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“Change is the only constant in life. One's ability to adapt to those changes will determine your success in life.”
Benjamin Franklin
Adaptability is having the capacity to adjust to shifting environments, situations and work requirements. These adjustments ideally should leave a net positive affect in the workplace and reflect a desire for lifelong learning.
Check out our Skill Up page for some recommendations on online platforms you can use right now, at home, to develop your adaptability skills. Many offer free trials or free access to a large selection of different courses.
Internships provide great experiences to develop a vast and varied skill set to fit many professional situations. The WCSU Cooperative Education Internship Program can also be used to obtain college credits for an approved internship. Check out our Internship page for more details.
The Career Success Center's Life Design workshops and classes will teach you how to develop critical life and career skills including reframing of problems, collaboration, navigating unknowns, maximizing personal strengths, and much more.
The National Workforce Development Center has a free, mini-course titled Resiliency and Adaptive leadership which will give you insight into how to adapt under stress and avoid missteps when under stressful conditions.
The opens in a new windowGreater Danbury Chamber of Commerce hosts many events and a large directory of member organizations across many industries. Many of these events and organizations can help you develop essential skills to become more adaptable while also building professional experience.
Assume a role in one of the many great WCSU opens in a new windowStudent Clubs. Enjoy practicing your subject of choice in one or more of the University's many organizations while you also practice an array of new skills which will make you a more adaptable individual.
Become Involved With A Local Community Board Or Club
Getting involved in a local community group is a great way to develop a variety of new skills while also having an impact on your area. Most groups are focused on specific issues or topics in the community so the opportunities to take part and even lead one of their initiatives are numerous.
If you are interested in getting involved in one in the Danbury area checkout the Greater Danbury Chamber Directory and the Cultural Centers of Danbury
For any area of your choice, you can also check out The Yellow Pages and Great Nonprofits for exclusively nonprofit organizations
Volunteering also creates many opportunities to practice skills that will make you more adaptable. You can even make a difference in other people's lives as you do it. These opportunities are not just limited to in person activities either. Some, like the Crisis Text Line which allows people to communicate via text with people in crisis, can be done entirely at home online.
If opportunities like this interest you, check out other volunteering opportunities or come see us at the Career Success Center
You can demonstrate adaptability by learning a broad range of skills in your field, this can be easily done through WCSU organizations or online learning platforms like Coursera. Becoming certified on those skills can take you even farther. Showcasing fluency of multiple languages or even sign language can also showcase your ability to adapt. For more personalized advice you can come visit us at the Career Success Center.
You identify methods to make changes work instead of how those changes will not work.
"As a manager of a small team, changes in personnel can easily disrupt our current pace of work. When we get a new addition to our team, I like to have them shadow the rest of the team for a bit before starting on their work to reduce any of those disruptions."
You show willingness to learn new procedures and methodologies.
"When training new employees, the same training process that worked on previous employees may not work on the new ones. When this happens, I try to learn about the trainee and personalize the process to increase their understanding."
You actively explore new methods, practices, and techniques to improve your performance.
"Doing paperwork in the office is often just a lot of tedious work that takes quite a bit of time to complete. Sometimes I use that as a chance to experiment with new ways to save a few seconds or even minutes on each document. It can vary from using some new hotkeys or commands to using entirely new software or hardware."
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!
Whether face-to-face or over the telephone, a real-time exit interview done by a member of the college relations team is an excellent way to gather feedback on the student’s experience and to assess their interest in coming back. Having the students fill out an exit survey and bring it to the interview gives some structure to the conversation.
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 create new emailor 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
