Sky’s the Limit: How your Summer Experiences Can Help You Reach your Career Goals:

Sky’s the Limit: How your Summer Experiences Can Help You Reach your Career Goals:

We love seeing our Eagles back on campus for a wonderful fall semester. It was great knowing that so many of you had impactful summer experiences including, internships and co-operative education experiences, study abroad, and summer jobs. You are likely coming back to classes full of new experiences and some great memories. Those experiences and skills can help you in your academic ventures this term as well as in your future career. Start the semester by taking a closer look at what you did over the summer and how the skills and experiences you gained can help you to better market yourself for future opportunities. Think about what skills you will include on your resume to show employers that your summer experience is valuable to their company. This will help you to understand all that you learned so you can showcase these skills in your written documents and in an interview.

Below are ways to help you better explain and highlight your summer experiences:

• Internships/Co-ops: Whether you completed an internship/co-op for academic credit or did it for the experience, this is an excellent opportunity to build on your skills and better understand the industry. Start with listing all the skills that are directly related to your field of interest (refer to the job description) and highlight other important skills you may have practiced including working on a team, utilizing communication skills (written and verbal), improving on time management, and more. This experience also shows that you have been in a professional work environment and got a glimpse of what it takes to succeed in the field. You should also be more aware of your career and educational goals after completing this experience.
• Part-Time/Seasonal Work: For these roles, you usually will focus on showcasing less technical skills. Soft or transferrable skills are crucial to a professional environment and employers are seeking these skills.
• Volunteering: These are great experiences to have over the summer and can provide additional skills to your resume and cover letter. This shows that you can take initiative in helping others without a reward. You can determine the amount of information to provide based on the time spent volunteering. For example, if it was a one day or one week experience you may just list the experience on your resume; however, if you spend multiple weeks or months in this experience, you can list 1-3 bullet points to describe the skills you gained.
• Travel/Summer Abroad Programs: These experiences provide a chance for personal growth and can help you to gain skills. This shows that you are open to other cultures, people, traditions, and ways of life. It can open your mind to have a better understanding of others which serves as an asset in the workplace. Studying or traveling abroad also helps you to be flexible, creative, assertive, and a planner. Learning languages abroad can also help you to be more marketable to employers.

Whatever you did this summer, be proud of your accomplishments. If you had a relaxing summer spending time with family or friends, or you were taking classes, those are great ways to build skills and recharge before starting classes again. If you are looking to gain valuable experiences in the upcoming semesters, be sure to schedule an appointment with your Program Manager or Career Advisor. We can help you to identify internships/co-operative education experiences that can add to your knowledge and skills, help you to understand the skills you are lacking for your aspiring career goals, and help you to formulate your resume and cover letter for the internships and full-time jobs you are seeking.