Career Readiness: Why starting early benefits career endeavors

As a first- or second-year college student, the thought of a career after college remains a distant thought. However, having strong job skills and outlines for the future can lead to successful internships and further career opportunities and aspirations.

Early career planning has many benefits such as that there is plenty of time for development. After self-assessing career skills, students have the time to fill in the gaps and work on areas that are identified as weaker. This also allows for plenty of career exploration and learning opportunities. Having a career plan leads to a higher satisfaction in one's employment because their priorities are met and they use their potential to the fullest.

St. Kate’s offers many opportunities for career development. The idea of future career aspirations and preparing for them gets introduced early. The Reflective Woman focuses much on career readiness. The KatieCareer Virtual Center offers a multitude of online services and self-service opportunities, but Career Development also has a team of staff and student workers to help with all career and success needs.

For College for Women students, the KatieCareer center lists countless services to help students “find a job or internship, identify satisfying career options, research and apply to graduate and professional schools, perfect your résumé, application, personal statements, and cover letters, improve your interview skills and techniques, including mock interviews, inventory your interests, values, and strengths by taking career-related assessments like the Strong Interest Inventory, StrengthsFinder and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (free for students), generating the best letters of recommendation and practice salary negotiation...”

First-year student Neve Palubicki (Fashion Design, ‘25) said they would “love to work with the career center” to find internships and jobs in the future. 

The Career Development Center highly encourages PathwayU, a self survey service, to help identify what aspects of employment are important for students entering the workforce as well as areas they may be interested in. 

“We took the PathwayU assessment for my fashion careers class,” said Palubicki. “My favorite part was being able to see the job outlook in the area I want to move to.”

The Career Development Center sits on the second floor of the Coeur de Catherine. There is an entire staff dedicated to helping students with their career goals. They have many events coming up this fall.

The Career Development Center also leads many opportunities and events to start talking with employers and preparing for career endeavors. On Oct. 7, the virtual Career Opportunities Fair took place, where students had the opportunity to sign up and talk to employers one-on-one or in groups. On Oct. 14, the Career Development Hot Spots event with career specialist Jen Harshner kicked off. The first event was about making a career plan. There are two more ‘hot spots’ taking place on Oct. 28 and Nov. 16 about graduate school and major selection.

A word of warning for career planning: avoid feeling locked into a plan. When life changes and a student's interests change, guilt easily surrounds not following through with an original plan. But, it must be remembered that a career ‘plan’ is just a guide that is supposed to change. Having a motivated and successful career starts with creating a plan. 

“Planning for my future makes me more excited for it to become a reality,” Palubicki said.