitely competing against experience people even for entry level jobs.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/06/news/economy/job_fairs/index.htm?postversion=2009030611

What's your long term goal? What do you plan to do with your MBA once you have it?

-=Steve=-