Hokie Parent submission
Career Services
Fall 2000 issue
A career planning and job search timeline for college students:
Parents: Pass this advice on to your college student. We know they listen to you, even
if you think they don’t!
Freshman year:
 Join a club related to your major and meet upper-class students. They are great
sources of advice about internships and other career-related experience that they’ve
had. Ask the seniors about the jobs they’re applying for.
 If you’re not in a major, research careers while you’re researching majors. There are
many careers you can pursue from any one major, and there are people from a
variety of majors in any one career. Career Services has books about majors and
careers. Exercise your right and opportunity to gather information.
Sophomore year:
 Start in fall to search for a summer job or internship related to the career field that
interests you. You won’t be certain you like a line of work until you try it.
 Do a realistic assessment of your skills, interests, values and personality type.
Career Services can help you with this – through individual appointments,
workshops or our 3-credit hour class, Exploring Careers.
 Get decent grades. Senior year is too late to raise your GPA. Regardless of how
good the job market is, competitive employers want to hire the brightest people, and
GPA is an easy measure of this.
 Develop interpersonal, teamwork and communication skills. Without these, even a
4.0 GPA won’t get you far.
Junior year:
 Hold a leadership position in a student organization, if you haven’t already.
 Get to know faculty who can serve as references for you.
 If you’re considering graduate school, research programs and requirements now and
get ready. Deadlines can be early in your senior year. Arrange to do undergraduate
research.
 Get more experience related to your career field.
 Update your resume – trim out most high school activities.
Senior year:
 Be able to articulately describe the kind of work or graduate school study you want to
pursue.
 Have an interview outfit that looks professional – not trendy – and fits you properly.
 Know proper dining etiquette and business social etiquette. Interviews often involve
scrutiny of your conduct and manners during a meal.
 Your job search success depends on your initiative – no one will do the work for you.
 Have a positive attitude and style of interacting with others. Nothing will overcome a
poor attitude or lack of interpersonal skills.
Author: Catherine Copeland
Career Services
www.career.vt.edu
(540) 231-6241
Copyright: Career Services at Virginia Tech