The coronavirus outbreak has led to worldwide travel bans and cancellations of events that are important to shaping your future. You’ve reached out to us on Instagram to share that state-wide competitions, job fairs, job interviews, and classes are being canceled and postponed. While the CDC is encouraging basic preventative health guidelines, and providing guidance for when these cancelations are necessary in order to keep us safe, it makes creating meaningful connections and landing the scholarship, internship, apprenticeship, or job of your dreams (even more) difficult. Don’t let the opportunities you’ve been working so hard for come to a grinding halt. Make these connections online with Tallo.
Here are five tips to balancing safety and connection amid the COVID-19 outbreak:
Don’t let this extra time outside of class go to waste.
If you’re finding yourself with more time at your house or dorm room because classes or other activities have been canceled, use that time to your advantage! Like, how about applying for a few extra scholarships this month? The Tallo platform provides access to over $20 billion in scholarships, and a lot of them only take a few minutes to apply. A few extra minutes now could mean thousands of dollars for tuition later.
Revive past connections.
Just because you’re not shaking a recruiter’s hand at a job fair doesn’t mean you can’t make a meaningful connection with them. The power of one-on-one communication goes beyond an in-person meeting. Colleges’ admissions professionals, recruiters at companies across the country, and officials from student organizations reach out to Tallo users every day to make connections. Now is the perfect time to dig back into those message threads and start the conversation again. Share with them what you’ve been up to, and ask them about any new opportunities they have available.
Keep your mentors updated.
As you’re figuring out your next steps in your education and career, getting advice from mentors, parents, and teachers who have “been there, done that” is so valuable. If your Tallo profile is up to date, a guidance counselor, parent, or favorite professor can read through it and know what you’ve accomplished, and what you hope to accomplish in the future. With that, they can write letters of recommendation, share opportunities that may be the right fit for you, and offer advice for how you can improve your professional online presence. If you’ve never used this feature before, simply click the “Share” button on your profile and select “Share with Mentor/Parent.” You can also share a link to your profile with anyone you want, and get a notification when they view it!
Craft your “elevator pitch” to showcase yourself in just a few sentences.
As colleges and companies continue to host job fairs, career fairs, and interviews virtually, a lot of first impressions won’t be made in person. Think about how you can describe yourself with just a handful of words — whether it’s in person or online! On your Tallo profile, right below your photo, you can add a short bio to broadcast who you are, what you’ve done, and what you want to do in the future. This is 255 characters to show what makes you, you!
Take advantage of videos and photos
A picture’s worth a thousand words, right? Rather than describing your skills or passions to a potential employer or someone from your dream school, show them! And if that can’t be in person, try to capture it on video. Upload a video of your team at a robotics competition, a band recital, or a selfie video answering standard interview questions, like “Where do you see yourself in five years?” or “What qualities make you a strong candidate?”
Tallo offers a variety of ways to connect with colleges, companies, and organizations in meaningful ways, making it easier to navigate networking when you can’t have facetime at events or job fairs. As these businesses work to change the ways they connect, you’ll be ready to go with your Tallo profile and experience portfolio.
