During the spring of my junior year, I embarked on a long and arduous foray for a summer internship. Like most A&S students anxiously looking to put my liberal arts skills to use in the real world, I was quickly frustrated with the seeming lack of opportunities for internships outside of the financial sector. Sure enough, I became overwhelmed by the internship fairs that offered a choice between investment banking and accounting.
As I was nearing the end of my rope and wondering if I would end up a jobless college graduate, I was struck with a novel idea - why not give the Career Center a chance?
Similar to many of my A&S colleagues, I had assumed that the Career Center is entirely devoted to serving CSOM students and that I would be laughed out of the building when I mentioned that I wanted to find an internship outside of the private sector. On the contrary, I was relieved and excited to learn about the many opportunities available to liberal arts majors like myself to pursue careers in the public and nonprofit sector.
The Career Center staff, who are available for drop-in hours Monday through Friday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday and Wednesday 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., were very helpful in introducing me to the many resources available for finding jobs and internships. Search engines like UCANN, Eagle Link, and Idealist.org are useful to get a start. These sites allow you to specify your field of interest and geographic priorities.
Additionally, they have a listing of professional work fellowships, especially tailored to graduating seniors seeking to delay making major life decisions, and a page that outlines career fields based on your field of academic study. In short, the best way to find out about these opportunities is to make an appointment or go during drop-in hours to the Career Center.
The alumni career advising network is another significant opportunity that few Boston College students seem to utilize. If you log onto Agora and go to career services, you will find the option to search a career adviser network, which is essentially a listing of BC alumni in varying fields and locations that are willing to give BC students career advice. Depending on what career track and where you would like to be, you have the ability to focus your search and find those BC alumni who can be of assistance.
For example, while interning in Washington, D.C., this summer, I was reminded of the career advising network, and after sending out an e-mail to virtually every alumnus in Washington, I heard back from more than a few who were willing to meet with me. For a few reasons, these meetings were always a worthwhile.
First, you have the opportunity to meet someone working in your field who can give you advice on how to pursue your career. Second, the world runs on networking, and often enough, it is not what you know, but who you know that gets your foot in the door. Each contact that you make has the potential to give you a break later on down the road that could help you to get a job. Third, usually the alumni are fun and interesting people, and the meeting will likely be enjoyable regardless of if they have any good advice or connections. Finally, more often than not, you will get a free meal out of it. God knows what a free meal means to a college student.
The Career Center is attempting to break some of the stereotypes as well by reaching out to liberal arts students. The marketing for the Career Center tent event in the Dustbowl on Friday was an example of this effort.
One flier read, "Myth: The Career Center is only for students interested in business. Myth Buster: Communications Night, Science Night, Arts Night just for starters. Find out about the many ways in which the Career Center can help you." Be sure not to miss these opportunities because it's a dangerous world out there and we could all use a little BC career support.
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