By Lauren Sullivan ’23, CCA Intern

Whether you have your entire career planned out or don’t have a clue what you want to do, the Career Center is the place for you. Bucknell’s Center for Career Advancement guides students in finding jobs, internships, and various other opportunities through counseling, workshops, and career assessment tests.

Here are five fabulous – must know facts – about the Bucknell Career Center.

1. For someone who is struggling in figuring out their career path, the Career Center offers multiple types of one on one counseling opportunities.

• Truthfully, most people don’t come to Bucknell knowing what they want to do for the rest of their lives. Chances are, someone who does think they know will probably change their minds multiple times during their four years here. Both of these are completely okay! 
• Getting a liberal arts education at a school like Bucknell is designed to allow students to explore various different fields of studies. 
• Whether you’re a first year or a senior, if you are someone who is still unsure about what you want to do after college, the Career Center offers one on one counseling where you can discuss your interests and correlating options. 
• Schedule an appointment through Handshake today! 

2. Not only do you have the ability to meet with staff members, but the Career Center also employs and trains student interns to work one on one with you.

• Talking about your career path with someone who already has there’s figured out can be daunting, to say the least. Lucky for you, the Career Center also offers the opportunity to work one on one with students just like you.
•  These interns range in class year and interests, so you know you’ll always be able to find someone you feel comfortable working with. 
• Interns are assigned to career communities; including Medical, Global Health, & Science, Nonprofit, Law & Government, Business & Consulting, STEM, Creative Arts, Media & Communications – but even if you aren’t sure what you want to do or your career path doesn’t fall into these categories the career center is still there to help you!
• These students do lots of research and are trained to talk to you about opportunities in these specific areas, as well as help you improve your cover letters and resumes. 

3. Bucknell has an amazing alumni network, and the Career Center plays a big role in supporting this.

• Once a bison, always a bison! For being such a small school, it’s incredible the amount of alumni who are available to current students. 
• Alumni tend to be quite passionate about their status as a bison and are eager to help out fellow bisons in their job and internship search but you still need to do it the right way – and the career center helps with navigating how to network and reach out to alumni professionally.
• The best way to search through these alumni is through visiting Bucknell’s LinkedIn University Page. As of now, there are more than 50,000 Bucknell alumni linked to this page.
• Have your profile reviewed and learn tips and strategies on how to make the most of your connections and network professionally with a career coach!
• You have the ability to search through alumni based on your own interests and career path ideas.

4. The Career Center actively brings employers to campus so you know they are interested in hiring college students just like you.

• There are various career fairs offered every year where students have the ability to meet with employers and get to know their companies.
• Some of these fairs are open to everyone on campus, whereas others are tailored to specific areas of interest, such as pre-health and pre-law.
• On top of these career fairs, the Career Center also organizes alumni series where alumni come back to talk about their experiences post graduation and answer any questions students may have.
• A full calendar of events can be found on Handshake.

5. The Career Center gives you access to so many amazing resources right at your fingertips – FOR FREE!

• The Career Center offers Bucknell specific resources in all different areas of interest and you can access them through the My Career Center column on your myBucknell homepage.
  Some of my personal favorites are: 
  • Handshake: gives you the ability to search through jobs and internships based on your interests and where you want to work. You are also able to search through specific employers and reach out to them yourself. Here’s more from me on Handshake and why it’s the only job search site you need!
  • What Can I Do With This Major?: Here you can pick your major(s) and see different areas of work and specific jobs associated with these areas. This is a great resource for someone who knows what they’re interested in but isn’t aware of all the jobs available to them because it’s easy to navigate through. 
  • Alumni Career Paths: These spreadsheets allow you to see, based on major, jobs that students have reported getting after graduation.