Dickinson College Career Bootcamp Draws Over 100 Seniors

Advising, Internships & Career Center bootcamp

Center for Advising, Internships & Lifelong Career Development holds weekend event on launching a career

Last weekend, Dickinson’s new Center for Advising, Internships & Lifelong Career Development held a bootcamp for seniors, and more than 100 students spent the afternoon developing a concrete plan for life after Dickinson.

With sessions across the career-launch spectrum, center staff laid out critical steps for students looking to land their next opportunity while also filling in possible blanks in students’ resumes.

“We wanted students to walk away with knowledge about the job search process but also with an action plan for how they can structure and prioritize their time during their last semester in college,” said Annie Kondas, associate dean and director of alumni career development. “A job search can take time, and it’s important for students to understand how to achieve their job search goals.”

The event followed a center program that ran over winter break for students already back on campus and included the following options as a roadmap to prepare students for finding their first professional opportunity:

  • Resumé boost: This session gave an overview of how to position coursework, internships and volunteer and leadership experiences on a resumé and create conscience and impactful descriptions that demonstrate the breadth, depth and impact of the experience.
  • LinkedIn: This session helped students see ways to match their resumés and LinkedIn profiles to job listings and finesse their LinkedIn summaries to better match opportunities of interest.

Throughout both sessions, a LinkedIn photobooth was available so students could update their online profiles with professional-grade headshots. The rest of the afternoon featured the following sessions:

  • Finding a job through networking: Students learned why the old method of “apply and wait” isn’t the best way forward in the job application process and how tapping into existing contact lists can give job-seekers a leg up.
  • Effective interviewing: Students discovered ways to communicate their liberal-arts experiences effectively in an interview and structure thoughts to deftly answer the most common types of interview questions.
  • Developing a job search plan: Students designed action plans to stay on track and keep organized by developing a prospect list, timeline and specific goals for the job search.

The event is only one of many to follow, and Kondas sees sessions like these as a great way for students to give themselves a big push as they approach graduation.

“Job searching isn’t just about applying for jobs and hoping to get called for an interview,” she said. “The use of a variety of strategies enables students to move faster, go further and aim with more accuracy.”

TAKE THE NEXT STEPS

Published January 29, 2019