Career Success Center
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Get 24/7 access to essential career and life design guidance, brilliant resources and real connections
Westside Campus Center Room 300
Drop-in hours: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Mon-Fri
Contact us at: (203) 837-8263 or careersuccess@wcsu.edu
Let's Get Connected!
Meet with the Career Success Center to get personalized career guidance!
Drop-ins: Monday – Friday, 10am to 5pm
Westside Campus Center, Room 300
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Use these steps for quick access to the most commonly accessed guidance and tools.
What would you like to work on today?
Assess professional interests & research industries
Build my professional skills, values & competencies
Manage my network, personal brand & LinkedIn
Get experience: Find jobs, internships & opportunities
Improve my resume, cover letter and portfolio
Prepare for interviews & salary/benefit negotiation
Level 1
Your journey begins with the basics. Discover more about you and potential vocations through tools and research. Great for Freshman, transfers, & anyone starting to design their future.
Level 2
Demystify the employment process and build on the basics: develop your brand, personal marketing documents (including resumes), and network. Learn the art of Designing Your Life!
Level 3
Immerse yourself into experiences and refine your thoughts on post-grad employment through internships and personal connections. Sophomores and beyond: take note!
Level 4
Activate opportunities and connections that lead to pre- and post-graduate employment or grad education; learn business protocol, and how to interview and self-advocate.
Discover possibilities, gain skills, and connect with pros in our unique hubs. Explore different communities to activate your future with targeted resources and jobs.
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You can do many things with your major and in several industries! After checking out the above communities, also use this link to learn more about what your major can do for you..
What can I do with my major?
"It is amazing how from day one I have had the opportunity to learn from the Career Success Center and their team as it is a great and valuable place for Westconn students, because they have many platforms and resources that help students in their career and professional growth.."
Melina De Osambela.
“The CSC Career Peer leaders are always there to help. In the office or out, there are a million different resources to keep us on the path to success!”
Daanish S.
"Although I came into college with minimal work experience, the abundance of resources and the eager-to-help staff at the CSC made me feel assured that my concerns would be heard and that I would be fully ready to enter the workforce by the time I graduate."
Satil M.
“I first went to the Career Success Center during my freshman year, and their helpfulness and knowledge helped me understand my future career goals much better. They supported me in all my new professional endeavors, and were always available to assist me when I had little questions.”
Bella D.
"The Career Success Center has been an invaluable resource for me… showing me the spectacular opportunities that I have in my “backyard”… thanks to the Career Success Center, I don’t have to turn my attention to Silicon Valley anymore!”
Timothy H.
“Run, don’t walk to use the services at the Career Success Center. All students, freshman through senior and beyond can benefit from the tools, skills, and friendly advice you need to jumpstart your career and graduate with confidence!”
Rocco M.
“The Career Success Center is the one-stop shop for any career questions and concerns. I highly recommend making an appointment.”
Ryan G.
"The WCSU Career Success Center has contributed tremendously to my professional growth. By introducing me to different platforms and resources to build on my skills, the Career Success Center has helped open a window of opportunities for me during my time in college and setting me up for when I graduate. If you're a WCSU student looking to learn how you, too, can start your professional journey, the Career Success Center is the way to go."
Baki I.
"The Career Success Center is the quintessential fixture on WCSU’s West Side Campus, which has offered, my peers as well as myself, opportunities to prepare skills and abilities towards entering into the work force as academic professionals who are employment ready. I would implore any WCSU students, whether a Freshman or a Senior, at their earliest opportunity to take advantage of the high-quality resources and materials, both in-person and online, that can make a difference towards securing a job or internship in today’s rapidly developing economy. Whether is help with a resume, interview, cover letter, etc., the Career Success Center is mobilized to assist at a moments notice."
Anthony F.
"I highly encourage every student at WCSU to take advantage of the completely free services offered by the Career Success Center, and to do so as early in their college experience as possible (yes, if you are a freshman too!). Assistance in professional skill-building, determining or navigating a career path, job/internship searching, resume and cover letter writing, interview preparation, online portfolio-building/personal branding, and networking are among the many services that this center offers."
James C.
"The Career Success Center's Designing Your Life classes and advice are incredible, informative, and showed me that I have the power to achieve what my mind can dream up...And I dreamed big! As a baseball player with interests in tech fields, I used Handshake to make that connection and ended up getting great experience with the Danbury Westerners. This helped me apply my education to the real-world, which then led me to finding/getting a job working IT with MLB! We're all so unique and have so much awesomeness to give-don't be afraid to learn how to bring it out. Use the Career Success Center to help connect you with people, opportunities and resources to make it happen! "
Jonathan F.
"Appreciation from gratitude is necessary for us to keep up the spirit of why we do what we do. The Career Success Center's hard work is truly acknowledged! Thanks for making my student life so tremendously special. This is a huge boost to my transition into a different world, work force.""
Jacob D.
"The Career Success Center gave me the confidence boost I've always needed. I have learned how to productively apply and interview for jobs, as well as utilizing handshake and LinkedIn. I am proud to show off my resume and feel excited and ready to take on this new journey in my life. My only regret is not coming to the CSC earlier."
Britney R.
"The Career Success Center helped prepare me for the workforce by giving me the opportunity to network both online and in person. They have a lot of tools for students to utilize to make professional connections. I would recommend taking the Life Design classes and seminars as they help a lot with choosing possible career paths. I would also recommend taking The Employment Process course as it helped me create my LinkedIn profile and write resumes and cover letters. After the class I was ready and prepared to go on interviews for my job. Working at the Career Success Center was one of the best experiences as it helped me grow as an individual in a supportive environment."
Hannah H.
"The Career Success Center is where the real value of WCSU is to me. With their help, I was able to develop and showcase skills that gave me a massive leg up on my competition. Thanks to them I got a great internship in my field at one of my dream employers before my senior year.”
Patrick F.
“I am so grateful to have been able to take a Career Education Class at WCSU! I took CED-130 and was immediately able to apply the skills I learned into pursuit of my dream job-I aced the interview and was immediately accepted into my professional semester, a requirement to be enrolled into the major for education. This should be a mandatory course for all WCSU students to build professionalism, character, and confidence just as it has done for me in such a short amount of time.”
Tiffany I.
"Using the guidance and myriad of resources from the Career Success Center was by far one of the greatest decisions I made for myself during undergrad. I learned critical professional skills (professional connections and research, resume building, interviewing, personal branding) that played a MAJOR part in my success post-grad. Helpful software like Big Interview and Candid Career well-equipped me to navigate the inevitable interview. Representing yourself well isn’t always easy, but the Career Peer Leaders in the office are ready and willing to offer a helping hand and ensure that your professional materials are polished and exemplary before they go out the door. The entire staff are friendly, inviting, and genuinely want you to succeed in all of your endeavors and that shines through the work they do. Thanks for everything!"
Paul H.
"The road that took me to where I am today was paved through the internships, part time jobs, and now full time jobs which showed me what I did and in particular didn't want to do for my career. Discovering what I wanted to do was only made possible when I put myself out there and took the first step to invest in myself back when I was in college, so that I could reap the benefits now having graduated today. That's why the office of the Career Success Center is so imperative, and why you should get in as soon as you can!"
Victor N.
"Through opportunities inside and outside the classroom, WCSU has helped me develop life skills for success in my next chapter in life. If you are serious about being successful in a career you love, students should use the Career Success Center because attending classes is just not enough to set you apart."
Victor R.
"The Career Center is the best place to individualize yourself from the rest of the competition. They provide every student need you can think of and more! My own experience with the career center has been nothing short of amazing. The wonderful staff has prepped my student portfolio by helping me on my resume, taking profile pictures for LinkedIn, writing my cover letter, showing how to filter key words with job descriptions and last but not least providing donated attire so I can look fresh during interviews and meetings. "
David V.
"As a new student, there are so many tools at your disposal that it can be dizzying to try and get a handle on them all. For my own efforts in making headway — going to the Career Center, meeting with the dedicated staff and fellow students, and learning to utilize the robust systems available to me was an invaluable experience. I left with greater clarity and better direction on how best to move forward. Keeping in contact with the Career Center alerted me to so many opportunities I could have easily missed by just not knowing they were there in the first place: Resources for growing my skills, outreach events and contacts to form personal connections, and inroads into the business spheres I someday want to excel in. The Career Center is a lodestone for success, and I’d recommend all students regardless of status walk in and avail themselves of the kind, enthusiastic team and many professional benefits you’ll find there."
Glenn U.
"I’m so fortunate to have attended a few career panels and in-class events and received wonderful insight on kick starting my career and developing life skills. All of this no doubt attributed to me finding a job right out of college!"
Yor M.
"I love the career center!! It’s wonderful that there are so many resources available for the students and alumni at WCSU. Please check out their website and schedule an appointment for virtual or in person assistance! They’ve helped me a lot and even got me started on LinkedIn."
Lindsey R.
"If you're a student at WCSU, the Career Success Center is an extremely valuable resource. It is a great place to get help with building resumes, looking for jobs, and so much more. Thanks to the people in the Career Success Center, I feel confident in my ability to find a job after graduation."
Liana R.
Welcome to the WCSU
Your virtual experience & resource portal
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(203) 837-8263 careersuccess@wcsu.edu
Drop-ins: Monday – Friday, 10am to 5pm Westside Campus Center, Room 300
Real Opportunities, Top Advice
These WCSU Career Communities are unique information hubs to help you explore possibilities, find experiential opportunities, gain career-ready skills, enable professional connections and activate your future through targeted resources and job opportunities. Consider exploring several communities to discover more about you and gain insights into emerging and exciting industry trends.
See our comprehensive guide to your career!
Learn more
Discover the experience of Life Design and prepare for your future!
Learn more about Life Design
Entrepreneurship: Designing my own business
Click here to learn how to become an entrepreneur
DISCLAIMER:
The WCSU Career Success Center provides this listing for informational purposes only and does not endorse any particular site.
We advise caution when using Flex/Gig sites, especially those that require payment in exchange for work opportunities. However, please note that some skill-building platforms included in this list may charge a modest one-time or monthly fee. There is no guarantee, implied or otherwise, of employment or skill development as a result of visiting or using any of the listed sites.
↓ Choose the role that fits you below↓
The Career Center is available for drop-ins from 10am – 5pm Mondays through Fridays, but our online resources and tools are available 24/7.
Our online resources cover comprehensive guides and advice for resumes, cover letters, interviews, finding jobs & internships, building professional competencies, and creating a network.
Start your career journey by clicking on one of the six buttons below!
Students work very hard at completing their work and are generally proud of their accomplishments. Setting up a venue for them to do presentations (formal presentations or in a fair-type setting such as an expo) not only allows them to demonstrate their achievements, but also showcases the internship program to all employees.
Conducting focus groups and feedback surveys with these representatives of your target group is a great way to see your organization as the students see it. Focus groups in particular can yield information about what your competitors are doing that students find appealing.
Providing students with access to in-house training—both in work-skills-related areas, such as a computer language, and in general skills areas, such as time management—is a tangible way to show students you are interested in their development.
You may also want to consider providing interns with information about nearby community colleges: Many students will be interested in attending during their work term to take care of some electives and/or get a little ahead with the hours they need to graduate. If you have the budget, you may also want to consider paying the tuition for courses they take while working for you, but, as is the case with housing, any assistance you can provide—even if it’s just providing them with information about local schools—will earn you points with students.
One of the greatest advantages to students in having internships is the access they get to accomplished professionals in their field. Consequently, speakers from the executive ranks are very popular with students—it’s a great career development and role modeling experience for interns. Having a CEO speak is especially impressive. Best scenario: Your CEO speaker is personable, willing to answer questions, and willing and able to spend a little informal time with the students after speaking—your interns will be quite impressed.
For you, having your executives speak to interns is another way to “sell” your organization to the interns, and get your executives invested in (and supporting) your program.
New-hire panels are one of the best ways to showcase an organization to interns as a great place to work. These are panels of five or six people who were hired as new grads within the last three years. They act as panelists in a meeting of interns, giving a brief summary of their background and then answering questions from the intern audience. Your interns get insight about your organization from your new hires—people who they perceive are like themselves and who they consequently view as credible sources of information.
In these meetings, I’ve found that the interns consistently bring up the same topics: Why did you choose this employer over others? What was your first year like? How is being a full-time employee here different from being an intern? Do you recommend getting a graduate degree? In the same field, or an M.B.A.? Is it better to go straight to graduate school after the bachelor’s or better to work a while?
It’s also fairly consistent that the new hires will offer other types of advice to your interns, such as how to handle finances those first couple of years out of school. (Their typical advice: Don’t run right out and buy a new car, and, Start contributing the maximum to your savings plan as soon as you are allowed.)
College relations staff should attend these sessions, but should remain unobtrusive, staying in the back of the room so as not to stifle the conversation. By being there, you stay aware of what is on the minds of your target group, and you can answer any detailed questions that may come up, such as those related to benefits.
Although some programs—especially those that are very structured on the university side—make visits by career center staff and faculty a regular practice, most do not. In general, career center staff and faculty members have relatively few opportunities to visit employer work sites to see firsthand the types of experiences that their students are getting. By inviting them to your site, you will build a better working relationship with these groups, which can lead to more student referrals, enhanced campus visibility, and increased flexibility on their parts when your business needs dictate it.
Having a dedicated manager for your intern program is the best way to ensure that it runs smoothly and stays focused on your criteria for success. Unfortunately, the size and resources available to most internship programs mean that this isn’t always possible. If your program isn’t big enough to warrant a dedicated full-time staff member, an excellent short-term solution is to hire a graduate student (look for a student working toward an advanced HR degree) to be your intern, and put this college relations intern in charge of the daily operation of the internship program. This gives the interns a “go-to” person, and gives you and your staff a break from the many daily tasks involved in running a program of any size. For this to work, you have to plan the program structure in advance (don’t expect your intern to do it), and be very accessible to your college relations intern
Students mention flex-time as one of their most-desired features in a job. (A flexible time schedule during their internship eases their transition to the workplace.)
If you think about how students spend the day on campus (varied schedule each day, with varied activities such as work, class, social time), you can understand that 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday is a bit of an adjustment for them. A flexible schedule can make them feel less chained in by an unchanging routine.
Other work arrangements that have been found successful with students include keeping them on as part-time, remote employees after they go back to school (depending on the type of work they do for you and whether they have a willing manager), and having them come back and work over school breaks for a couple of weeks. These are excellent ways to keep communications open and build a stronger bond.
Pairing a scholarship with your internship is a great way to recruit for your internship program—and this is especially true if you are having difficulty attracting a particular type of student or student with a specific skill set to your program. Attaching a scholarship can increase your pool of candidates with the desired qualifications.
Few employers can afford to provide fully paid housing for interns, but you’ll find that you get a lot of appreciation if you offer any kind of assistance toward housing expenses. If that’s not possible, provide assistance in locating affordable housing: For those relocating to the job site, the prospect of finding affordable, short-term housing can be daunting. Easy availability of affordable housing will make your opportunity more attractive to students, broadening your pool of candidates.
If you can pay for all or some of your interns’ housing, be sure to design (and stick to) a clear policy detailing who is eligible. This will eliminate any perceptions of unequal treatment. In addition, be aware that employer-paid or employer-subsidized housing is considered a taxable benefit. Check with your internal tax department on exceptions to this.
You will also want to consider the issue of relocation, which is separate although related to housing. Many organizations pay some or all of their interns’ relocation expenses to and/or from the job site.
Whether in paper booklet format, or presented as a special section on your website, a handbook serves as a guide for students, answering frequently asked questions and communicating the “rules” in a warm and welcoming way.
A separate intern website serves many of the purposes of the handbook, but has the advantage of being easy to change. You can use your website as a communication tool, with announcements from the college relations staff or even articles of interest written by the interns themselves.
It’s important that everyone “be on the same page,” so to speak. Make this happen by holding an orientation session for managers and mentors as well as a session for students. Orientations ensure that everyone starts with the same expectations and role definitions. This is time well spent—the effort you put into these sessions will pay off throughout the program.
Providing interns with real work is number one to ensuring your program’s success. Interns should be doing work related to their major, that is challenging, that is recognized by the organization as valuable, and that fills the entire work term.
You can guarantee that hiring managers provide real work assignments by checking job descriptions, emphasizing the importance of real work assignments during a manager/mentor orientation sessions, and communicating with interns frequently throughout the work term to determine who they perceive what they are doing.
Share with us how the Career Success Center has helped you on your career path at careersuccess@wcsu.edu or in person in our office.
- Change your thought process
- Force yourself to take risks
- Encourage others to be open minded
- Embrace learning
Keep moving forwarding and just do stuff. Turn your ideas into action. The Career Success Center has lots of custom ideas for you.
You live, eat, work, study with others, so they all are a part of your life. They have lots of ideas, experience, and contacts, and should be a part of your life design
Life and the career process is not just one or two things-it is a process.
Turn bumps in the road into learning opportunities.
Ask lots of questions, research your options, be active in class, follow interesting organizations and people
Learn different ways to look at things to get unstuck
Get into some real work, try stuff, reflect on what works for you and refine your next steps to designing a better life
Narrow your testing options, build some ideas, select some ideas, and plan the quick/cheap/easy prototype
Ask a lot of questions
Create some future Life Sketches; do real brainstorming and think up lots and lots and lots of ideas
More = Better
Consider your views on the world
Reflect on what work is and what it means to you
What dysfunctional thoughts can be reframed?
What's the life challenge/opportunity we want to solve and/or learn more about?
Don't try to change what can't be changed...you can REFRAME!
(HINT, you have to work with, not change, gravity)
Take some personal assessments
Evaluate your current work/play/love/health
Open up meaningful discussions with your family and friends
