Starting Nov. 1, first-year students will be able to make one-on-one appointments with the Career Center, so students may be wondering, “What does the Career Center have to offer?”
The Duke Career Center helps students prepare for their future careers through consultations, training programs, and career discovery events. This service is available to undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students and graduates for one year after graduation.
“We’re trying to promote career readiness for our students,” said Rachel Coleman, director of career development and education. “It’s about developing the skills and knowledge to feel prepared and competitive in an increasingly dynamic workforce, and finding opportunities that truly align with your values and goals. It’s about being found.”
One of the primary ways students can utilize the Career Center is through advising. Drop-in advice is available to all students for answers to quick questions and advice on application materials.
Handshake allows you to schedule one-on-one appointments used to explore students’ strengths and interests, career search plans, and interview preparation.
Coleman explained that while first-year students have access to all other resources in the Career Center, the “pause” of one-on-one meetings for first-year students was intentional.
“We want to give students time to get used to Duke University, focus on learning about Duke University, and build their own community – social support (and) their own health. “I’m thinking about it,” she said.
The Career Center will host a kickoff event for first-year students on October 31st in the Gilbert Admes Residence Hall to allow students to discover career communities and career opportunities.
Beyond scheduling appointments, students can also use Handshake to explore internship and job opportunities and a variety of career preparation events. Events hosted by the Career Center can also be viewed by students on the Career Hub.
The Career Center focuses on the career development process where students reflect on their current progress in developing career-related skills.
“The basis of the process for most students is to strengthen or clarify their self-awareness,” Coleman says. “What are their values, interests, and skills?”
He also emphasized the importance of preparatory skills as some students prepare for careers that “don’t exist yet,” such as fields affected by emerging technologies and AI.
However, Coleman added that students should not feel pressured to already have a plan or idea of how to proceed when taking advantage of Career Center resources.
Besides advising sessions, another way students can develop self-awareness about career readiness skills is FOCUS2Career, an online system with self-assessment and planning tools.
“FOCUS2, like the Strengths Profiler, is one of the things I use a lot when students are in the discovery and exploration stage,” she said. “[The Strengths Profiler]is a tool that helps students identify their perceived strengths, unrealized strengths, learned behaviors, and even areas that may be more difficult for them.”
Coleman said the career center strives to personalize its services to each individual student because different strengths, interests, and experiences necessarily mean that all students have a variety of career paths. he added.
One way the Career Center pursues this goal is through a career community model that allows students to tailor resources to their interests.
The Career Center offers additional tools such as Big Interview, an interview practice platform, Jobscan, a resume writing and analysis platform, and Interstride, a platform that helps international students find opportunities in more than 160 countries. I am.
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Winston Cheng | Health/Science Editor
Winston Qian is a sophomore at Pratt University and the Health/Science Editor in the News Department.
