For college students across the region, graduation season is just around the corner. After four years of college, students must now decide whether to move on graduate school or start a career.
The first step for a college student who desires success after graduating from their undergraduate school is to visit their school’s Career Services Department or their career counselor or advisor. Western New England University Career Counselor for the College of Arts & Sciences Andrea St. James describes how she helps students on her campus.
“My role is really to be a resource for my students. To take their education, their four years why they’re here at Western New England, their academics and tie that to their next chapter after they leave the institution, whether it’s grad school, whether it’s a full-time job, volunteer, a year of service, teaching, or working abroad. I’m really here to facilitate that process and questions that they might have.”
According to American International College Career Advisor Dr. Ana Mukhopadhyay, it’s best for students to utilize help from Career Services during their freshman year at college.
“I would think one of the biggest advice I can give students is to start the career process early which means right from freshman year to start having a resume in order which they can upgrade in the course of the school year so that by the time they reach junior, senior year they’re ready. Also to market their resumes and cover letters in a way they can stand out from maybe other applicants in the sense that make it free off spellings, spelling errors, typos, the little grammatical elements that can make a difference between the application being excepted or rejected… We also have a lot of events that I get to organize through my role and those events we emphasize that they start early.”
Dr. Mukhopadhyay says it’s important for students to also enroll in internships and attend events aimed at improving their career goals.
“The GPA certainly sets a certain impression on the employer if it’s listed on their resume and I definitely advise students to not list a GPA unless it’s 3.2 and above; and if someone has a good GPA to begin with complimented with internship experience, nothing like it. But if someone unfortunately has a GPA that’s not too high, then he or she would have to supplement it with a lot of work experience and internship experience.”
After completing a successful journalism internship at The Republican in Springfield, Massachusetts, senior Elise Linscott says the paper promised her a reporting position after graduation.
“I think I tend to be very ambitious in both what my goals are and also I always tried to go above and beyond in my internship in just any way I could, even just staying a few minutes after I was suppose to leave to finish what I was working on. Just going that extra mile I think is what my employers liked.”
Unlike Linscott, there are some students who decide not to enter their respective career field and instead take their education further at a graduate school. Senior Psychology major Chris Perras has decided to attend graduate school at the University of Connecticut next fall.
“When I entered college in the fall of 2010 I knew that I wouldn’t just be here for four years and just start working. I wanted to continue my education because jobs now-a-days require a Master’s degree, especially in the field I’m looking into… Like I was telling some friends the other day, it puts off the ‘real world’ for a couple of years for me to find my feet settle down at a school and hopefully get a job at the grad school I’ll be attending and it also gives me some time to mature as a person.”
Whether a student wants to enter the work force or continue his or her education at a graduate school, college career counselors advise students to use their school’s career services to help students achieve their goals.