Career
Services Welcomes Parents to
the SU 2012 Summer Orientation!
Scores:
14-15 correct=A
12-13 correct=B
9-11 correct=C
7-8 correct=D
6 and below we will not talk about!
Services WE Provide:
I Need
Your Help-The Parent Mentor Network
What
We Did This Past Year
The highlights of the 2011-2012 academic year
are listed below. The number of students we serve, services
we offer and partnerships we forge continue to increase every year. The
overall numbers tell some of the story:
From First Destination Survey - (Early May)
In response to: What best describes your post-graduation status as of
right now?
-
Click
here to view this year's
graduation data
-
Click
here to view some of the student dangers for your son/daughter
-
Student's today
Power Point
Resources
- Click
here for motivating
students-pp
- Click
here for parent power point
Parents Guide to Career Development
July 1, 2011 at 5:00 am by Tom Denham
I love parents, but they make terrible career
counselors. They simply can not provide
objective advice because of the emotional
attachment to their children. However, parents
can help by listening and by being
nonjudgmental. Here are 10 other ways.
1. Encourage your child to visit the career
center (and you go too!) – Next time you visit
campus, drop into the Career Center and meet
with a professional. When your son or daughter
is feeling anxious about his/her future, offer a
business card and say, “Please call this person.
They can help you.” Many students use their
first semester to “settle into” college life,
and so perhaps the second term is the optimal
time to gently prompt them to go. Whether your
son or daughter uses the services or not, you
are paying for them!
Ask him/her (in an off-handed way), “Have you
visited the Career Center?” If you hear, “You
only go there when you are a senior!” then
reassure them that career services are not just
for seniors. The sooner he/she becomes familiar
with the staff and resources the better prepared
he/she will be. Career Centers offer a full
range of services including: mock interviews,
alumni career networks, workshops, recruiting
programs, advising, and career books/handouts on
job searching and graduate school.
2. Advise your student to write a resume -
Writing a resume can be a “reality test” and can
help a student identify weak areas that require
improvement. Suggest to him/her to get sample
resumes from the Internet or the Career Center
Library. Feel free to review drafts for grammar,
spelling, and content, but recommend that the
final version be critiqued by a Career Center
professional.
3. Challenge your student to become
“Occupationally Literate” – Ask: “Do you have
any ideas about what you might want to do when
you graduate?” If he/she seems unsure, you can
talk about what you see are his/her values,
interests, personality traits and skills. You
can also recommend: 1) Taking a self-assessment
inventory such as the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator or the Campbell Interest and Skill
Survey, 2) Talking to faculty members, and 3)
Researching a variety of interesting career
fields and employers. A career decision should
be a process and not a one-time, last-minute
event. Discourage putting this decision off
until the senior year.
4. Allow your student to make the decision
–
Occasionally, you can ask about his/her career
plans, but too much prodding can backfire. It is
understandable to want them to pick a major that
is “practical.” However, it should be balanced
with his/her own interests and passions. Only
sometimes does picking a major means picking the
career for life. It’s common for students to
change majors after further study, internships,
and career counseling, so don’t freak out when
they come up with an outrageous or impractical
idea. Chances are plans will evolve. Feel free
to make suggestions about majors and career
fields, but let him/her be the ultimate judge of
what’s best. Career development can be
stressful. Perhaps this is the first really big
decision that your son or daughter has had to
make. Be patient, sympathetic and understanding,
even if you don’t agree with your child’s
decisions.
5. Emphasize the importance of internships – The
Career Center will not “place” your child in a
job at graduation. Colleges grant degrees, but
not job guarantees, so having relevant
experience in this competitive job market is
critical. Your son or daughter can sample career
options through summer employment, volunteer
work and most importantly internships. Why
internships? Employers want not only a college
degree. They want experience and internships are
the answer. Several internships can help develop
key communication, problem-solving, and
administrative skills. Many companies hire from
within their own internship programs. A
recommendation letter from an internship can
sometimes tip the scale of an interview. Never
forget the importance of internships!!!
6. Encourage extracurricular involvement - Part
of experiencing college life is to be involved
and active outside the classroom. Interpersonal
and leadership skills, qualities valued by
future employers, are often developed through
extracurricular activities.
7. Persuade your student to stay up-to-date with
current events – Employers will expect students
to know what is happening around them. Make sure
they are reading about current events. When they
are home on break, discuss national and world
issues with them.
8. Expose your student to the world of work –
Most students have a stereotypical view of the
workplace. Take your child to your workplace and
explain what you do for a living. Show him/her
how to network. Help him/her to identify
potential employers.
9. Teach the value of networking- Introduce
him/her to people who have the careers/jobs that
interest them the most. Have him/her contact
people in your networks for information on
summer jobs. Encourage your child to “shadow”
someone in the workplace to increase awareness
of interesting career fields.
10. Help the career center - Call the Career
Center when you have a summer, part-time or
full-time job opening. The staff will help you
find a good fit. If your company hires interns,
have the internships listed in the Career
Center. Join the Career Center advisory network
and use your “real world” experience to help
students. Offer to participate in a career panel
or workshop.
Tom’s Tip: “My father didn’t tell me how to
live, he lived, and let me watch him do it.” –
Clarence Budinton Kelland
Keep Climbing
Answers-1=c, 2=d, 3=d, 4=d, 5=c, 6=b, 7=d, 8-d, 9=e,
10=e,11.=extra credit
How did you score?
1-3 correct answers: Need to do much more research.
4-5 correct answers: You're thinking the right way, but things
are changing quickly and it a different time and era.
6-8 correct answers: You are in touch and headed in the right
direction.
9-10 correct answers: You are fabulous career counselor, mentor,
educator, advisor, student consultant, etc.
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