Lab
Counseling Sessions
The first week of class you will meet in a Lab session classroom at the time assigned by the Registrar. There you will be assigned a 20-minute appointment time within your regular designated class time. Each week thereafter you will have the opportunity to meet with your Career Counselor at the designated 20-minute appointment to review your written projects, to ask questions about your career employment strategy, and to check aspects of your course grades. We try to keep students with common interests with the same counselor.
To receive full credit, your X420 projects must be of A or B quality and must be sent to your Career Counselor by attaching your project file to an email via Oncourse before your assigned lab time in the week they are due. Late projects will not be accepted for full credit. Your assigned Career Counselor will become your primary contact with X420 and is your primary source of course information. Bring a printed copy of your project with you to your lab meeting. It will be graded, signed, and dated by your counselor and returned to you. KEEP this copy in your files in case of grade appeals due to computer crashes or other problems. Only the project copy signed by your counselor will be used in an appeal. You should be prepared to make an oral presentation of your written project to your counselor.
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LAB
COUNSELING SESSIONS |
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Week 1 – Lab 1 |
Meet Your Career
Counselor/Assign Time/Explain Process |
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Week 2 – Lab 2 |
Project 1 UCSO Resume (REQUIRED) Project 2 Career Plan (REQUIRED) |
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Week 3 – Lab 3 |
Project 3 and/or Project 4 |
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Week 4 – Lab 4 |
Project 5 and/or Project 5 and/or Project 7 |
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Week 5 – Lab 5 |
Project 8 and/or Project 9 |
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Week 6 – Lab 6 |
Project 10 and/or Project 11 and/or Project 12
and Career Professional Network |
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Week 7 – Lab 7 |
Project 13 and/or Project 14 and/or Project 15 |
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Week 8 – Lab 8 |
Project 16 and/or Project 17 |
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Week 9 – Lab 9 |
Project 18 and/or Project 19, and/or Project 20
and/or Project 21 |
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Week 10 – Lab 10 |
Project 22 and/or Project 23 Career Portfolio
(REQUIRED) |
After the first week of the semester, there are a total of nine more lab sessions. During these
sessions you will work with your assigned counselor and/or meet with a business
guest. Your written projects will be reviewed during these lab periods. For
example, your initial resume assignment (Project 1) will be reviewed at your
designated time for Lab Week 2. (Remember:
your resume must also be submitted via the UCSO website no later than
During Lab Week 6 you will talk to a business guest about interview techniques and participate in a mock interview for approximately 20 minutes. You will also speak with your Career Counselor for an additional 20 minutes and turn in any projects you wish to submit during that week. During all other lab weeks you will have 20 minutes with your Career Counselor to discuss your submitted projects and any other career concerns you have. Your lab sessions are designed to give you personalized feedback on your written and oral presentation skills. Your counselor will grade your written work and comment on the content and quality of your written and verbal communication skills.
You are welcomed to visit with your Career Counselor during any of your regular lab meeting times if you are submitting projects, have questions about your job search (e.g., cover letters to review), or have concerns about any career topic. This time is set aside so that you know that someone will be there who can help you with your career concerns. Plan to use your lab time to discuss career issues such as your entrepreneurial interest, international concerns, job promotions, salary needs, networking, resume reviews, graduate study, etc.
Your Career Counselor will provide you with his or her Oncourse email address so that you can remain in regular contact concerning X420 matters. You should always let your counselor know in advance if you cannot make your regularly scheduled lab time. Counselors want to work with you to make your current job search successful and your long-term strategic career plans realistic. Keep copies of all projects uploaded into Oncourse. If you have concerns about individual grading events not appearing on your Oncourse grade screen, see your Career Counselor with complete details. Only signed and dated copies of your written projects will count in a grade appeal. Your Career Counselor has responsibility for your course grade.
Five projects MUST be completed, each with A or B quality
work, in order to receive credits for other requirements in the course. Each
project should be emailed as an attachment to your Career Counselor via
Oncourse BEFORE your lab counseling appointment. And, you must bring a printed copy with you to the appointment.
All regular projects must be submitted before your regular Counseling Lab Session in order to receive credit. Your lab counselor will mark your printed copy with the points you earn – 60 for Satisfactory, 0 for Unsatisfactory, or 70 for Outstanding work – and sign and date it. KEEP these copies in a file since they will be your proof of grade in the event of a computer crash or other problems. Only signed copies will be used in grade disputes.
Each potential project is thoroughly described in this syllabus and refers to specific assignments in the textbook. Three projects required of everyone in order to pass the course are Projects 1 (the UCSO Resume) and 2 (the Career Plan) and 23 (the Career Portfolio). These can be combined with any two other projects to earn a passing grade of D. Here is the total breakout of project requirements by grade:
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A |
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8 passing projects + 1000 points or more |
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B |
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7 passing projects + 900 points |
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C |
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6 passing projects + 800 points |
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D |
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5 passing projects + 700 points |
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Project 1, UCSO Resume, involves preparing a resume and submitting it to the UCSO via the UCSO website. A Resume/Cover Letter Guide is provided on the UCSO website to help you through this process. A Networking Resume Guide is included in the syllabus. These resumes differ in purpose and length. You are likely to need two different types of resumes, depending on the planned use: job interviewing or networking. Your networking resume is used when you feel the reviewer will take the time to read it thoroughly versus a recruiter who just wants to quickly scan and screen your background.
You must also bring a printed copy of Project 1 to your Lab 2.
The purpose of Project 1 is to urge you to pull together information from a variety of sources into a single document. Nearly every professional, whether seeking employment or not, maintains some type of personal resume. The resume is so fundamental as a starting point in career planning that it is absolutely required of all class participants. Every time you change jobs or get a promotion, an updated resume is in order.
Most hiring managers want a one-page-only resume. You must try to meet this requirement. Hit the high points that detail your most relevant competencies. Your networking resume can be longer because you are fairly sure that your networking partner will take the time to read it.
Project 2, Career Plan, the second required project, must be submitted during Week 2. Your Career Counselor will discuss it with you in Week 3. It can be modified.
Project 23, Career Portfolio, the final project, must be turned in to your Career Counselor after all other desired projects have been presented to your counselor. Project 23, which is due in Week 10, will serve as your oral final exam.
The selection of the remaining projects is entirely
optional, but you must submit at least
five written projects or you will fail the course. Each has a deadline by
which it must be completed; special instructions for projects are given in the
syllabus. Most students pick and choose from these, depending upon the course
grade desired, time pressures, and personal needs. Some students prefer to
focus on career exploration, some on search tool development, and others on
interviewing-related topics. Non-business majors (without BusX220) enrolled in
the course may want to include the self-assessment project. Even if you took X220,
you may want to retake the assessment instruments to use the results in your
interview presentation; however, you may
not use work submitted in X220 to turn in for projects in X420.
Students who have already accepted employment may write from the viewpoint of the employer. They often choose projects on job descriptions, continuing education, networking, job evaluation forms, training plans, career management, and interviewing subordinates or new hires. Many use the course to enhance their written communication abilities by completing projects that demand more attention to this skill.
There are many projects that can be very helpful to the student who already has a job offer in hand. These students should carefully examine the syllabus to make their project selections. As long as the purpose is career enriching, your Career Counselor will work with you in modifying the standard projects in a way that will be beneficial to your future career endeavors.
Each project is worth 60 points. Your counselor may give you extra points for truly outstanding work. Within each of the project modules, you usually have a choice of options.
Only one option from a given project module can be completed for grade credit.
Projects are graded on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis. To earn a “Satisfactory” grade, your work must be A or B quality. You will have all of your individual projects graded by your designated Career Counselor. If your submitted project is lower than A or B quality, at the discretion of your Career Counselor, you may rework the project. If your project is of outstanding quality (compared to 90% of the others) the first time it is presented, your Career Counselor may choose to award you a grade of “Outstanding” which earns one extra credit point. It is rare for bonus points to be awarded. See the chart for the point system. Only 10% of all projects are graded as “Outstanding” by your Career Counselor.
Written projects will be graded on-site during your individual Career Counselor appointment time every week. You will probably know your grade for that project by the time you leave the room unless you are advised to revise your project for the following week. In order to receive full credit for a written project, it must be submitted prior to your assigned lab appointment time.
If you receive a failing grade for a project, consult with your Career Counselor so that you understand why the project failed. When writing your projects, please be aware of all the stated requirements listed. Failure to include a key part of the assignment could result in a failing grade for the project, even if the rest of the work was excellent.
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If you
anticipate the possibility of a time conflict with the due date for a project,
contact your Career Counselor well in advance. If you
anticipate the possibility of a time conflict with your assigned lab appointment time, you might arrange a switch
with another student assigned to your Career Counselor. The entire working
schedule of your counselor is usually booked with appointments. |
You will notice that there are many references to the text Career Planning Strategies: Hire Me! (5th Edition) in the guidelines. Do not attempt to do any project without first reading the assigned chapters. Reading the assignments thoroughly will give you the necessary depth and background to complete the project in a satisfactory manner. Sometimes the instructions refer you to a specific chart or exhibit in the text.
The syllabus will spell out minimum page requirements as
well as format and layout requirements. Sometimes you will be directed to cut
and paste a form into your project. Follow
the syllabus directions EXACTLY when submitting each project.
IMPORTANT: All projects submitted for your lab MUST be received by your Career Counselor by your appointment time. Students who wait until the last minute to send in their work run the risk that technological difficulty will prevent a successful delivery. We strongly encourage all students to write and send in their work 24 hours before their appointment time.
All projects must be submitted in Microsoft Word document format (Project 1 must also be submitted into the UCSO website).
To turn in a project, email it as an attachment to your assigned counselor through Oncourse internal mail messenger system.
You must also always
bring a copy of your project with you to lab.
If time permits, your Career Counselor prefers to read your project before your scheduled
appointment, which can positively influence your grade.
There are some rules for preparing and submitting projects of which you should be aware. All projects must be emailed as an attachment to your counselor via Oncourse email before your lab appointment in the week the project is due. And you must bring a copy to your lab and be prepared to make an oral presentation of that project. Your Career Counselor will grade all written projects. Minimum page length refers to substantive text.
Most projects indicate page length, but not all do. When you write reports in the business world, you will not usually be told how many pages to produce. You will write however much is necessary to convey your point. When page length is not indicated in these projects, aim for a total of 3-5 pages of substantive text, being sure to thoroughly cover all necessary points. You must follow the rules of Standard Written English.
You are encouraged to discuss your project outline in advance with your Career Counselor. Your career needs are unique. If you want to tweak your work to fit your special needs, your Career Counselor will almost always allow some adjustment to the project. But any modifications must be agreed upon IN ADVANCE.
Your advance outline should be submitted and discussed the week before it is due. Your counselor will allow you some flexibility provided that it is consistent with the goals of the project and approved prior to being submitted.
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For additional
information on Project grading, read the
syllabus section on “Grading Concept.” |