Contact Us
Edinburg: ESTAC 2.101
Email: careercenter@utrgv.edu
Phone: Brownsville (956) 882-5627
Phone: Edinburg (956) 665-2243
Quick Links
Get Set
Part Time Jobs
What is a part-time job?
In a part-time job, a person works less than 30 hours a week. While a full-time workload is between 30-40 hours a week.
Benefits of Having a Part-time Job
You can develop valuable skills such as:
- Time-Management skills: Learn how to plan, organize, and finish numerous tasks at the same time.
- Communication skills: Learn to give information to another person clearly.
- Personal development: Learn how to adapt to a new environment and situations, create friendships with co-workers, and gain confidence in your abilities to complete a task.
- Customer service skills: Learn to be kind to customers and put them first.
- Teamwork skills: Improve your ability to work with others by collaborating and sharing ideas with one another.
- Self-motivation: Learn to be self-sufficient and not rely on others to motivate you.
- Attention to detail: Learn to check your work multiple times and not leave the small details out.
May Lead to New Opportunities
How so? With a part-time job, you have chances to gain many opportunities and trainings in different fields that can open new doors for you.
The Chance to Earn Extra Money
This will give you the opportunity to save up for essentials, afford taking summer classes, and have enough to buy or rent your textbooks for the upcoming semester, etc.
Provides More Free Time to Focus More on School and Activities
Often as students, we are given a heavy workload of research papers, upcoming exams, quizzes, group projects, etc. within a semester. Since part-time employment is less time consuming than full-time, an individual will have more time to focus on their studies.
Learn How to Manage your Money
Once you start working and earning money, you will be able to learn the value of the dollar. Then, you will be able to recognize the valuable work you put in, and because of this, you will feel that the money you earn needs to be spent carefully.
You Will Gain Independence
Part-time jobs teach you to be independent by challenging you to become responsible for completing your tasks, sticking to your own schedule, and managing your earnings correctly.
You Have the Chance to Make New Friends
By spending most of your time with your co-workers, it is impossible to not bond and create a friendship with them. Even though a work environment is not a place to socialize, you may find yourself and your co-workers building friendships outside of work. Can Keep You Healthy
Having a part-time job can keep you physically and mentally active and this can result in you being healthy.
You Have a Chance to Build a Professional Network
A part-time job gives you a chance to meet people from different fields. You never know what individuals you may come across and what opportunities they can inform you about.
You Can Put it on Your Resume
Having a part-time job on your resume as a college student shows that you can multi-task and have remarkable skills.
Internships
Need experience? Learn how to find the internship that best suits your needs.
The UTRGV Career Center provides students with a variety of diverse opportunities to build career-related skills and connect with employers through events and experiential learning activities. An internship or other form experiential learning can be a great way for students to develop professional skills while simultaneously contributing value to an organization.
What Are the Benefits of an Internship?
You can learn by observation something that cannot be done in a class setting. You get a chance to explore a career pathway. This would be the perfect time for you to know if this job title is the right one for you. You will be able to network with professionals in the field. What if these professionals will become your future co-workers?
- An internship can help you gain confidence in your communication skills and your ability to complete tasks.
- You will be able to gain good references and recommendations, and this will benefit you when trying to get accepted into a new opportunity.
- You will have a chance to find a mentor who can show you the ropes of a company or career field.
- You may have the chance to be recruited to become a full-timer.
- It’s a low commitment just to test out a job.
Complete a Micro-Internship
Micro-Internships allow students to apply to short-term, professional assignments,
while also allowing companies to identify and assess highly motivated college
students and recent graduate for fit should there be full-time opportunities. Unlike
traditional internships, these paid opportunities typically range from 5 to 40 hours of
work, can be completed year-round, and help students develop career skills while
getting paid.
By participating in a micro-internship, you can:
- Learn and hone the skills employers look for when recruiting for internships and full-time positions
- Explore new industries and potential career paths
- Build tangible relationships with employers by demonstrating your skills and abilities in substantive projects – many employers use micro-internships as a way to connect with potential interns and full-time hires
Ready to get started? Let's go! Parker Dewey
Graduate School
What is graduate school?
Graduate school (grad school) awards advance degrees such as master's and doctoral degrees.
A master’s degree may take between 1.5 to 2 years depending on your program and how many courses you take within a semester.
A doctorate degree may take between four to six years depending on your program and how many courses you take in a semester.
Most common requirements for grad school
Get yourself three strong recommendation letters. Faculty members from your university or professionals that work in your chosen field and have good reputations can write your letters.
Write a personal statement. A personal statement is focused on what you would want to pursue in grad school and what your career goals are. The program will provide the length recommendation for this statement, which is usually between 2-3 pages.
Focus on your test scores. Most programs ask for the GRE, unlike medical schools that ask for the MCAT.
Have your resume and CVs done completely and professionally.
If you have any research experience, make sure to highlight how they have impacted you.
Recognize why you chose a specific program. You may need to answer this question in a grad interview or in your personal statements.
Make sure your transcripts are taken care of. If you need to request your transcript, make sure to do it in time.
Tips for grad school applications
Do not be afraid to call the program and ask many questions.
Proofread your application before sending it.
It looks good when you mention which faculty members you wish to work with.
Be prepared for any interviews.
Make sure to follow directions. For example, if they ask for a 3-page personal statement, do not go over the third-page mark.
Revising Resumes
Try to update your resume when you get offered a new job or receive a certification. Even if you feel that your resume is ready to send out, having it revised by an additional person might help you catch mistakes you initially missed. Keep your formatting simple and consistent. Depending on your situation, consider using your overall GPA and possibly your major GPA.
Students with some work experience
The work experience section on your resume is important to show the employer you have the necessary qualifications. List your work experience in a reversed chronological format, from the most current position to the oldest.
You want to make sure your work experience is easy to follow. For example:
- Job Title and position
- Dates employed
- Company name / Location
- Responsibilities
Job title: Make sure to make it simple and explain what you did.
Dates employed: This section will be letting the employer know the time you were employed, and it will be listed in “Month/Year – Month/Year." If still employed, use “Month/Year – Present." If you can’t remember the dates you got employed, just list the year.
Company name / Location (Example): “University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – Edinburg, TX”
Responsibilities: Simply list your daily responsibilities and tasks.
Involvement
The Career Center will help you gain networking skills, find a suitable career, offer job search tips, and help build your resume.
Students who visit the career center have a higher chance of getting a job than those who don’t.
Before a job interview, you can schedule a mock interview and receive feedback on interviewing skills.
You can also bring in your resume to get it revised and updated before you use it to seek jobs.
The Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a brief but informative speech that is all about you as a student. It will cover a wide variety of deeper-rooted questions which include who you are, what you do and what you want to do in the future. An elevator pitch gets its name from an elevator ride, since elevator rides are short and sweet. Elevator pitches should last no longer than the duration of an elevator ride, around 20-30 seconds. This time should be solely used to grab the interest of employers with your pitch, by helping you stand out as memorable and concise. An elevator pitch is important because it communicates the most important aspects of your business and services within that short amount of time. You must decide what exactly you want to communicate about yourself or your business. A good pitch tells a story. This story tells employers who you, what kind of individual you are in the workplace and ultimately how they can benefit the most by hiring you. Focus on the value you will create for the person you’re pitching too.
When delivering a pitch, follow these 5 tips:
- make your story personal, show employers how connected you are,
- explain that while there are plenty of opportunities, there are also risks; transparency when pitching is vital to getting the right message across,
- show the change your service to this employer will create over time,
- answer firmly “why you and not someone else," and lastly, but most important of all,
- always remember your audience.
Intro to Industry Research
Industry research is conducted to help you as a student and future employee sharpen your job search and career planning based on where you see industry growth and decline. These types of industries include the tech industry, medical industry, marketing industry, etc. Industry research is used to help students and future employees figure out what they want to work for in an industry or company. It’s used to help you start, advance in your positions, and change your career in the future if applicable. Industry research is important for a number of reasons, such as: “Serving as a guidepost for strategic decisions…providing industry benchmarks against which a company’s key performance indictors can be compared, Bringing a mission-critical understanding of the general public’s feelings and opinions on matters ranging from the personal service they get in traditional working environments to the modern adjustments that can be made to improve the work environment all together." Industry research can and will make a difference to students and future employees when on the hunt for secular job positions. It places you at the forefront of what industries are in demand, the largest number of employment rates, employment declining rates, pay rate and so much more.
