© University of Rochester 1996-2012
Advice
The following questions were submitted by parents and answered by Burt Nadler, director of the College Career Center. Have a question that's not addressed here? E-mail your questions to parentsbuzz@rochester.edu and the Career Center will answer your question in future issues of Parents Buzz.
Q: Can students use the career center for help with graduate school applications? If so, what kind of help is offered? Are there tutorials offered over the summer for the GREs?
A: Given that about 35-40 percent of our graduates enter graduate or professional school as of commencement, we at the Creer and Internship Center do a great deal of advising, coaching, and counseling that targets these outcomes. In most cases, the process begins with a one-on-one session with one of our counselors. Through this initial discussion, goals are clarified, and the students knowledge of strategies and approaches assessed. Once this is done, the counselor might focus on resume or curriculum vita writing, developing personal statements, testing, or networking with faculty. Like for job search we offer step-by-step guidance.
Yes, there is locally accessible GRE and other test preparation services available, that we refer students to. Most important, we do share with students how different the "graduate and professional school admissions processes" are from undergraduate admissions efforts. In many cases, high school candidates do take the SATs first, then figure out where you are applying. That's not strategically appropriate for graduate school, so discussions about testing include what test, when to take it, and why.
Please follow up with additional questions or for clarification and, please, please encourage your student to make an appointment with me or one of our counselors.
November 2010
Q: Can freshmen use the career center to help them choose a major?
A: Of course! Our "What Can I Do With a Major In?" one-hour mini seminar is a great way for freshmen to start thinking about relationships between majors and careers. And, we offer an extensive "In Depth Career Exploration and Goal Setting" four-session offering as well. A visit to our office or accessing www.rochester.edu/careercenter/students/seminars.html will inform your student of how to sign up. Students are also directed to use our "What can I do with my major?" Web page to access some of the nation's top information sources. Individual counseling assesses student-specific issues, inspires continued research and exploration, and identifies and addresses issues unique to each individual student. Yes, psychological, familial, and developmental issues, in addition to academic interests and capabilities, all impact readiness to take steps associated with majors and careers.
Within the context of the Rochester Curriculum, one's "major" (a noun that defines completion of courses in a specific field), may, or may not, have significant impact on career-related matters because students often complete a second major, or because minor(s), clusters, or certificates can also be career focused. Therefore, choosing a major it is not a "major" (an adjective defining great import) action and easier done if anxiety is diminished. While ultimately, a sense of career focus will be increasingly important, freshmen should be driven by curiosity in their first year.
Encourage your sons and daughters to sign up for one of our seminars, to explore our Web resources and, whenever convenient and appropriate, to schedule an appointment with one of our counselors (including me). The Career and Internship Center is for freshman, through senior year, and beyond (we work with alumni as well)! If you have specific questions pertinent to your student, please e-mail or call.
April 2010
Q: Do you have resources to help current students find paid jobs over the summer at the University? Is there a site I could direct my son to, to see if there are research positions available?
A: Your son should access two sites. CareerLink, accessed via the career center's homepage, contains postings for paid as well as unpaid internships. If any postings look interesting, he should seek the guidance of one of our staff to submit strong targeted resume and cover letter supporting his candidacy. We continue to receive and upload CareerLink postings daily now, and throughout the spring and summer. Also, the Student Employment link is accessed via admissions, financial aid, or career center's homepages. Once accessed, your son should link to the Job Board to identify and respond to on-campus postings. These are also added to daily, and as the May nears more and more positions for summer (as well as fall 2010 and spring 2011) are advertised. He can also download a Student Employment Application, save it on his desktop, complete it, and then use this document to support his candidacy for these positions. Or, he can use a resume.
No matter where he sees a posting, he must be assertive and active, treating the process as a communication process, not a passive application process. He must present his candidacy via e-mail, follow up immediately by phone, obtain an interview, and then an offer. We are ready to coach him through these efforts via individual counselor appointments or by answering quick questions whenever he visits the office's Career Resource Library area. Most important, he should call our office to schedule an appointment to discuss his summer as well as senior year (and beyond) plans. Once we (he and his counselor) can focus on post-bac and summer bridging junior to senior year plans, we can identify best options. Sometimes jobs "just for the money" must be supplemented by meaningful and goal-related experiences, including volunteering to support faculty research. No matter the economic realities and pressures, we should look at a bigger picture so he can set, articulate and attain employment, career as well as academic goals in the weeks, months and years ahead. The summer is a great time to address all short term and longer term issues. We look forward to seeing him soon. He can start by e-mailing me via bnadler@mail.rochester.edu, by calling our office, or simply stopping by.
March 2010
Q:
Are internship experiences ever available or offered to students who don't meet a minimum GPA requirement of 3.0?
A: We like to define "internships" as a process that encompasses the Four Ps: postings, places, people, and programs. While some formal postings and programs may state a minimum GPA requirement, this is not the case for all opportunities. Most internships are gained by students identifying, with the help of a career center counselor, field, function, and firm focused goals, then implementing a comprehensive internship search. This will involve reactive responses to postings (taking into account whatever requirements are cited) as well as proactive efforts to make self-initiated and effective direct contacts with places and persons. Actually, 70 percent of all internship successes come from proactive networking driven efforts. So in reality, while high GPAs are clearly assets, they are not required to find an internship. Please encourage your student to visit the career center immediately to discuss their efforts with someone in our resource area (open for quick questions and orientations to our services), and have them call to schedule an individual appointment with one of the counselors.
Q: What’s the nature of assistance that the Career Center offers to U of R graduating students? My son is a senior and will graduate in May 2010. He has no clue how to find and apply for jobs. Obviously, I’m very concerned as I received my first job through a campus interview arranged by the College Placement Office of my university.
A: I’ll try to keep my response as brief as possible, but your e-mail inspires me to share the breadth and depth of the resources and services offered. So, first and foremost, please ask if your son has visited our office. If he hasn’t encourage him to schedule an appointment with me to start. I’ll assess his “status,” how much he does know about job search, and proceed accordingly. Specifically, we will take him step by through the ten steps to job search success. If he says “I was there, and they couldn’t help,” encourage him visit again, specifically to schedule an appointment with me. Often, confused, goal inarticulate and, yes, frightened seniors who now face the realities of the economy and, in truth, their concerned parents, may visit, but not schedule an appointment, or find it easier to “quite, before the process begins.”
Today, unlike past decades and generations, on-campus recruiting is not the mechanism by which most students receive interviews and, ultimately, jobs. Although I am now writing this immediately after a very successful on campus career fair, depending upon your son’s academic background, achievements and career goals, there may or may not have been employers who matched his field, function, and firm-focused wishes. And, “setting and articulating goals” is the first step to post-commencement job search (or internship search) success. We work individually, one student at a time, to enhance goal articulation and then, strategically, facilitate step by step actions that will ultimately, yield interviews and, after, offers. Although tempted to go on and on and on, I will close by referring you and him to our homepage and again ask you to encourage your son to schedule an appointment with me. I need to identify whether he can express goals; whether he has exceptional targeted job search documentation (resumes, networking notes, cover letters, etc.); if he can cite a hit list of potential employers; or if he can network effectively; and whether he can effectively and strategically react to postings or conduct proactive self initiated efforts, interview and follow up appropriately.
© University of Rochester 1996-2012