Connect with the Career Center
As a faculty or staff member, you have daily interactions with students. Students will look to you for advice related to their future careers. Through these conversations there will be many opportunities to move students forward in their career development. The resources below are excellent ways to help your students to begin engaging with their future careers.
Digital Resource Library
A centralized collection of interactive presentations and resources on a variety of career-related topics for faculty to use in their classrooms.
Connecting Students to Career
From day one, students can start building their professional network and exploring career paths. We offer a wealth of resources, events, and personalized support to help students succeed. Let’s work together to empower your students to reach their full potential.
Career Center Newsletter
Sign up for our newsletter, the Career Center Monthly.
Digital Resource Library for Faculty
A centralized collection of interactive presentations and resources on a variety of career-related topics for faculty to use in their classrooms.
Connecting Students to Career
From day one, students can start building their professional network and exploring career paths. We offer a wealth of resources, events, and personalized support to help students succeed. Let’s work together to empower your students to reach their full potential.
Connect Early, Connect Often
Students should be utilizing the resources of the Career Center as early as their first year. All students have a career advisor assigned specifically to their major (as well as advisors for undeclared students). We encourage students to touch base at least once a year with their career advisor in addition to attending events and workshops. These meetings are used for creating short- and long-term plans for the future.
People Hire People
Students should avoid relying solely on online job applications. Building relationships with employers is key to job success. Connect with employers through career fairs, industry-specific events, LinkedIn, and hands-on experiences like job shadows and informational interviews.
Handshake
Currently, there are thousands of active internship, part-time, and full-time positions posted in Handshake. Please encourage students to log in to their Handshake account and regularly check it for new opportunities—hundreds per week—and upcoming career events on campus and in the community.
Passive Programming
Incorporating career language into your classroom will help students better understand and think about career possibilities. Using visual displays featuring alumni, employers, career paths, etc., provide students with real-world application to what they are learning in the classroom. Sharing our "Work Like a Laker" podcast with your students is another tool we encourage you to use.
Employer and Alumni Involvement
Bringing employers or alumni into the classroom can help students see how what they are learning in your class translates into a professional setting. Employers/alumni can also make great sources for research papers or projects and provide real-world case study examples. Because we work with employers on a daily basis, we’d be happy to help you find someone who would be a great fit for your class.
Major-Specific Career Events/Opportunities
Throughout the academic year, the Career Center hosts numerous events and programs for students within each of our career communities. Previous events include panel presentations, field fairs, and workshops. We welcome you to bring your class, place these events on your syllabus, or even participate in the planning and marketing of these programs.
Promote Experiential Learning
Experiential learning is helpful - not only for employability, but for entrance into many graduate programs as well. An experiential learning opportunity, such as an internship, allows students to connect what they are learning in their classes to a professional setting and helps students identify if a specific career path is a good fit. Please refer to our faculty internship webpage for more details.
Employer Outreach
If you have employers you’d like to see recruiting your students, please let us know! While we have a strong relationship with numerous employers, we are always looking to expand opportunities for GVSU students. We’d welcome the opportunity to partner with you in bringing specific organizations to GVSU.