1. Remind your student to visit the Career & Life Design Center

Next time you visit campus, stop by the Cornelia Center and meet our team. When your student is feeling anxious about their future, remind them of our coaching services.

Many students use their first semester to “settle into” college life, but it is never too early to work with us at the Career & Life Design Center. In fact, we offer a “Designing Your Trinity Experience” guide and workshop, which is geared towards first- and second-year students. In the spring semester of their first year, you might want to ask your student, “Have you visited the Career & Life Design Center?” If you hear, “You only go there when you are a senior,” then it’s time to reassure them that meeting with a career & life design coach can take place at any point—and should take place frequently—throughout their college experience.

We offer a full range of career development and life skills support, including:

• One-on-one coaching
• A virtual library of Career & Life Design guides
• Alumni mentoring programs and networking opportunities
• Workshops on writing résumés and cover letters
• Internships for Credit and internship funding
• Mock interviews and interview prep

2. Encourage your student to create a résumé

Writing a résumé can be a “reality test” and can help a student identify weak areas that require improvement. Suggest that your student get sample résumés from the Career & Life Design Center.

You can review résumé drafts for grammar, spelling, and content, but recommend that the final product be critiqued by a Career & Life Design Intern or a member of our professional staff.

3. Challenge your student to become “occupationally literate”

Ask your student: “Do you have any ideas about what you might want to do when you graduate?”

If your student seems unsure, you can talk about personal qualities you see as talents and strengths. You can also recommend:

• Taking a “self-assessment inventory,” such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Talking to favorite faculty members
• Researching a variety of interesting career fields and employers

A career decision should be a process and not a one-time, last-minute event.

4. Emphasize the importance of internships

The Career & Life Design Center will not “place” your student in a job at graduation. Colleges grant degrees, but not job guarantees, so having relevant experience in this competitive job market is critical.

Your student can sample career options by completing internships and experimenting with summer employment opportunities or volunteer work.

Why an internship?

• Employers are interested in communication, problem-solving, and administrative skills, which can be developed through internships.
• Employers look for experience on a student’s résumé and often hire from within their own internship programs.
• Having a high GPA is not enough.
• A strong letter of recommendation from an internship supervisor may tip the scale of an important interview in their favor.

5. Suggest extracurricular involvement

Part of experiencing college life is to be involved and active outside the classroom. Interpersonal and leadership skills—qualities valued by future employers—are often developed in extracurricular activities.

6. Help your student to stay up-to-date with current events

Employers will expect students to know what is happening around them. Considering buying your student a subscription to The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal.

7. Teach the value of networking

Introduce your student to people who have careers/jobs that are of interest. Suggest your student contact people in your personal and professional networks for information on summer jobs. Encourage your student to “shadow” someone in the workplace to increase awareness of interesting career fields.

8. Connect with the Career & Life Design Center

Let us know when you have a summer, part-time, or full-time job opening. Our team will help you find a hard-working student. If your company hires interns, have the internships listed on Handshake. Join the Bantam Career Network and use your “real world” experience to advise students of their career options.

Adapted from: Thomas J. Denham. Courtesy of the National Association of Colleges and Employers.