 |
Campus Buzz
A Network for Everybody
Dressed in a new dark blue suit, Alvaro Corral arrives on time for his interview, shakes hands with the vice president of the company, and within minutes is enthusiastically explaining how his internship at Pall Corporation taught him how to apply his academic knowledge in the workplace. Real — or just practice?
Alvaro and many more undergraduates, graduates and alumni get the chance to practice their interviewing skills each year with career counselors at the Career Network Center (CNC). Here among the hustle and bustle of students, alumni and advisers, NYIT takes its commitment to providing a career-oriented professional education one step further. In these classrooms, visitors learn the skills they need to succeed in their chosen professions, says Barbara VanBuren, director of CNC. “Here they learn how to package their skills and sell them to prospective employers.”
Upon visiting one of the CNCs at the Old Westbury, Central Islip or Manhattan campuses, or its Web site (www.nyit.edu/cnc), one can choose from a host of options designed to assure career success, from discussing resumes and cover letters with a counselor, to using assessment tools to inventory skills and interests, to browsing job and internship banks, to preparing for job interviews.
“Everyone who comes to us for guidance has a particular set of existing skills and talents,” VanBuren says. “Our goal is to highlight those talents and give people the real-world experience necessary to excel at interviews and land a great job.”
In addition to providing students and alumni with customized job-search services, the CNC team each year sponsors recruiting events and career fairs designed to match them with prospective employers. In the past, major Fortune 500 firms, international companies and non-profit organizations — such as Reuters, Accenture, KeySpan and Verizon — have recruited NYIT students and alumni attending these functions.
“We continue to see increasing demand for our services as the number of success stories climbs,” says VanBuren. To accommodate the growing demand for career support, this year CNC launched the Senior Success Seminar Workshop Series. This eight-week program requires students to become fully involved in their own personal career development, and results in a comprehensive, personal marketing plan for each student.
Camila Capel knows this first-hand. “I signed up for the workshop because I was graduating in December and wanted to be prepared for job interviews. With the help of our career counselors, I figured out the job I wanted, researched all of the companies that offered such positions, and developed a specific plan for approaching them.”
Camila’s personal marketing plan was so effective that she starts her new job in the Global Customer Service Data Division at Bloomberg LP in February. “What most impressed the people I met with at Bloomberg was my preparedness for the position — I’m confident that this was what separated me from hundreds of other applicants.”
Wherever Camila’s future takes her, she will always have access to CNC’s services. VanBuren and team pride themselves on being able to support current students as well as graduates, and welcome all NYIT alumni to use the center’s resources and services throughout their careers.
Send feedback and story ideas to alumni@nyit.edu.
|
|
