A Helping Hand for Job Seekers

The number of Arts, Sciences and Engineering students and alumni who use the services of the Tufts Career Center is on the rise. Students are visiting the center as sophomores and first-years more than ever before—a reflection of their shifting priorities and of expanded outreach by career counselors.

“Our mission is to help students and alumni identify their career goals, to create connections to explore career opportunities and to provide them with the skills and knowledge to navigate the path from college to professional life or graduate study,” says Jean Papalia, director of the career center. And the connection doesn’t end on commencement day—career services are also available to alumni.

The career center has stepped up its efforts to track the post-college destinations of undergraduates. Nearly 90 percent of the 2013 and 2014 graduates responding to post-commencement surveys were either employed, in the military, doing service work or pursuing additional education within eight to nine months after leaving Tufts. (The combined response rate for both classes was 80 percent, out of approximately 1,200 graduates in each class.)

Eighty percent of the alumni of the Class of 2014 said they were working full-time, in the military or doing service work such as the Peace Corps or Teach for America as of January 2015, while 14 percent were enrolled in graduate programs.

Head Start for Job Hunters

Traditionally, students nearing graduation used university career centers as a place to get advice on preparing a resume or to look at job listings. That’s changed. Planning for a career is now a consideration for many students from the time they enter Tufts. In fact, says Papalia, her office fields calls from parents of high school students in the midst of college searches, inquiring about the services offered and data on post-commencement employment.

“Over the last decade, the number of first-year and sophomore students seeking individual attention has increased dramatically,” says Papalia. In the 2013-14 academic year, Tufts career counselors held 1,199 individual consults with younger students—a 126 percent increase over the past decade. “We’re encouraging students to come in earlier, and, coupled with the emphasis on return on investment [on the cost of tuition], students are very interested in doing that,” she says.

Katherine “K.C.” Hambleton, A15, is a good example. With “a push from my parents,” she says, she visited the career center her first year at Tufts, in search of a summer internship. While she was a little late—most of the internship deadlines had passed—she was back the following year, when she established a relationship with a career advisor that was to last for the rest of her college career.

“That was an important relationship, and it’s done a lot for me over the past four years,” says Hambleton. With her advisor’s help, Hambleton learned how to refine her resume and find the specific type of internship she was looking for between sophomore and junior years—12 weeks at a dolphin research facility in Key Largo, Florida. And when, over this past spring break, Hambleton received a job offer—teaching math and science at a private school in Bath, Maine—she was on the phone to her advisor before she accepted the offer.

Sean Boyden, A17, is another student who found his way to the career center as a first-year student. He arrived at Tufts with the idea of going to veterinary school. But he soon began to think that he might be interested in public health or human medicine, too. “Looking back, I was so confused,” he says. “I really just wanted advice on where to start.”

Over the past two years, Boyden has attended career fairs and a career development program designed especially for sophomores, and even served as the career center’s social media intern. As a first-year student at a career fair he was able to ask various employers for suggestions about how he could hone his skills over the coming three years. “It turned me on to the idea of career development—for so long, I had no idea of what that really was,” he says.

The center offers more programming for younger students, including the Sophomore Career Development Course given through the Ex College. First launched in the fall of 2013, the for-credit course has proved so popular that two sections were offered last fall and again this spring. The career center also sponsors a first-year career series that addresses subjects from choosing a major to how to find summer job or internship opportunities, says Donna Esposito, the center’s senior associate director.

The career center has focused on students from underrepresented minorities, as well, working with campus bridge programs such as BLAST (Bridge to Liberal Arts Success at Tufts) and BEST (Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts), which serve students who are in the first generation of their families to go to college or who have attended under-resourced high schools.

In addition, the center is ramping up its efforts for graduate students in Arts, Sciences and Engineering. This year the center offered programs specifically for graduate students on topics from resume writing and interviewing skills to networking and using LinkedIn in a job search.

The Internship Route

Students are also expressing interest in doing internships at an earlier point in their academic careers, says Robin Kahan, associate director for employer relations and engineering at the career center, located in Dowling Hall on the Medford/Somerville campus.

According to Papalia, 89 percent of the Class of 2014 had at least one internship; 73 percent had two or more—far above the national average for students completing a single college internship, which is 65 percent, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. “Internships, once a skill-building and exploratory option, are now a prerequisite to entry level employment; the quest to secure them drives students to us in high volume,” says Papalia.

The career center offers resources for those looking for internships—a fat “TIP” (Tufts Internship Profiles) book gives students firsthand information and assessments of internship programs from their peers. Through alumni gifts, the center also funds 50 students each summer who are working in otherwise unpaid internships. These grants “level the playing field” so that more students have access to valuable summer experiences, especially in the nonprofit arena that traditionally might not pay interns, Papalia says.

Dahiana Duarte, A15, was able to take an unpaid internship at the Uruguayan embassy in Washington, D.C., the summer between her junior and senior years, with the help of a $3,500 grant from the career center. “That catapulted me to so many more opportunities,” says Duarte.

During her senior year, Duarte leaned on another feature from the career center—the Jumbo Jobs listings, placed by employers who are interested in finding Tufts applicants. “These are people who want to interview you, and it means your application is being seen,” she says.

She also visited a career advisor who reviewed her resume, conducted practice interviews and “gave me a pep talk whenever I was dealing with the stresses of finding a job.” In July, she will become a senior associate in the professional development program at State Street Financial Services.

The most popular of the 180-plus programs the career center offers during the year are individual coaching and resume critiques, career fairs, networking events and internship workshops. In 2013-14, it debuted a popular professional development conference called Senior Launch, as well as the conference On the Air, for students interested in media careers.

When students arrived at two job fairs held at the Gantcher Center in mid-February—one for STEM-related jobs, one for other fields—they were able to download an app for their mobile devices to help them navigate the fair and learn more about the employers in attendance.

Tufts is also a member of several consortia that host job fairs and interviews in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles.

The number of alumni who volunteer to advise students is on the upswing, too. During the 2013-14 academic year, 598 alumni volunteers connected with students through career programs, networking events, virtual forums and career fairs—an increase of 63 percent over the previous year.

“Alumni are our students’ best advocates,” Papalia says. This academic year, for example, a new professional-in-residence program brought five alumni, from fields as varied as nonprofits, public health, biotechnology and urban planning, to campus. There are 9,500 alumni volunteers in the Tufts Career Advisory Network, which will be transitioning to a new Tufts Career Networking Group on LinkedIn this summer.

Alumni are also among the career center clients. They can have individual consultations—in person or via Skype—attend networking sessions and participate in teleconferences and webinars. Unlike many other universities, Tufts does not limit how often alumni can use career services, nor does it charge them for services. “Tufts is proud to offer alumni career services for life,” Papalia says.

Helene Ragovin can be reached at helene.ragovin@tufts.edu.

During the 2013-14 academic year, the Tufts Career Center saw:

7,774 individual appointments and drop-ins, in person and online with students and alumni—an 11 percent increase from the previous year for students and a 12 percent increase for alumni

7,716 students and alumni attending 188 programs, fairs and networking events—a 19 percent increase

598 alumni volunteers connecting with students—a 63 percent increase

1,143 interviews for students through on-campus and consortia events—a 23 percent increase

6,527 jobs and internships posted in the Jumbo Jobs database for students and alumni—a 13 percent increase

1,385 alumni advisors contacted for advice and mentoring through the Tufts Career Advisory Network (Tufts CAN). There are 9,500+ alumni registered with the network.

1,039 students and alumni attending 13 networking events at Tufts, in New York and in Washington, D.C.

619 followers of @TuftsCareer on Twitter

Source: Tufts Career Center