Support Your Student

Helping your son or daughter through the career development process can sometimes be a challenging task.  Providing support and encouragement without doing too much of the work for your student can sometimes feel like a difficult balancing act.  Below you will find some advice for working with your student on the process of selecting a major/career and implementing a job search.

Understand Career Development Stages

The St. Paul Campus Career Center follows a three-phase model of career development when working with individuals.  Discuss with them the importance of each step in the process.  The three phases include:

1. Exploration – Individuals must understand their interests, motivations, skills and values.  This exploration process also involves learning about careers and majors available that fit their individual personality and skills

2. Experience – Exploration is followed by an opportunity to try out interests via internships, part-time jobs, volunteer opportunities or student organization involvement and leadership positions.

3.  Equip – The last stage is to learn appropriate job searching skills. This includes equipping oneself with the skills to write a quality resume and cover letter, find job openings and interview effectively.

Watch the Grades

While students do not need a 4.0 (unless you’re considering highly competitive graduate education), most employers look at the G.P.A. as an indicator of the student’s competence, as well as self-management and time-management skills.  It is also a tool for some employers to screen the large numbers of applicants for on campus interviews.

Encourage Involvement

Involvement can include participation in internships, student organizations, volunteering, work experience and studying abroad.  Employers who work closely with our office continue to confirm the importance of extra-curricular involvement as evidence that the prospective employee has the interpersonal and leadership skills to succeed.  Some of our most competitive seniors have done 2 or 3 internships and been heavily involved in the campus and local community.  No student should graduate without having significant involvement on their resumes.

Be Supportive

Many parents understand the challenges of making career decisions and conducting an effective job search.  As a parent, you can be most supportive to your student by doing the following:

• Listen and be a sounding board, give feedback, suggest resources and offer ideas and options.

• Comfort your students when the job search becomes difficult - rejections, mistakes and failures are an inevitable part of any job hunt and can be a student’s first sense of failure.

• Confront unproductive behavior - offer tough support by setting limits and being honest.

• Encourage your son/daughter by demonstrating confidence in their journey and decision.

Remind Students to Visit the Career Center

The students who are most successful at securing jobs at graduation are often those who have gained experience during college and those who have learned to job search effectively.  The St. Paul Campus Career Center has a highly competent staff of career professionals who can teach your son/daughter the most effective job search strategies.  For a detailed overview of services, visit the About Us section of our website.

For more information on guiding your college student through career transitions consider reviewing the web sites and documents under related links.  Another valuable resource for parents is listed below:

The Parent's Crash Course in Career Planning: Helping your College Student Succeed by Marcia Harris & Sharon Jones, Career Dimensions, 2007.
Available at www.lulu.com.