Working toward the end goal

Career Center helps students build resumes, find internships and land jobs

 

It happens every spring.

After seven semesters full of the adventures, all-nighters and other firsts that college life brings, there is always that one senior somewhere who wonders with dread, “What have I been doing for the last four years?”

For every student at the end of the college career, the deadline for finding that post-grad job looms overhead, while freshmen students enjoying their newfound independence ignore those deadlines until much later on.

But as every deadline-saddled college student knows, “later” will become “tomorrow.”

So, how can students get the most out of this semester in terms of career planning?

Linda Bell, a career counselor for government, history, aeronautics and undeclared students at the Liberty University Career Center in DeMoss Hall, suggests that freshmen and sophomores act like seniors by looking for potential desired fields and internship listings now.

“Have some understanding of the world you want to enter,” Bell said.

“If you don’t start thinking about that now, then when you finish school you will have a degree, but someone else applying for the job you want will have experience and a degree.”

The Career Center is comprised of counselors, each assigned to particular majors.

They help students of any status with almost every aspect of professionalism imaginable, including résumé critique, job searching, polishing LinkedIn profiles, scouting out volunteer opportunities and finding internships.

In some cases, the counselors also serve as something like an advocate for the career-minded student.

“We’re always saying to students here that we want to know them,” Bell said.

“Until I know a student, I can’t really remember them when I come across something that looks like a perfect internship or a perfect entry-level job for them. We don’t really place people here, but there are a lot of times where a perfect opportunity comes, and we tell the students we know.”

Another resource that is routinely offered to students is the career fair.

Recruiters representing numerous businesses come to Liberty to engage with students and seek out potential interns or even employees.

Bell noted that the CIA is becoming a prominent recruiter at Liberty.

With that, she stressed again how vital it is for students to consider internships as early as possible.

“If you want to do an internship with the CIA, you need to apply your freshman year,” Bell said.

“It can take up to a year to get your security clearance, and they will want you to serve two summers. So you need to start early. If a senior comes to me and says they want to intern with the CIA, it’s too late. They may still get a job with the CIA, if they seek it a different way, but the interning possibility is over.”

But the best-kept secret for the career-oriented student so far is the LU Network.

“All students at Liberty need to know about LU Network,” Bell said.

“Every student has a profile on LU Network.”

LU Network is a database which functions somewhat like LinkedIn, except it is exclusively tailored toward Liberty students.

The site matches jobs for students based on academics, personal info and any listed experience, connecting students with employers via an extensive employer directory.

The site posts company listings as well as LU job networking events such as career fairs.

Another new resource that is offered is a class called INDS 200, or “Academic and Career Synthesis.”

Tracy Good, lead career counselor at the Career Center, helped to write the course’s curriculum.

“The class is very hands-on and interactive,” Good said.

“It’s application — not academic.”

INDS 200 is a professional development course designed with the intent to help students think seriously about where they really want to be professionally, consider how certain organizations align with the student’s values, and know how to “sell” their capabilities to an organization.

The course even offers job shadowing opportunities.

“I had a student who wanted to be a physician’s assistant last spring who had never observed a PA, and you have to get hundreds of hours there,” Good said.

“So we went through that entire process with them so that they could
get approved.”

Good expressed hope that the practical nature of the class, which fosters partnership between students and potential employers, goes on to be integrated into Liberty’s core program.

“I was talking to some students this past semester who said that UNIV 101 begins this kind of process, but it’s not as specified,” Good said.

She said she could see this as actively partnering with the students to have them as prepared as possible when they leave.

“Sometimes it’s a hit-and-miss when they show up just for your resume to get it fixed,” Good said.

“That’s not all we do.”

According to Good, interaction between the Career Center and students in fostering career intentionality has grown exponentially in the time since Good was hired by Liberty in 2008.

“We have really started to grow relationships with faculty, so we get into the classroom a lot more often now,” Good said.

“That’s really gotten the word out. It amazes me how many students will come in (to the Career Center) and will say they never knew that we even existed.”

For more information about upcoming career fairs and networking opportunities, contact the Career Center at careers@liberty.edu.

Jarrett is a feature reporter.