Thursday, December 22, 2011

Professionally Developing over Winter Break

Campus is fairly empty around this time of year as many students have traveled away from campus to celebrate the holidays, or simply enjoy almost an entire month off from school. I do though advise you, do not utilize your entire break sleeping and catching up on your favorite TV dramas.

Winter break can be an amazing time to job shadow a professional in your career field of interest. Especially for those of you looking to relocate back home (outside of Wisconsin) after you've completed your degree. Job shadowing is beneficial to those exploring various career paths, those exploring specializations within a career field, those interested in a particular company/corporation, as well as those simply looking to make an inside connection with a specific company. The benefits of a job shadowing experience are invaluable - getting an inside glimpse into a company/profession, networking with professionals, getting your name out there (self-branding), receiving professional development advice, and maybe even feedback on your resume.

Making the request of a job shadowing opportunity may feel odd to some but fairly natural to others. For those who aren't comfortable reaching out to professionals they've never meet before, there's a softer approach - ALUMNI. Finding an MU alumni in your career field of interest could be as easy as browsing through the LinkedIn Marquette University Alumni Association (MUAA) group. The majority of MU alumni greatly enjoy connecting with current MU students and other alumni - if they didn't, they probably wouldn't have joined the group.

So take the plunge, set up a job shadowing experience over break!

Need additional assistance with this process, check out the Job Shadowing handout online (http://mu.edu/csc/undergraduate/documents/JobShadowing.pdf). And please do keep in mind that the MU CSC Career Counselors are still hard at work on your behalf during the winter break, so feel free to give us a call at (414) 288-7423 to set up an appointment over break or for next semester.

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