Career Center News

Despite ongoing uncertainty with COVID, employment continues to trend upward approaching levels that were seen prior to the pandemic. According to the Job Outlook 2022 report, employers plan to hire 26.6 percent more new graduates from the class of 2022 than last year’s class. The outlook is good and employers are committed to hiring, especially related to technology and remote work opportunities.

Early in graduates’ careers, it is important to find professional opportunities that not only support them from a financial perspective, but that also support them from professional development and personal growth perspectives, too.

Over 260 Carleton students embarked on an externship this winter break. This is the largest number of students to participate in the Externship Program in the fourteen years since the program began. Externs have opportunities to engage in-person, remotely, or in a hybrid format this year. If your student did an externship, you’re probably curious about what they have been up to in their externship. Ask what they learned about themselves, the world of work, and the new connections they made during their experience!

Internships are a fantastic way for Carls to get real-world experience in a field of interest, fine-tune career goals, develop new skills, and build professional networks. They typically run 6-12 weeks long and provide a high level of structure and mentorship that both deepens a college student’s understanding of the world of work and enhances their hireability within a short period of time. Often touted by employers as the top feature that they use to evaluate prospective employees, internships also expand the options students have to choose from upon graduation.

Carleton’s Career Center is continuing to evolve its programs and services to meet the increasingly diverse needs of Carls. In addition to opening doors to opportunity for signature experiences like externships, 30 Minutes, Scholars trips, and internships we are also focusing attention on how students from different backgrounds may become involved with the Center.

On October 15, the Carleton community will be celebrating many rich and diverse summer experiences of our students at the 2021 Research and Internship Symposium. Nearly 200 Carleton students will be presenting their work. We are also offering a virtual poster session for family and friends featuring select students who are not attending the event in person.

As Carls begin classes again this week, I can’t help but reflect on where we’ve been over the last 18 months and how that has shaped our expectations for resuming in-person learning on campus. What we know is that our team of professionals and students in the Career Center are excited to welcome and work with all Carls as they create their stories for life beyond college.

After a successful round of recruiting parents, alumni, and friends of Carleton to host externs as part of the Externship Program, the Career Center is pleased to announce we have secured over 250 externship opportunities!

The Career Center’s Externship Program will be in-person or remote for students in December 2021. Externships are one- to three-week project-based career exploration experiences designed exclusively for Carls during winter break.

As our students are moving out of the residence halls this week, I am reminded of the episode of “Friends” where Ross was moving into his new apartment in New York City. Ross, Rachel, and Chandler were struggling to get his couch up the stairwell of the building. As they reached the first turn of the stairs, Ross kept saying “Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!” to get the couch in the right angle to move onto the first landing. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful and ended up dropping the couch back to the ground floor.

As your student moves out of Carleton’s residence halls for the first time or the last time, we hope that they have found healthy ways to pivot this academic year without getting stuck in place or having to start from the beginning. (And, even if they haven’t, we are happy to meet them where they are and help them to climb those stairs.)