Center for Career and Professional Development: "We're Here for You"

I have a T-shirt buried deep within my dresser drawer that reads “I am here.” This shirt was passed out during my first year orientation, before I became accustomed to life at K. Now come exam week every quarter I challenge this T-shirt slogan with the all too potent question, “WHY?!” I think it does us some good to answer that truthfully now and then to refocus our efforts. Why are we here?

Well of course one of the missions of a liberal arts education is to promote personal growth. All those people you’re meeting, all those classes you’re taking, all the facts and theories and reflection, they’re all contributing to a new and improved you. The hope is that during the course of your education you will be changed for the better. And that’s great!

But then there’s that other thing you sometimes hear seniors mumble about. That whole issue of a liberal arts education preparing you for life after college. That’s when you start hearing the C and J words: careers and jobs. This is a second mission of the liberal arts—professional development.

Now the student reader begins to protest. After all, I am about to ask something of you, and yes, on top of your classes, and activities, and social life. But hear me out before you move on to the next thing in your busy life. What I am asking you to do is spend twenty minutes every week on professional development. It could be five minutes over four days or sacrificing a whopping twenty minutes on a Sunday afternoon.

Think about it like this. I’d like to draw your attention to a book (available in the CCPD) called “Can I Wear My Nose Ring to the Interview?” In this awesomely-titled book, Ellen Gordon Reeves lays out her advice for college students on, “Finding, landing, and keeping your first real job”. So how does she do this?

Reeves begins her book by creating the concept of “Job, Inc.” This nifty little idea models the process of job searching into a career in itself. Reeves writes, “Think of yourself as a self-employed consultant, a one-person marketing and PR firm with a single thing to sell: YOU. You work for yourself now.” This is a really important idea.

The process of professional development doesn't happen instantly. Rather it consists of your unique assessment of your career and life goals, plus the acquisition of a multitude of skills, all of which must be developed in their own right. They must be practiced and honed, and if they aren't, then the job-hunting process will be needlessly difficult. So spend those twenty minutes every week working for Job, Inc. Start or polish a résumé. Go to a mock interview. Bank those minutes up for a couple of weeks and attend a forty minute lecture on job searching or LinkedIn.

Yes, you are here to enjoy college life, but you're also here to become a person who can thrive in a professional environment. We at the Center for Career and Professional Development are here to help you.