The Career Development Center is an Elizabethtown College office that provides assistance for students and alumni in career-oriented goals. Their work focuses on aiding current students with career exploration options as well as job transitions for alumni students. The Career Development Center has also worked with various employers in an effort to encourage the recruitment of Etown students for competitive jobs and internships. 

The Career Development Center’s mission is to provide “high-quality, holistic, and comprehensive career development to empower and educate members of the Elizabethtown College community in their professional growth.” Counselors at the Career Development Center work towards achieving this goal by being an accessible resource for students.

One of the initiatives launched by the Career Development Center is EtownConnect. This program provides current students with a network of Etown alumni and friends through an online database that includes information about the alumni signed up for the program and their contact information. When signing up for EtownConnect, students are encouraged to include an overview about their general career interests, why they are taking the step of reaching out, their class year, and their major. Etown alumni and friends volunteer their time and advice to better aid current students and share their expertise. 

“One of the main goals of attending college is to get a job in your field of interest,” said Director of the Career Development Center Maureen Brown said. “The Career Development Center can help you prepare to find that job by assisting you with internships, resume writing, interviewing, and salary negotiation, among other things.”

The Career Development Center has several resources on their website that help students with career questions, such as “What can I do with this major?” One of the resources links to a website produced by the University of Tennessee’s Center for Career Development & Academic Exploration. It allows students to explore the different avenues that their career can take them and allows them to think in creative ways when it comes to career exploration. 

“We would like to say that at the Career Development Center, we hope to see you early and often during your college career,” Brown said. “Ideally, students should start to work with us in their first or second year at Etown.” 

Students may struggle to find suitable internships during their time in college, so the Career Development Center has resources that work to ensure that students gain valuable job and internship experience during their time at Etown. “Internships are an important part of Experiential Learning,” the Career Development Center website states. “Simply put, having an internship experience allows you to better understand prospective work environments and allows you to make networking connections, as well as gain real-world skills.”

“Some common employers that hire our students for internships and full-time jobs are: Clark Associates, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, Deloitte, High Industries, Eurofins, Enterprise Mobility, Steinman Communications and WebFX,” Brown said. “This is not an inclusive list! We have had over 250 unique organizations recruiting on-campus since 2021.”

Handshake is often used by the Career Development Center to find internships for students. There are currently over 26,000 postings live on Handshake. It is a website that lists career opportunities for college students and it can be used by any Etown student. Students do not need to create a new account, as they can simply use their Etown SSO log in.

“Employers have shared with us that they look for at least 1-2 internships by the time a student graduates,” Brown said. “The best way students can prepare for the workforce is by working with our team early and often.” 

To learn more about Handshake or other internship resources, students can either utilize the resources provided online by the Career Development Center’s website or arrange an in-person meeting with one of the counselors available. Appointments are made through Handshake.There are also drop-in hours that vary throughout the year, which students can utilize for resume creation or review, cover letter creation or review, internship or job search help or practice interviews. This semester’s drop-in hours are Fridays 2-3:30PM in the Career Development Center’s office. The Career Development Center also schedules appointments over breaks. 

Faculty often invite the Career Development Center to share more about what resources the Center has to offer by presenting in classrooms. Students are encouraged to not only utilize the information shared during class, but also enroll in career pathway courses such as “Exploring Career and Purposeful Pathways (CP141)” and “Professional Skills Development and Defining Career Goals (CP151)”.

“We have already connected with 498 students through 60 plus  classroom presentations this academic year,” Brown said. “Faculty, staff and student organizations can request a presentation on topics such as Career Development Center overview and resources, resume presentation, cover letter presentation, interviewing and much more.”

Brown became the Director of the Career Development Center in July and has begun implementing changes aimed at making the Career Development Center services more accessible for students, as well as increasing the Career Development Center’s visibility on campus. The Career Development Center staff has met with over 300 students via appointments this academic year, which is a huge increase from previous years. Brown has also launched seven new signature events for the semester: Dinner, Dimes and DIY, Seniors Transitions, Virtual Graduate School Fair, Sports Symposium, Creative Careers Week, Creative & Public Service Careers Meet & Greet, Resumania Week and Mock Madness Week over the past year.

“Our goal is to meet students where they are to address their needs,” Brown said. “Additionally, we started surveying students after their appointments with us to ensure that we are meeting students’ needs.”

There are a number of upcoming events this semester that encourage students to search for career opportunities as well as basic adulting tips. The Career Development Center has several upcoming “Meet & Greet” events where students can meet potential employers, whether it is engineering, business, creative arts or any other career pathway. The dates, times, locations and registration links are all found on the Career Development Center’s website. 

Students are encouraged to sign up for appointments via Handshake, visit drop-in hours in BSC 201 or email careerdevelopmentcenter@etown.edu