Tips:
Center for Career Design | MUC 101 | M-F 8am-5pm
career@usd.edu | 605-658-6273 | CCD web | Instagram
The Center for Career Design (CCD) is USD’s centralized career services office. Here, students, campus stakeholders and employers experience a resource-rich career services hub. We are committed to supporting everyone who participates in preparing USD students to be career ready.
INTRODUCTIONS
CAREER BY DESIGN
You are receiving this newsletter because you are known to us as a career champion, or you are a dean, department chair or director of an office with a core student constituency. We invite you to help us expand subscriptions by sending the names of interested faculty and staff to career@usd.edu.
COYOTE READY
Intangibly, Coyote Ready is a shared career ethos where every member of our community plays a vital role in nurturing students’ readiness for their career and life. Practically, Coyote Ready is a design framework for helping students recognize and articulate the competencies they build through everyday experiences, classroom lessons, interpersonal interactions, campus activities and work. Ultimately, the goal is to empower them to be the primary architects and narrators of their own career readiness.
The goal is for Coyote Ready to become a collective commitment, woven into the fabric of our institution and resulting in students who are better prepared to express the outcomes of their USD experience and to efficiently find meaningful employment or additional education upon graduation.
ADVISING SEASON CAREER CONVERSATIONS
Interested in expanding your repertoire of responses when your advisees ask you “career” questions? Small, helpful reminders and responses are important. Your intentional interest, no matter how incremental, increases the odds that a student will take a next step.
Example Scenario:
Faculty/Advisor: Have you ____________ (Updated your resume? Applied for any internships? Written your personal statement? Looked at the jobs posted on Coyote Careers, etc.)
Response: I’m too busy!
Reply: Tell me more about that
Other open-ended questions:
As you transition into the purpose of the meeting
- What is your priority today?
As you wrap up a topic in which the student will benefit from taking a next step
- What small action could you take in the next (insert time frame)?
When you have reason to believe the student is not confident in their current path
- What would you really like to do?
If you believe you have a student who is struggling with their career path or job search, or a student who is simply open to more career design help, encourage them to make an appointment with a career coach.
SERVICES & RESOURCES
The Center for Career Design offers support for students who are exploring majors and careers, refining job search documents, navigating job/internship searches, preparing for interviews, applying to graduate school, attending career events, utilizing Coyote Careers, and working on their career and life design.
COYOTE CAREERS
Coyote Careers is USD’s career services management software. It features jobs of all kinds – on-campus, local, nationwide, part-time, full-time, etc. Students can customize searches, upload resumes, store portfolio documents and multiple versions of resumes, apply for jobs and so much more. It is pretty intuitive, but to fully understand the platform, students can visit the CCD website, attend a training, or schedule a meeting with a Career Coach.
Where can students access Coyote Careers?
- myUSD (the red JOBS button), CCD website or Coyote OneStop
- Download the app: search in an app store for Symplicity Jobs and Careers. After the app is downloaded, students choose University of South Dakota from the school list (it is only necessary to choose the school during set up). A correctly loaded app is branded Coyote Careers.
CAREER COACHING APPOINTMENTS
Career coaching meets the student where they are at and focuses on solutions, insight and action Coaches are prepared to help with all manner of career topics: from very specific resume advice to open-ended questions about where to start (or re-start) identifying a career path.
How to schedule an appointment
- All students can schedule career coaching appointments (in-person or virtual) through Coyote Connections: choose Career from the list of care centers (or call or email the CCD).
UPCOMING CAREER EVENTS
All events are posted in Coyote Careers,
Campus Groups (formerly USD Involved), Coyote One Stop and the Campus Calendar.
Career & Life Design Workshop Series
- LAST ONE! Tuesday, March 10th | 3:00-4:00pm | Center for Career Design
Failing Forward: Becoming Immune to (the feelings of) Failure. The key is to treat failure as your unpaid mentor – it’s messy, blunt and oddly insightful if you’re willing to listen.
Ready, Set, Search!
- March 5, 12:30-1:30pm and/or March 30, 2:00-3:00pm| Center for Career Design
- Designed to help students prepare for a post-graduation job or internship search or graduate school applications. Students choose two topics and spend the rest of the hour focusing on what they need most. All students are welcome, but designed with seniors in mind!
HOW TO USE Coyote Careers: DROP-IN HOURS
- Tuesdays 11:00am -1:00pm | Wednesdays 3:00 - 5:00pm | Center for Career Design
- Created for a student audience, but open to faculty and staff. Learn the most effective and efficient way to search for jobs, register for career events, browse the employer directory, promote yourself and much more.
Drop-in Career Coaching
- Fridays | 11:00am – 2:00pm | Center for Career Design
- Attention all students! Whether you are about to graduate, starting your first semester, or anywhere in between, use this opportunity to ask a specific question, exercise your curiosity about what the CCD offers, start a purposeful relationship with your career or education journey, revisit your resume, etc.
LEGACY LINK – Student & ALUMNI PANEL & NETWORKING EVENT
- Thursday, March 26, 2026 | 5:30-7:00pm | Al Neuharth Freedom Forum
- Students must RSVP in Coyote Careers – heavy appetizers provided
- Hosted by the Center for Career Design, Opportunity Center and the USD Alumni Association
MEET THE STAFF
USD COYOTE READY CAREER COMPETENCIES*
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Critical Thinking
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Communication
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Teamwork
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Technology
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Leadership
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Professionalism
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Career & Self-Development
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Intercultural Fluency & Belonging
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*Based on competencies developed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers
Dysfunctional Belief: If you are successful, you will be happy.
Reframe: True Happiness comes from designing a life that works for you.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (c) 2017 Bill Burnett, Dave Evans and Stanford University Stanford Design Studio