Career services for business students
Loyola Career Services offers many valuable career services for business students at any stage in their job search or career exploration.
Career Services staff Alastair Knowles and Edith Sanchez-Saenz recently sat down with us to share advice for students on maximizing career services. Below is a summary of the conversation, which highlights lesser-known resources and offers guidance for those feeling stuck in the job process.
What are the top tools offered to students?
- Handshake: Job platform that can help students connect with internships, jobs, and even recruiters.
- Career fairs: Gain direct access to employers at career fairs and build great networking experience. It’s a good idea to attend as many of those as you can.
- Career Services appointments: We offer more specific one-on-one help based on individual needs.
- Big Interview: Boost your confidence in interview situations by working through the interview process and mock.
- Career exploration services: We offer valuable resources, assessments, and one-on-one meetings to help students identify careers that make holistic sense for them, not just one facet of what an ideal career looks like such as salary.
- Negotiation skills: Salary is just one part of the offer; students should consider and become comfortable negotiating the entire offer, including things such as work modality and start date.
- Financial budgeting: We help students determine a budget for their lifestyle and identify the types of positions that would work best for them.
- Student organizations: Student organizations are invaluable for networking, learning, and career development.
- Mentorship programs: The right mentor can be instrumental in helping to navigate your career. Loyola Linked is a good way to find a mentor. Also, talk to your professors and any professional contacts.
How can students improve their resumes?
The easy answer is we have a very good online template that students can access easily by scheduling and making an appointment with us or through Handshake. There are many effective ways to write a resume; we provide one method that we know works. In the template, we offer explanations for why each part of the resume is formatted in the way that it is.
Most importantly, students need to feel ownership of their resume and be comfortable discussing it when they speak to employers.
How do you help students find internships?
We treat searching for an internship or job like learning a skill. We don’t funnel people into internships or jobs; we help students navigate how to get there. That is for their benefit, as when students are trying to find their first full-time job post-Loyola, they won’t be going through the process for the first time. We aid in that process while building great practices that students will take with them throughout their careers.
Career fairs, professional panels, and Career Tour dates are also great for students to find opportunities and set themselves up for success.
Advice for students feeling lost in job searches?
Please meet with us. Career Services is a resource that everyone should be leveraging while at Loyola. We are here to support you, and you might be surprised at the variety of resources we have to assist students at every step in their process.
Career Services believes in parallel practices, so we encourage students to not feel fixed in a certain place. If you are an international student, DACA, or come from different backgrounds, we are committed to a safe space here and exploring all opportunities. You aren’t necessarily your major unless you identify with that, and we provide resources to get students to where they want to be.
