Two Ways Faculty Can Provide Career Support

Faculty are key partners in empowering students to pursue meaningful careers and lives. Our community’s collective participation in career education is vital to ensuring all students have equitable access to career resources and opportunities. Because the academic experience is the one and only common experience among all BC students, the role of faculty in a student’s career discernment and planning is a critical part of ensuring equity.

Ever wonder how you can approach faculty about your career discernment and planning? Here are two ways faculty can provide career support:

Faculty Offer Students Skill Building Opportunities

Faculty provide students with important curricular and co-curricular experiences that allow students to gain the skills all employers seek in their entry-level candidates. These skill building opportunities – through coursework, research, teaching, and more – are critical to students’ career development.

Interested in adding on-campus experience to your resume? Reach out to faculty to see if there are opportunities to get involved, or attend office hours to discuss how what you’re learning in the classroom applies to the skills you are looking to develop.

Faculty Help Students Make Connections

Faculty know a lot of people (former students, etc.) and can help connect you to others to help you learn about a field. Following are quotes that demonstrate the critical role faculty play in networking:

“Faculty are extremely helpful in connecting current students to alums who are looking to give back to the BC community through mentorship opportunities. Two summers ago, Prof. Gallaugher in the Business Analytics department invited me along with several alumni to grab dinner in NYC — a great chance for me to meet people in many different careers. One of them, Frenalytics co-founder Matt Giovaniello, eventually ended up hiring me for an internship last year; this all started off from that dinner Prof. G coordinated out of the blue!”

– Brenden Picioane, CSOM ‘23

“I love to have former students come back, either in person or virtually, to speak with students about what they’ve been doing professionally. I can tell that near peers have a big impact on making future career paths feel attainable.”

– Prof. Rebecca Dunn, Biology Department

Looking for additional ways to make connections? You can use platforms like Eagle Exchange and LinkedIn to leverage the BC alumni community for networking.

If you would like more specific help, our career coaches are here to partner with you on your career journey. We encourage you to make an appointment on Handshake.

By Kayla Pelland, Assistant Director, Career Education