Sean OKeefe - Launch Your Career: How Any Student Can Create Relationships with Professionals and Land the Jobs and Internships They Want

LAUNCH
YOUR
CAREER

How ANY Student Can
Create Relationships
with Professionals
and Land the Jobs and
Internships They Want

SEAN OKEEFE

in partnership with

The Career Leadership Collective

Forewords by
LaTonya Rease Miles, Nationally Recognized First-Generation Student Expert
Barry Posner, Coauthor of The Leadership Challenge and Leadership Practices Inventory

Launch Your Career

Copyright 2021 by Sean OKeefe and The Career Leadership Collective

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

Ordering information for print editions

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First Edition

Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9268-0

PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9269-7

IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9270-3

Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-9271-0

2021-1

Book production and design: Seventeenth Street Studios

Cover design: Kim Scott, Bumpy Design

by LaTonya Rease Miles, PhD

by Barry Posner, PhD

T he Career Leadership Collective is extremely delighted to partner with Sean OKeefe and the Career Launch movement to bring the equitable solutions inside this book to college career centers, faculty, staff, and hundreds of thousands of college students who need and deserve it.

Our National Alumni Career Mobility surveys show that the most important indicators of significant career mobility for students are designing a career plan, receiving helpful career advice, interacting with employers, and seeking career-relevant internships. Career Launchs programs, including this book, help students in all four of these important areas.

Ive spent twenty-plus years in career services, and Career Launchs equitable and multimodality programming is one of a kind. Not only do students directly benefit but also career services professionals, faculty, and student success professionals directly benefit by having resources to be more productive during student interactions and by having high-impact asynchronous resources, which allows them to scale their impact.

This book and Career Launchs offerings are easily integrated into for-credit courses and cocurricular programing alike. I encourage higher education professionals to look into Career Launchs certified coach/faculty programs. We have seen so many students lives change for the better because of the Career Launch methodologies, and weve seen macro-level improvements to student employment outcomes, retention rates, and social mobility through our partnership programs.

Im glad you are reading or listening to this book and are now part of the Career Launch movement too!

Jeremy Podany

Founder & CEO, The Career Leadership Collective

Learn more about our partnership at
www.careerleadershipcollective.com/careerlaunch.

LaTonya Rease Miles, PhD

Nationally Recognized First-Generation Student Expert

M y son was one of the nearly two million graduates in the class of 2020 whose college career ended with a whimper due to COVID-19. He was a business major with internship experience, but his goal of working in sports management was put on pause by the pandemic.

Although my son had it tough, many students have it even tougher. I know this because Ive worked directly with students at UCLA and Loyola Marymount University for the past sixteen years, especially with first-generation college students, low-income students, and other students who navigate college with big dreams but little social capital.

Sean OKeefe understands the needs of todays diverse student bodytheir feelings, doubts, and eagerness. Sean is like a personal coach and cheerleader, always assuring and affirming, never dismissive or trite. His advice is especially helpful for students who do not have family connections or a broad professional network upon which to draw. The Career Launch Method demonstrates that you can build your own network and, perhaps more significantly, why it matters to have connections to professionals in the first place.

The advice in Launch Your Career is accessible, easy to follow, and easy to digest. The book is filled with practical exercises and is easy to incorporate into college courses and cocurricular programs. In fact, one of the books core strengths is its adaptability.

Whether you are attending a four-year university as an undergrad or graduate student, or a community college, or are a returning adult student seeking a certificate and new skills, Launch Your Career will serve you well and should be revisited periodically. Even I, a higher education professional and the parent of a college graduate, learned a lot.

While many students these days are told often about the value of building relationships with professionals and about the need to cultivate their brand, Launch Your Career has a unique and timeless message to send: it is important to work smart and not just work hard. In other words, have a strategy and a plan. Some people may be shocked to learn that the best candidates do not always get the jobs. Launch Your Career delivers a kind of straight talk (full of pep and affirmation) that will minimize your fears, prepare you to step out of your comfort zone, and propel you to start taking action.

Barry Posner, PhD

Coauthor, The Leadership Challenge