For faculty and staff
We look forward to working with you. There are many ways we can partner to help our students in their process of career exploration and professional development. We work with students from first-year through graduate level.
Professional development and recognition for VT faculty and staff
Student advising
Referring individuals or classes of students to advising appointments, student preparation for resume reviews.
Presentations and classes
Please encourage your students to attend CPD workshops on career topics. You may also request a class presentation by a CPD advisor.
Handshake
How students, alumni, employers, and VT advisors, faculty and staff can use Handshake.
Career planning guide
Online booklet with sample resumes, cover letters, worksheets, professional competency exercises and much more.
Internships / experience
Programs / resources for students to get experience. Includes: Maintaining student status during internships not for academic credit; VT offices hire undergrads for paid p-t internships through Campus internEXP.
What new grads do
Pre- to six months past commencement, we survey new grads completing bachelor's degrees to learn their first destination, and their career prep during college. Please encourage them to complete the survey.
Ethical and legal issues in student hiring / writing reference letters
The National Association of Colleges and Employers [NACE]: provides public policy and legal information related to recruitment issues facing faculty, avoiding legal and ethical pitfalls, and issues of discrimination and FERPA.
Career and Professional Development (CPD) provides career-related advising to Virginia Tech students. We can steer each student toward resources that will best fit her/his needs. See advising for most up-to-date information on scheduling.
Thank you for your interest in supporting your students' career development! If you wish to refer a group of students to use our services, with a deadline you have set, please call us at least two weeks in advance, to discuss timing and preparation on the part of the students.
Whom to call:
- If you already have a working relationship with one of our staff members, please contact her/him.
- Otherwise, please email Amy McPherson or call our main number.
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' seeking advising so that we can accomodate them (knowing number of students expected, and planning sufficient time for appointments to be scheduled). By calling us well in advance, we can work together to best meet the needs of our students with our existing resources. Thank you!
- 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, are strongly encouraged to prepare using the materials developed for them prior to visiting our office.
- They may read and use:
- Career Planning Guide available online to all students.
- Resume guide.
- Guide to correspondence in the job search.
Preparation is truly beneficial because resume reviews are to help individual students fine-tune their resumes. We can best serve students who have prepared with basic information, so that our conversation can focus on their individual situations and career interests.
For practice interview assignments for classes, we provide Interview Prep, an online practice platform (FORMERLY CALLED InterviewStream). If you have questions after reading about it, feel free to call us to discuss how students can use Interview Prep.
For individual students seeking practice, we provide two options.