Preparing to Tackle the Job Market Before Graduation puts Bryant & Stratton College Students Ahead

Before you can win the job you want, you have to know how to get it.

In career development courses at Bryant & Stratton College, students learn just that.

Instructor Holly Klingler, M.A., M.L.I.S., said she begins the semester by helping her students build a framework for their career motivation.

“What is their motivator? Why are they motivated toward the field they are in? What are those motivating factors?” she said.

“We want to create an awareness for why they are doing what they’re doing and then we start doing some of the practical very important career development steps,” Klingler said.

That includes creating workplace documents students need in their job search such as resumes, cover letters and an elevator pitch.

“These are the foundations that they will use to build their career documents,” she said.

In each career development course those skills are refined. In Career Development Three, Klingler said students stretch their skillset to develop formal and informal presentations, develop networking skills and craft the message they want potential employers to know.

Students also create an e-portfolio that allows them to store the work from their academic career in a single, easily accessible, on-line file that they can show potential employers anytime, anywhere.

“Usually people come in with a regular, paper portfolio,” Klingler said. “The e-portfolio is great, especially if you are networking on the go, because you can easily share it with someone as you meet them and have that evidence right there in front of them to show that you can do the work and benefit them.”

Klingler said the career development courses may be some of the most valuable time spent in the classroom for Bryant & Stratton students.

“We look at all these skills, writing a resume, interviewing, networking so that our students are prepared when they graduate, not learning those things after they graduate,” she said. “Our students are already prepared, which puts them above many other candidates.”