College of Arts and Science Career Fair 2017 Fall
The Fall Career Fair was less than 24 hours away, and over on South Campus, a dozen juniors and seniors from the College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences were huddled around tables at Coburn Hall, mapping out job search strategies for a pair of fictional characters.
"Gary" was a inferior political science major looking to land a summertime internship. "Mary" was a senior psychology major seeking a full-fourth dimension chore as an unproblematic school teacher. Using what they'd learned and so far in their Career Planning Seminar, a i-credit course that prepares FAHSS majors for internships and jobs, the students collaborated on detailed game plans for each character.
In the process, they also reinforced their own game plans for the Career Fair.
"Information technology will exist good to utilise all the resource that I've learned here and go out in the chore field," said Crisayda Belen, a senior Bachelor of Liberal Arts major with concentrations in political science and legal studies who was preparing for her first Career Off-white.
The Methuen native said her advisor suggested she accept the seminar, which guides students through self-assessments and career explorations before covering physical aspects of the job search procedure such every bit résumé and encompass letter writing, online task searching, professional networking and interviewing.
"It's really helped me with my résumé, which I needed," said Belen, a transfer educatee from Northern Essex Community College who is on runway to complete her degree in December. "I also feel similar I'm very introverted and socially awkward, then this has helped me focus and refine my networking skills."
Photo past Ed Brennen
Now in its third semester, the popular Career Planning Seminar is the brainchild of Susan Thomson Tripathy, a sociology lecturer and director of the Bachelor of Liberal Arts plan.
Tripathy noticed that many liberal arts students seemed uncertain about their career paths subsequently graduation and also struggled with résumé writing and task search strategies. She learned most a career prep course for engineering students and worked with Career Services Associate Director Dana Norton and Vice Provost for Student Success Julie Nash (then the FAHSS acquaintance dean) to develop a similar grade for liberal arts students.
"The course is extremely helpful because information technology offers concrete skills and ways to see more than clearly how a liberal arts degree tin open up the door to a vast number of exciting career opportunities," said Tripathy, who decided to expand the seminar to all FAHSS majors.
The seminar is just 1 way FAHSS majors are supported the Career & Co-op Centre, which has an office at O'Leary Library. The center hosts a Liberal Arts Career Fair on S Campus each winter, as well as an employer-in-residence program.
Career Advisor Emily Chocolate-brown, who is co-teaching this semester'south seminar with Norton, said the course gives students a convenient framework to help them successfully enter the job market.
"In the past, they would have to be more proactive about making appointments with Career Services to piece of work on their résumés or exercise practice interviews," Chocolate-brown said. "In this class, those are all built-in requirements. We aid walk them through the steps."
Off-white Thee Well
Since Career Fairs can be an overwhelming experience even for seasoned job-hunters, Brown said the seminar devotes an entire class on helping FAHSS majors know what to expect when they enter the Tsongas Middle.
More than 1,500 students and alumni attended this fall's Career Fair, where 189 companies were seeking interns, co-ops and full-time employees. While many of those companies were looking for technology and business majors, in that location were also plenty of opportunities for FAHSS majors.
Photo by Ed Brennen
In fact, the first berth students saw when inbound the arena was The Autumn Group, an IT staffing and solutions company that was seeking majors of every stripe, from English to economic science, fine arts to social sciences, for internships and full-fourth dimension recruiter and sales rep positions.
One of the people manning The Fall Group booth, technical recruiter Melissa Simone, was living proof that FAHSS majors are in demand. Simone earned her bachelor'southward degree in psychology from the university in 2015, with a small in business organization administration.
"It's all about people skills, interpersonal relationships and networking," said Simone, a Methuen native who's been with the visitor for nearly a year. "We have a lot of sociology and liberal arts majors look into the staffing world. There's a loftier need out in that location for very large clients."
Well-nigh thirty anxiety down the concourse, Benchmark Office Systems founder and president Michelle McManus echoed those thoughts.
Photo by Ed Brennen
"In our realm, it doesn't matter what kind of background you come from, whether it exist liberal arts, English, psychology, criminal justice," said McManus, whose technology company has been attending UML Career Fairs for the past 8 years. "Nosotros endeavor to requite our interns a well-rounded background, which is good for students. They'll tell me years later that they never thought of doing whatever they did for the internship, and so all of a sudden they got a proficient job doing that total-fourth dimension. And information technology's because they had the opportunity to try it and exercise information technology."
One alum attention the Career Fair was Melissa Harris, who earned her psychology caste (with a business administration minor) in 2016. Harris landed her current job as a customer advocate at the Advocator Group, a national organization defended to helping individuals obtain Social Security Disability Insurance, through a previous Career Off-white. She was back this autumn to explore hereafter career steps.
While the Career Planning Seminar wasn't available when she was a educatee, Harris appreciates the connections she made on Due south Campus while earning her FAHSS degree.
"One thing I've found is that yous're able to build very potent relationships with professors," Harris said. "Even to this mean solar day, I feel confident I could go back and ask them for advice on what to exercise side by side with my caste. That is such a useful resource."
Source: https://www.uml.edu/news/stories/2017/career-planning-seminar.aspx
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