Whether your student selects studies in the arts, liberal arts, or pre-professional programs, career exploration is an important and integral part of the college experience.
Discovering a career direction during college often becomes a student’s new focus and challenge. Their successful transition into a career and ultimate independence may be strengthened with your support of their career investigation.
Keep in mind that early career investigation may not yet empower your student with enough occupational information necessary to make a career choice. Students will explore their career options through experiential learning such as internships, class projects, service learning, on or off-campus employment, and campus programs. It’s therefore of great importance that they engage in a variety of experiences that can help them develop career skills and competencies and gain further insight into themselves and the choices before them.
Career counselors work with students to identify and explore career interests. Self-exploration is the first step as students begin to focus on major and career decision-making. Career Interest Inventories are sometimes recommended to aid students in the process. Our career counselors work closely with the Academic Advising Center to guide students with decisions on academic majors that may or may not relate to career choice.
A robust array of resources and program offerings are available to students. Skill-building workshops on topics such as resume writing, interviewing, job search strategies, using LinkedIn, networking, and applying to graduate school are also offered. The alumni Mentor Network and professional career panels can further expose students to careers. Experiential education activities such as internships, can help students develop skills for the job market and “try out” specific fields of interest.
Career Development’s Purchase JobScore, lists internship, part-time, and full-time opportunities with local and national employers. Our annual Job and Internship Fair gives students a chance to meet employers seeking to fill available opportunities and we host a Graduate School Expo. We also curate job search and diversity and inclusion resources to help students with their career search.
Our career coaches/counselors are highly experienced, “student-centered” professionals dedicated to helping students identify and explore career options, make decisions, and gain career readiness for life after Purchase College. Your understanding of their unique talents, interests, abilities, and values can empower them to better prepare and make career decisions, so that they may achieve real career satisfaction in the future. You can learn more about our graduates Life After Purchase through our First Destination Survey.
We encourage parents to share job or internship leads available at your organization and encourage your employer to participate in our available Employer Services. We look forward to connecting with you!
We also encourage families to donate items to the Career Center Professional Closet. If you are interested in donating gently used donation you can have your student drop them off at the Career Development Center (Student Services, 214). Suggested items are: shirts, pants, blazers, dresses, skirts, suits, or other professional and business casual items. Questions? Please email career.development@purchase.edu.
