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 Virginia Tech faculty and staff
Student advising
Referring individuals or classes of students to advising appointments, student preparation for resume reviews.
Presentations and classes
Refer students to attend workshops and employer information sessions. You can request a presentation for your class.
Handshake
How students, alumni, employers, and Virginia Tech 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
Experience programs / resources include: Maintaining student status during internships not for academic credit; paid part-time internships at Virginia Tech through Campus internEXP.
What new grads do
From a month prior to six months after commencement, new grads completing bachelor's degrees should complete (and update) their first destination survey. Remind your grads 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 each individual's needs. See advising for information on scheduling.
- 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 advised 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 for practice interviews.
Thank you for your interest in supporting your students' career development. If you wish to refer a group of students for individual advising, with a deadline you have set, please call us well in advance, so we can discuss timing, our resources and staffing to meet the number of students, and preparation on the part of your students. Advising is by appointment.
Whom to call:
- If you already have a working relationship with one of our staff members, please contact that person directly.
- Otherwise, please email Amy McPherson or call our main number.
- Students interested in medicine and other health professions requiring education beyond their Virginia Tech bachelor's degree are served by Virginia Tech Health Professions Advising, which is part of the office of Career and Professional Development.
- More pre-professional school advising is available to students interested in law, education, and other professions.
- Academic departments and colleges have career and internship advisors to help students with career planning and exploration.