Peer Career Consultant Blogs

The four-year degree greatly increases your chances of getting a job after graduation. But since more and more people have degrees, the environment has gotten extremely competitive. It is a privilege to pursue other opportunities offered during college that can make you an even better applicant. 

Santa Clara has many additional extracurriculars or jobs on campus that can help you have more to talk about during interviews. There are tons of clubs on campus that are business-facing that build up professional skills. Any technical skills built in these are always loved by recruiters. But more so, the practice of interacting with others in a semi-professional setting is a skill that anyone can benefit from. 

Extracurricular activities are a great way to find students who might be interested in the same fields or jobs that you are. If not, it is a place to surround yourself with students who are achieving something as the motivation will rub off to try and succeed. I find myself being motivated by the extracurriculars that I am a part of and know it has helped me succeed in my internship searches. Being able to find a mentor in those extracurriculars is extremely helpful. Many of them already have a pairing for lowerclassmen to upperclassmen which is the quickest way to learn what you need to be doing to pursue your goals. 

Even in the case that you might not find that the overall goal or mission aligns with your own. Start your own! In my 4 years, I have seen that work out for many folks as there are plenty of students on campus who might share an interest but just don't have a club name attached to it. In my view, Santa Clara wants to start more clubs and dedicate resources to them as it can be a way to attract students to the university. Starting a club gives you the chance to look for students who might fit the role. This is a great opportunity as you get to act like a recruiter in a way and being on the other side of that is great practice for your own recruiting. 

On campus jobs are all around and provide practice with customer service and interacting with people on a daily basis which is invaluable. A strong one would be working at the Career Center on campus as you get to interact with students but also pick up on all the skills you might be mentoring others in. On top of that, the chance to meet and set up events with businesses coming to Santa Clara is a step ahead. You might be the first they interact with and would be able give off a good impression, maybe leading to potential employment. There are many jobs on campus that I am not aware of, so do some digging. 

All jobs on campus mainly require skills that will be useful in a full time role. The ability to have a schedule and stick to it, the ability to work under someone, or the ability to know when to go above and beyond when it may not be asked for. It is also a time to make mistakes, not like you will never make a mistake in a full time role, but better to learn from those mistakes now rather than have your dream job on the line.

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