Gaining experience – helpful tips for first-year & sophomore students

05/07/2008

By Mary Harlander-Locke, Associate Director of Career Services

At this point in the year, many college students are glad to be finished with final papers and tests and are looking ahead to the summer with one primary goal – to earn money to help pay for college expenses for the next year!  This is an important and necessary goal – but there may be some other things that students can do that will benefit them greatly when they return to school in the fall.

Some first year students may be unsure of their major, while others may have ideas about possible majors but not sure what career options are available.  For sophomores, they may feel at ease since they’ve applied and hopefully been accepted to a major at this point and may be looking ahead to studying abroad as a junior.  But, they too, may have questions about career options as well as future internship opportunities.

Here are some helpful ideas of activities students can engage in during the summer to help them feel more assured of their major/career decisions:

• Volunteer – spend some time each week volunteering in a setting to see what it’s like working in that field or with a certain population.
• Do “information interviews” and “job shadows” – identify/contact professionals in the geographic area to talk with to find out about the occupation, educational training, etc. Encourage your son/daughter to inquire about spending a day or two observing and shadowing the professional to get an even better idea of the field.
• Sometimes, college students go back and work at the same summer job they’ve had past years.  While keeping their position, encourage them to talk with their supervisor to see if they can take on additional/new responsibilities  to expand their skills’ set.
• Start thinking about future summer internships/summer jobs – encourage them to  look ahead to possible options for “next” summer in terms of internships, summer jobs, etc. that will help them gain related experience.  As a senior, employers and graduate schools are going to expect job candidates to have it! So, whether, it’s undergraduate research, an internship, or a volunteer or summer job, how will it help them develop and test out important skills?
• Career Services’ website – a portion of our website is dedicated to providing resources to explore options for majors and careers.  Go to: www.csbsju.edu/career - click on “Exploring Majors and Careers-What Can I do with a Major in..? ”
• Career Services’ Web site – a portion of our Web site is dedicated to providing information to plan for an information interview or job shadow.  Go to: www.csbsju.edu/career - click on “Career Tools-Information Interviewing” for details and a list of sample questions to use.
• If your son/daughter does not have a “draft” of a resume, encourage them to create a draft.  This can be helpful in many ways: they may have more time to work on this and will have a draft if they need one in the future; by creating a resume, they may realize the “gaps and holes” in their resume and may decide the importance of future activities (e.g. volunteering, trying to get a job in a new/different area, etc.). Career Services’ staff is available to critique resumes and to provide helpful suggestions about other kinds of opportunities to take advantage of for the future.