We are trying to evaluate how good career centers are at these schools. S19 is our oldest and we aren’t exactly sure what to expect from career centers but getting an internship and a job after undergrad is a priority for S19. He’s planning on being a physics or math major but has not idea what he’d like to do yet so I don’t want to debate that necessarily - consulting, data analytics, and other physics-types jobs are all options. We understand the engineering angle and, if he decides later that he wants engineering, he will go to grad school.
My question is really this- What do parents expect from a good career center? Are most career centers honestly about the same with people who help with resumes, LinkedIn, databases of jobs, alumni job shadowing? Are there other things we should be looking at when evaluating? I follow all of the above school’s career centers on social media and Carelton’s seems very active with speakers and companies coming to recruit pretty often. The others not so much. If anyone has students at any of the above schools, I would love first hand accounts.
I also understand that jobs may be closer to each of the colleges (ie. jobs in Boston from Bowdoin, Charlotte from Davidson, etc). That’s a non issue for now.
Thanks for any information you guys may have!
I have no specific insight pertaining to the career centers at the schools you list in the thread title. But I can tell you that for my older DD, she never used her career center at her school but rather made good use of her college’s career fairs to secure internships. Each college is different obviously as to how extensive the career fairs are and you can find that out by asking how often they have these fairs and how many employers come. But the career fairs were for my DD a great way to meet employers and to get her resume to them without having to apply for the internship opportunity online as a random applicant. I do think having a robust career fair is very helpful to the students. It is also very good practice at delivering your brief “elevator speech” to potential employers. For my DD, she became very good at communicating who she was in a short speech and the practice of doing it at these fairs was great.
Having said that, while the career fairs were very helpful and she did receive internship offers stemming from these career fairs, the internships she participated in she heard about through her research advisor. His connections in industry and his strong recommendation of her to these potential employers were far more valuable to her than any career office or career fair. So for her, the best thing she did was to select carefully, the professor for whom she wanted to do research. She knew he had a national reputation in her area of study and was well-published, and his work was of great interest to her. Luckily for her, this professor took her on as a researcher and really seemed to like her and became a great advocate of her.
So for my DD’19, I have told her to look at the faculty in her proposed area of study to see what research they are doing, etc. and just use it as one factor among the many factors when deciding which college to attend. My feeling is that the professor for whom she does research will impact her trajectory more so than the career office/career fair (at least that was my older daughter’s experience). This in no way discounts the value of a career center, it is just an example that I wanted to share of how my kid got her internships.
Would your son participate in physics research?
@PurplePlum thanks. That’s very helpful. So career fairs and faculty connections are important. As he revisits schools, I think he needs to meet with someone in the math department and someone in the physics dept and ask for examples of what kids have been doing for internships and careers.
I’m sure he would be open to doing research but I have to be honest. He knows he’ll major in physics or math. I do think he will stick with one of those. He’s been offered the a Faculty Scholarship at Bowdoin that gives him $3000 to use anytime towards research or whatever else he wants to do with it. I think they are pretty good at helping kids find research opportunities. I also think the other schools in play are decent at that as well.
No specific experience with those schools but – from our experience with my LAC kid’s center, what I’ve come to appreciate are the following.
A focus on career development starting early, with programs and information to draw in first years and sophomores to envision their future so they can identify the steps to get there. Multiple points of access to services, not just physically being there to meet with someone – since that can be overwhelming for some students early on – so lots of online resources a student can explore first. Opportunity to supplement the liberal arts education through online platforms to expand the skills set. Organized career mentoring programs with alums and parents. If geography permits, then yes, on-campus info sessions from prospective employers. The people in the career center matter – do they convey energy, enthusiasm? Just some thoughts from our (positive) experiences.
Congrats to your son on some fabulous choices!
A good career center would:
- Attract employer recruiters for well organized on-campus recruiting.
- Have services to teach students about looking for internships and jobs (including co-ops if a formalized co-op program exists).
- Have services to assist students seeking graduate or professional school (if that is not its own office).
- Put out a first destination report by major like the following:
https://www.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Accessible%202017%20Post-Graduate%20Report.pdf (appendix C and D starting on page 14 has by-major listings)
https://www.davidson.edu/offices/career-development/graduating-class-outcome-reports
Other schools for comparison:
https://career.berkeley.edu/Survey/Survey
https://capd.mit.edu/resources/survey-data
https://career.vt.edu/about/postgrad-survey/report.html
https://careerservices.calpoly.edu/gsr
@ucbalumnus Helpful! Thanks. So now I’m thinking that Grinnell might be hard to pass up since it costs $88k less than other schools. And that report is so detailed and exactly what I want to see. Davidson’s report is terrific as well. I’l have to look for info like that from all of the schools on the final list. Thank you!!