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Career Center offers Boise State students more than just advice
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The Boise State University Career Center provides career planning and employment services to all Boise State students and alumni. The purpose of the Career Center is to facilitate partnerships among students, alumni and employees as well as the campus community and to assist students in planning and implementing career objectives, finding student and internship employment, and finding post-graduate employment.
Associate Director Shelly Metzger said that the mission of the Career Center is to help students plan their careers and also obtain their careers once they have graduated. The Career Center staff works with students from all levels from coming into college to students getting ready to graduate, as well as many alumni.
The center offers career planning, which is their major focus of the center. Students who don’t know what they want to do can come in as the Career Center has different self-assessments the student can take to match them up with a career, students can also talk with counselors to discuss and explore values, interests, abilities, and skills that can match them up with a career. During this process, the student is able to get a better idea of what kind of a career is best for them.
Another important focus of the Career Center is their internship program. According to the Career Center, Boise State places over 1,300 interns annually with organizations throughout the Treasure Valley. These organizations include large international companies, small businesses, state and federal agencies and non-profit organizations. Each academic department has its own internship coordinator, but the Career Center does the overall coordination.
“Boise State has one of the largest programs in the Northwest as far as internship programs, but we still do have a lot of internships that go unfilled. We are always trying to maximize our efforts,” Metzger said.
The Career Center offers a plethora of different resources to help students with their job searches. On-campus interviews are provided, which allows students to check the Career Center’s Web site for employer requirements and schedule interview appointments for career openings and internships. The center also offers resume and cover letter assistance for students to receive critiques through sharing ideas, examples and tips to produce better looking resumes and cover letters. Interview training and job search advertising are also available for students to experience a simulated job interview and practice interviewing skills, and to refine job searches and discuss employment opportunities.
The Career Center hosts an on-campus Student Career/Job Fair each year. This fair enables students to obtain career, job, and internship information and learn about local and national employment opportunities. According to Metzger, about 800 students were at the Career Fair, and about 30 departments with over 1,500 jobs were also there to hire qualified students.
The Career Center’s BroncoJobs is a web-based system that posts student employment listings. Students can search for part-time, summer, temporary and full-time employment where a degree is not required. BroncoJobs also offers on and off-campus jobs and internships. During the fall semester, the Career Center hosts a Fall Recruiting Day where different agencies come on campus to interview students and hire them for open positions.
According to the Career Center newsletter, they will be hosting Graduate and Professional School Day on Thursday, Oct. 27 in the Student Union Building. This event is an excellent opportunity for students to meet representatives of graduate and professional schools form across the country. The Career Center will also be involved with another event featuring BSU alumni Mary Parks, who now serves as a Foreign Service Officer in Rwanda. Parks is on leave and will come to Boise State on Sept. 15 to talk with students interested in jobs with the Foreign Service. The event will take place in the Career Center at 4:00 p.m. The Career Center has many different resources at their disposal and encourages students to utilize what they have to offer.
“That’s why we are here, that’s why we exist,” Metzger said.
The Career Center is located at 1173 University Drive and is open Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and students can receive more information via email at http://careercenter.boisestate.edu.
Ryan Mortensen /News Writer
