Colorado State University

Job Search

What are the recommended actions for landing a job?

Before applying for jobs, you’ll want to know the types of jobs, companies, and industries that are most suited to your skills, interests, and values. Check out our career exploration page to learn more. 

Once you have an idea of the types of roles you’d like to apply to, you’re ready to begin your job search.  

 Parts of the job search include:  

  • Preparing your application materials 
  • Researching Companies 
  • Looking for Job Openings 
  • Making Connections (Networking) 
  • Staying Organized and Consistent while Applying 
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Prepare Your Application Materials

The primary documents you’ll need for job applications is a strong resume and cover letter. We have a whole section of our website dedicated to application materials. Explore the Resume & Materials section on our homepage. Or you can click directly on the pages you need below.  

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Research Companies of Interest

Know Yourself:

Do you know the location you’d like to work in? Or the industry? What you value? (ex: environmental sustainability, employee well-being) Having guiding criteria can be helpful in focusing your search.  

  • LinkedIn: Search for companies using filters: industry, location, or keywords like “sustainability” 
  • Use search terms like “top employers in Colorado” or “top employers in clean energy”  
  • Company Mission & Values: It can be helpful to find a company whose mission and values align with your own beliefs. Look at the company website and find their About Us page.  
  • Products or Services: understand what the company does and evaluate if this is where you want to put your time and expertise.  Look at the company website and also search Google news for press releases about the company and its products. 
  • Company Culture: company culture will impact your day-to-day satisfaction, so it can be helpful to try to get a sense of this before accepting a position. Glassdoor and Indeed provide reviews of the company from current or previous employees.  
  • Other categories you may want to look into is their leadership (find on LinkedIn or Company Website), their industry standing (find through news articles), and the resources and support they show for employees (find on website and Glassdoor reviews).  
  • Company Social Media Pages are a great way to learn more about what the company cares about and wants to promote publicly.  
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Look for Job Openings

Start with Handshake

This online platform lists job openings for CSU students and alumni. Check out our Handshake page for more details.

Sites like Google Jobs, Indeed, LinkedIn or ZipRecruiter compile job postings from numerous online sources and can give you a good sense of the general types of jobs that are available in a particular location. Because it aggregates large numbers of job postings, key words and filters matter to help narrow down the pool to postings that are relevant to you. Mix up the search terms used to yield different results. You can also save searches and follow companies to be notified of new jobs.     

Look at the websites of companies you’re interested in and see if they have job openings listed on their site. 

If you’re looking for jobs that are a strong match for your values and interests, it’s worth it to find specialty job boards. There are job boards that can apply to your industry, identity, or location. These types of job boards usually have unique experiences that you might not find on the larger sites. 

For example you can search by Location, by typing in “Colorado Job Boards”  

A few we recommend for Colorado include:  

 
Learn more about the industry landscape for Colorado.  

 

You can also search for job boards based on industry. For example, “Natural Resources Job Boards”  

A few examples of industry based job boards include:  

You can also search job boards based on Identity. For example, “LGBTQ Job Boards” 

It is usually stated on the site that employers who post here are specifically interested in hiring people of all identities. Here are a few examples of identity specific job boards: 

 
Check out the pages listed beneath our communities tab on our main menu to find more job boards based on identity. 
 

You can also find job boards that specialize in seasonal, short-term, flexible, and remote work.  Use these keywords as search terms.  

A few examples include:  

  • Cool Works: jobs at places like ski resorts, summer camps, and dude ranches 
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Make Connections

Beyond looking for open job postings online, we also highly recommend making connections to find opportunities. This is called networking and it is a very effective strategy in landing a job. 

A few tips on how to expand your network 

  • Attend Career Events. You can build relationships with potential employers by meeting them. Check the Events tab on the Career Center home page menu for employer events. 
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Organizing Your Job Search

We recommend creating a spreadsheet to keep track of application deadlines, where you’ve applied, and your application status. Some categories you might include are: company name, position title, link to job posting, location of role, application deadline, and application link. 

Create some set times in your calendar that are dedicated to job searching, with goals. Having structure around the search process can help with progress and motivation. 

When you find a job posting that you plan to apply for, save the job description. Postings are usually taken down after an application deadline, but having the job description is helpful when preparing for an interview

It is acceptable to follow up with a company if you have not heard back. We recommend following up two weeks after you applied.

Expect your job search to take time and to include frustrations. Rejection and nonresponse from companies is normal. Exercise patience with yourself and others. If you’re feeling stressed or discouraged check out our managing job search stress page. 

Using AI in your Job Search:

There are many ways to use AI in your job search. The technology is still evolving so we recommend verifying information given and if you are using it for your application materials to not copy and paste the content word for word. Click the drop down to learn more. 

  • Ask generative AI like Chat GPT to create a template for tracking jobs you’ve applied to. 
  • Ask for help coming up with a job search plan or routine 
  • Ask for summaries of a company’s values, recent news, and work culture. For example: What is the company culture at REI?  
  • Ask for help creating a company list for research.  Type in a prompt like: What are the top companies related to mindfulness and stress reduction?  

Check out these articles for more ideas on how to use AI tools in your job search: 

How to Use Chat GPT to make your Job Search Easier 

10 Ways to Use Chat GPT to Land A Great Job 

Want a condensed version of these job searching steps? Check out our Job Search Guide 

Final Note: Once you’ve applied to roles, the next steps would be receiving interviews and job offers. Check out our interviewing page, our evaluating offers page, and salary negotiation page for guidance on these topics.