At Gustavus, career development is a community-wide effort. You as faculty and staff are often the first person a student turns to when they have questions and are wondering about their future. Whether you are a faculty advisor, FTS advisor, internship supervisor, or student employee supervisor, we are here to provide the information, data, tools, and support you need to help them. Let’s help students bridge what they do here on campus to their career.
Faculty & Staff
Ways to partner to support students’ career success:
Gustavus Career and Vocation Champions is a campus wide program designed to equip faculty and staff to assist students with career and vocation questions or decision making. We understand many faculty and staff are currently doing this work and having these conversations already – we want to provide the background, resources, and tools, so that you can be prepared and confident while assisting students.
In this training, you will learn valuable helping skills and how best to make referrals to available resources. In addition, you will receive resources you can use to answer career and vocation related questions. We are also excited to hear from you how or what you are doing to assist our students with career readiness, vocation, and professionalism. This program and training is open to any Gustavus faculty or staff member. Contact Jill VanOsdol ’10 for more information at jvanosdo@gustavus.edu.
Have a career specialist speak during your class sessions on a variety of career topics. We will customize our sessions to focus on the needs of your department and students. Fill out this form to request a presentation .
From attendance at career events and fairs, to interview preparation, professional documents, career exploration or networking activities – you can tailor career assignments that fit your needs and ask Career to help provide proof of completion. You could also give students the opportunity to gain industry experience by completing short real world online projects by embedding Forage into your curriculum. See more information here or connect with Jill at jvanosdo@gustavus.edu to learn more about implementing any of the ideas below or ones that you have.
Here are some examples of conversation starters and our recommended questions for career conversations/check ins for each class year:
- First Year: Have you created your profile on Handshake? Have you met with a career specialist?
- Sophomore: Do you have a résumé? How are you planning to get career related experiences?
- Junior: Who are your career mentors? What are your post-Gustavus plans?
- Senior: What help do you need in transitioning from Gustavus? Have you built a professional network?
Use the Starfish flag, email career@gustavus.edu or call 507-933-7575 to refer students to career. Email students or include in your course syllabus.
- Self-assessments: Including the Strong Interest Inventory for students undecided about majors or specific careers.
- Our Peer Career Advisors for students needing assistance on résumés and cover letters.
- Industry specific groups and individuals to follow on social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) for career knowledge and exploration.
- Candid Career which has videos of hundreds of informational interviews and internship/job search strategies.
- Student groups on campus related to major/career field.
- Center for Career Development website
- Handshake for knowing upcoming career events and job and internship opportunities for Gusties.
Encourage Alumni and Student Connections!
- Let us know if you are looking for a guest speaker and we can help tap our alumni network.
- If you invite alumni into your classroom please let us know!
