Career Services offers students a career kick start
Students completing the workshops receive certificates from Dr. Ken Esbenshade, CALS Academic Programs director (far left). Marcy Bullock, Career Services director, is at right.
With their job-seeking skills sharpened by an innovative Career Services program, students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences might just be ready to take on the "apprentice" competition on a certain famous reality TV show.
This past fall, Career Services hosted its latest installment of "Kick Start Your Career" - a semester's worth of weekly seminars to give students a boost in finding jobs after graduation. CALS students from freshmen to seniors can avail themselves of guidance from Career Services workshop leaders and visiting speakers on a range of information needed for securing a career postgraduation.
"This is the third year we've offered Kick Start, and we have doubled student attendance at workshops," said Marcy Bullock, Career Services director.
Already, success stories are coming back to Bullock from College graduates. Bert Trantham, who earned his biological sciences degree last May, said, "I am so thankful I saw the Kick Start flyer in Polk Hall. This program helped me to land a job with Novartis Animal Health quickly after graduation. I recommend this to all CALS students who want to stand out from the crowd in a tough job market."
Essentially, Kick Start tells students the best ways to market themselves.
Participants who complete at least six workshop sessions receive professional development certificates, but more importantly they take with them valuable information.
During the sessions, participants learn the value of internships as "test-drives" with prospective employers. They find out how to build a portfolio of new skills for a competitive edge, practice for job interviews, craft an attention-getting resume and use the job-search strategy of networking to unlock hidden opportunities. The final workshops assist students in considering their graduate school choices and guide them as they explore postgraduation career options.
Kick Start also has offered bonus sessions that include a "mock interview day," featuring practice interviews with a trained industry recruiter; a pharmaceutical careers panel session, offering opportunities to speak with professionals in this booming field; and a business etiquette and fashion show, teaching everything from table manners to dressing for success.
The hour-long sessions so far have been offered twice on Wednesdays and Thursdays. A third workshop session day will be added in the Spring, Bullock said. Dates and times will be posted online at www.cals.ncsu.edu/career.
Bullock and Tricia Buddin, Career Services assistant director, lead afternoon sessions, while eight peer counselors, all of whom completed Kick Start as students, conduct evening sessions.
The current peer counselors are Karen Fann, Stephanie Roberts, Danielle Furci, Rachel Brown, John Summers, Allison Johnson, Tabitha Ikpechukwu and Roxanna Pourdeyhimi.
Alumni volunteers also contribute to the program, including alumna Melissa Powell, who in May earned her CALS bachelor's degree in agricultural business management, with a biological sciences concentration. Powell served on a panel of alumni presenting an advice session called "Hindsight is 20/20."
Powell's message to the students is "that they cannot just work to the point of 'getting by' in college," she said. "They have to get out and join clubs and organizations, obtain an internship or job that provides them with skills that they will need in the career path they are pursuing."
She also stressed that students should make good grades but also work to interview well and create a resume that advertises their skills and unique qualities. "Students need to put themselves in positions that will allow them to network," Powell added. "When it comes to finding a job or even making some sales, it is all in whom you know - the person you are talking to may not have a job for you, but perhaps their colleague or client does."
Powell, who now works as a sales and marketing coordinator with Exhibit Resources in Raleigh, speaks from experience. She attended Kick Start sessions as a student, as well as Bullock's Career Exploration class.
Powell specifically notes the assistance Career Services provided in creating resumes and preparing for interviews.
Now, she said, "I am with a great company." And now she is one of the professionals providing guidance to CALS students through Kick Start.
- Terri Leith
This past fall, Career Services hosted its latest installment of "Kick Start Your Career" - a semester's worth of weekly seminars to give students a boost in finding jobs after graduation. CALS students from freshmen to seniors can avail themselves of guidance from Career Services workshop leaders and visiting speakers on a range of information needed for securing a career postgraduation.
"This is the third year we've offered Kick Start, and we have doubled student attendance at workshops," said Marcy Bullock, Career Services director.
Already, success stories are coming back to Bullock from College graduates. Bert Trantham, who earned his biological sciences degree last May, said, "I am so thankful I saw the Kick Start flyer in Polk Hall. This program helped me to land a job with Novartis Animal Health quickly after graduation. I recommend this to all CALS students who want to stand out from the crowd in a tough job market."
Essentially, Kick Start tells students the best ways to market themselves.
Participants who complete at least six workshop sessions receive professional development certificates, but more importantly they take with them valuable information.
During the sessions, participants learn the value of internships as "test-drives" with prospective employers. They find out how to build a portfolio of new skills for a competitive edge, practice for job interviews, craft an attention-getting resume and use the job-search strategy of networking to unlock hidden opportunities. The final workshops assist students in considering their graduate school choices and guide them as they explore postgraduation career options.
Kick Start also has offered bonus sessions that include a "mock interview day," featuring practice interviews with a trained industry recruiter; a pharmaceutical careers panel session, offering opportunities to speak with professionals in this booming field; and a business etiquette and fashion show, teaching everything from table manners to dressing for success.
The hour-long sessions so far have been offered twice on Wednesdays and Thursdays. A third workshop session day will be added in the Spring, Bullock said. Dates and times will be posted online at www.cals.ncsu.edu/career.
Bullock and Tricia Buddin, Career Services assistant director, lead afternoon sessions, while eight peer counselors, all of whom completed Kick Start as students, conduct evening sessions.
The current peer counselors are Karen Fann, Stephanie Roberts, Danielle Furci, Rachel Brown, John Summers, Allison Johnson, Tabitha Ikpechukwu and Roxanna Pourdeyhimi.
Alumni volunteers also contribute to the program, including alumna Melissa Powell, who in May earned her CALS bachelor's degree in agricultural business management, with a biological sciences concentration. Powell served on a panel of alumni presenting an advice session called "Hindsight is 20/20."
Powell's message to the students is "that they cannot just work to the point of 'getting by' in college," she said. "They have to get out and join clubs and organizations, obtain an internship or job that provides them with skills that they will need in the career path they are pursuing."
She also stressed that students should make good grades but also work to interview well and create a resume that advertises their skills and unique qualities. "Students need to put themselves in positions that will allow them to network," Powell added. "When it comes to finding a job or even making some sales, it is all in whom you know - the person you are talking to may not have a job for you, but perhaps their colleague or client does."
Powell, who now works as a sales and marketing coordinator with Exhibit Resources in Raleigh, speaks from experience. She attended Kick Start sessions as a student, as well as Bullock's Career Exploration class.
Powell specifically notes the assistance Career Services provided in creating resumes and preparing for interviews.
Now, she said, "I am with a great company." And now she is one of the professionals providing guidance to CALS students through Kick Start.
- Terri Leith