Partnering to help our students with career planning

Referring classes for assignments | student prep: • Career Planning Guides for your class • Assignments for resume reviews    cover letters, reference lists, etc. • Student preparation • Assignments for practice interviews Requesting presentations: • Requesting presentations for classes Assisting your students in the job search: • Writing reference letters • Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Hiring

Referring individuals | resources: • Career Services resources | advising • Departmental Career Advisors (DCAs) • Pre-Professional School Advisors Seminars, workshops, fairs: • Semester events calendar Should interns be paid? • U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet #71 Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act. (April 2010) Recognition for faculty & staff: • Award: Excellence in Career Advising DCA Newsletter: • Spring 2010 issue MS Word doc

 

 

Referring individual students to Career Services

We invite all students, undergraduate and graduate level, in all majors and academic programs to use our services. We can steer each student toward resources that will best fit her/his needs.

Through these online resources and advising, we assist students with:

• Exploring career options and majors

• How to get experience during college, through internships, co-op and other means

• Job search for post-graduation employment

• Planning for graduate or professional school or other continuing education

We provide a great deal of detailed job search guidance, including information for graduate students and international students and resources by career field.

 

Referring classes or groups to Career Services for assignments

Thank you for your interest in developing your students' job search skills! If you wish to refer a group of students to Career Services, whether for individual appointments or for walk-in advising, including resume critiques, or for visits related to class assignments, please call us first, at least two weeks in advance, to discuss the number of students involved, and required preparation by your students.

Whom to call:
- If you have a working relationship with one of our staff members, please contact her/him!
- Otherwise, please contact Amy McPherson, amcphers@vt.edu, 231-6241.

Our desires are to work with you and to assist your students. We have, and encourage, relationships with faculty and staff in which we plan the timing of your students' visits (so they do not conflict with high traffic dates), we know the number of students expected, and their visits are spread over sufficient time for us to accomodate them. (It has happened, without notice to or coordination with us, that groups of students have been given an assignment to visit Career Services, and have done so in a short window of time and overwhelmed our resources.) By calling us well in advance, we can work together to best meet the needs of our students with our existing resources.

 

Student preparation required for resume/cover letter critiques:

Students who seek our advising services for reviews of resumes, cover letters, reference lists, or other documents, whether of their own initiative or because of a class assignment, should read and use the materials developed for them on these topics prior to visiting our office. They may read and use these hard copy or online resources:

• Resume guidelines
• Job search / cover letter writing guidelines
• Reference list instructions, or
• The Career Planning Guide is free to all students to read:
  - Pick up at our office during office hours.
  - View online version.
  - Arrange to pick up multiple copies of the guide for your students.
• Resume writing workshops are held each semester. Details on events calendar.

Preparation is essential because resume reviews are for the purpose of helping each individual student fine-tune his or her resume. Resume reviews are not a one-on-one tutorial on the basics of preparing a resume. We see many well-prepared students for resume reviews. Students who use our walk-in advising service are assisted on a first-come, first-served basis. It is unfair to those well-prepared students to have a longer wait because unprepared students are asking questions that well-prepared students have found easily answered in our print and online resources.

 

 

Getting copies of the Career Planning Guide for your students

If you would like to arrange to pick up copies of the Career Planning Guide to distribute to your students in class, and for the students to read and use, please call us at 231-6241. We're happy to work with you on this. More info; online version.

 

Referring students for practice (mock) interview assignments

Thank you for your interest in developing your students' job search skills!

Two options for practice interview assignments:

1. Available now, 24 / 7 / 365

We're pleased to offer Interview Stream [offered since spring semester 2010]:
• Online interview practice service
• Available 24/7/365
• For anyone with a Virginia Tech PID — students, alumni, faculty and staff.
• Internet access and a webcam are needed to use Interview Stream.
• Use it now! No need to wait, consult us, schedule, or ask permission!

If you would like all students in a class to have practice interviews, Interview Stream is ideal for this purpose.
After recording practice interviews, students can e-mail access to others for critiques, which could be done individually, or in the classroom setting.
All the details about Interview Stream.

2. Available by advance arrangement:

If you wish to require all students in a class to have an in-person mock interview, please call us first, at least two weeks in advance, to discuss your goals and needs and the number of students involved, and preparation by your students. We are happy to work with you to determine the best means and timing to meet your students' needs. Your contact point for arranging mock interviews is Jessica Caolo, jcaolo@vt.edu, 231-6241.

Faculty/Staff, please note: Students scheduling practice interviews for your class/group assignments should not sign up using the Mock Interview Program. We do not have sufficient slots to accomodate class assignments. We can accomodate your students in other ways, which we'll discuss when you call.

 

 

Writing reference letters - for students & others

From NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers

Tips for Providing References, includes:

Tips for Other Reference Providers - faculty, college administrative staff, employers

Sample Faculty Reference Letter

 

Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Hiring

Brief but thorough document from a reputable professional organization deals with recruitment issues facing faculty and suggested courses of action.

A Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Hiring
by NACE, the National Association of Colleges and Employers.