Come so far, got so far to go

by Rachel

So it's my first blog post, yay! As my second full month as a CCI here at the CPDC (we love our acronyms!) draws to a close, I've been reflecting back on how far I've come.  Today, at the suggestion of one of the career consultants, I made a spread sheet to keep track of how many appointments and what type of appointments I've had so far.  I've only been seeing students on my own for two weeks, but I've already had 9 students! Then I counted up the resumes I reviewed before the Fall EOC, and realized I had reviewed 17 in the month of September.  It seems with every appointment something comes up that I'm not entirely sure of the answer, but I'm starting to realize that this isn't a job that I could learn from a book or from power points; at a certain point you have to jump right in and learn baptism by fire style.  Looking at these numbers, I realize that while I still may have a lot to learn, what I have learned is starting to weigh heavier on the scales.

While I'm helping to guide students on their way to having successful careers, I'm also realizing this internship is helping me develop my own career.  An area I've always struggled is asking for help when I've needed to. I'm learning, especially in the career field, that there's always someone that can help you come up with another resource and a different angle to look at a student's issue from.  Even with everyday tasks, I have umpteen great resources right outside my door to help me expand my knowledge.  Even if career services isn't the direction that I ultimately go in student affairs, the skills I'm developing in this office will help me wherever I go.

We're Baaack!

by Christin

The summer is over…aaand so is September (WHAT?!)…and the Career Counseling Interns have returned to the CPDC!  September is a crazy month in our office, which explains the delay in posting.  I wasn’t here last September, so the madness this year was all new to me. 

Two weeks ago, we had a week full of job fairs.  Literally, 4 fairs in 4 days.  Not to mention the weeks of preparation that led up to the madness we christened “Career Week”.  As you can imagine, this meant chaos (good chaos, but chaos none the less) for both our staff as well as the student body.  Now that things have started to calm down a bit, I’ve had a chance to reflect on my summer and what the coming year will hold.

This summer, I had a completely different internship experience-I interned in Recruitment for a different university in the Pittsburgh area.  I was really excited for this opportunity as I wanted to do something outside of career services, and see if it was a good fit for me.  I truly cannot speak more highly of my experience.  I learned an insane amount in a short period of time, and was given responsibilities an intern would typically never have.  I really had to step up to the plate, and looking back, I am really proud of everything I accomplished.  I also saw a lot of similarities between the student Recruitment process and one’s Career Development.  Rather than being about the numbers, it was about helping students to find their “fit”.  I can definitely see myself working in Recruitment/Admissions when I graduate, and I’m excited that I now have the skill set and experience to make that possible.   

After my experience this summer, and coming back to CMU and diving right in, I feel like I am finally coming into my own in the field of Student Affairs.  Every day, I get better at and more comfortable with what I do.  I want to excel, and I feel like I’m finally at a place where I can focus on continually improving in order to better serve our students.

I’m excited for this year-We have a new batch of great CCI’s, I am working with a new College (Tepper!), I have a number of goals I want to accomplish, and I have a better understanding of where I want to be, personally and professionally, in 7 months. 

I GRADUATE in 7 months.  Well, technically, 6 ½ months.

There’s a lot that needs to happen in that amount of time, and a lot of decisions that need to be made.  I’m insanely nervous about where I’ll be (I’m a J!  I need a plan!), but I’m also really excited to see what ends up happening.