A look into NDSU’s career and advising center
As students move up through the class ranks it becomes time for them to start thinking about their careers. The career and advising center is the first stop on campus for students looking for help getting experience before they leave school and enter the workforce.
Internships are a great way to get valuable experience in the fields students are majoring in. The career and advising center offers help with applications, interview practice and resources to find internships.
“What makes the difference is students who go above and beyond just applying, so they take advantage of networking opportunities, they come to career fairs or an on-campus interview even and chat with recruiters before even submitting an application.” Goosens said.
NDSU uses a program called Handshake that is the first step on connecting with potential employers and other opportunities. Information about Handshake can be found on the career and advising centers website.
Alli Goosens, Assistant Director, Internship Program, discussed resources and tips to help students find internships. She said that she recommends starting by looking at major requirements in order to narrow down a specific field of internships that may be required for some majors.
“The searching strategies when looking for an internship and a job are very similar,” Goosens said. “If a student is looking for an internship I always encourage that a student understand what their course requirements might be.”
Goosens said that one way to add to your resume is by including extracurricular activities that will set you apart from the typical work and academic experience on most resumes.
“Students forget to think outside of the normal work experience on a resume,” said Goosens. “Our employers are always saying the love to see those unique experiences so 100% if you are involved in a club or organization on campus or any sort of volunteer work those experiences should be listed on the resume.”
Goosens went on to say that if you are in a creative field you can tailor your resume to show off personal experience you have, such as an engineering student building a computer as a side hobby.
“Anything you can do to make yourself stand out is important,” Goosens said.
Goosens stressed that not having experience in a specific field is not a deal breaker and that all work experience is valuable whether it is in the field or not.
“Those are were you get your soft skills and that’s where students build those really essential skills needed for the work place.” Goosens said.
According to Goosens it is also important to personalize things like resumes and cover letters to specific positions as well as going beyond a typical application process.
“What makes the difference is students who go above and beyond just applying, so they take advantage of networking opportunities, they come to career fairs or an on-campus interview even and chat with recruiters before even submitting an application.” Goosens said.
The advising center offers a vast variety of different resources and networking opportunities as well as help coaching students on how to have conversations with future employers. Goosens said the first step to accessing resources on campus is looking at their website as well as using Handshake when you are ready to start searching for opportunities.
For more information of resources go to https://career-advising.ndsu.edu/.