Each month Career Corner shares tips for taking your professional life to the next level. If 2017 has taught us one thing, it’s that adapting to change is more crucial than ever. Whether you’re looking for a job, changing careers or setting goals for the future, are you ready for the next challenge? Find out with this quiz built from the past year’s Career Corner columns. Answers are at the bottom.
1. You just lost your job. What’s the first thing you should do?
a. Convince your boss to rehire you.
b. Book a flight to your favorite vacation destination.
c. Gather important documents and review your benefits package.
d. Write a tell-all memoir about your time at the company.
2. You’re considering graduate school. What’s the best approach?
a. Finding a program that will get you in and out as quickly as possible.
b. Choosing a program that offers an advanced degree rather than a certificate.
c. Favoring the program with the best financial aid package.
d. Doing a cost-benefit analysis that involves contacting experts in your field, determining what you can afford and deciding if the programs that interest you can help you get the kind of job you want.
3. Which of the following is not available on LinkedIn?
a. A web-based app that scans your resume for marketable keywords.
b. A learning center with online courses in technology, business and more.
c. A place to share slides from presentations.
d. A salary-analysis tool.
4. You left a job after three months. What’s an acceptable way of addressing this when applying for a new position?
a. Explain how the job was a learning experience.
b. Mention a way you helped your employer prepare for your departure.
c. Leave the job off your resume since you held it for less than a year.
d. All of these approaches are acceptable.
5. What is the point of a vision board?
a. To jump-start your creativity.
b. To illustrate what matters most to you in a concrete way.
c. To envision different career paths for yourself.
d. To work on your graphic-design skills.
6. Which of the following should you do each year to maintain your professional reputation online?
a. Check your privacy settings on Facebook.
b. Review comments you’ve posted publicly on Twitter, YouTube, blogs and shopping sites.
c. Search for your name in public-records databases.
d. All of the above.
Answer key
1. c, 2. d, 3. a, 4. d, 5. b, 6. d
Moira Kelley is a senior career counselor in UW-Madison’s Division of Continuing Studies. [email protected].
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