The Center for Career and Professional Development at Cabrini University is committed to helping current students and alumni advance their careers.
In order to accomplish this, the CCPD encourages students to frequently visit their office on the second floor of the Widener Center throughout their academic careers at Cabrini. They describe it as a way for students to grow their academic careers and not simply as a resource for juniors and seniors.
“We see the office as a tool to be used by the students for the entirety of their career at Cabrini and beyond,” James McLaughlin, a career service specialist, said. “We want to create a network of successful graduates who give back to the University.”
The CCPD hosts networking events, workshops, career counseling sessions, and resume review sessions in order to give students opportunities to further prepare themselves for the professional world. Those who do attend these events range from freshmen to seniors.
“The biggest event we hosted this semester so far was the Networking Night on Oct. 23,” McLaughlin said. “We had around 70 plus students and 23 registered vendors at the event.”
A service the CCPD is promoting is the use of Handshake. Handshake is a system that allows students to register for events, make appointments and apply for internships and jobs. All students have an account as being part of the university.
“We want to have Handshake to be seen as more than a way to make appointments,” Debra Kelly, a career service specialist, said. “It’s mainly used only for making appointments right now.”
A highlight of the service is that it is used by other major universities in the area such as Rutgers, Villanova and Temple. The other major features of Handshake includes an easy way to filter and search for positions both on the local and national level.
“The CCPD has helped quite a bit,” Robert Castellano, a senior accounting major, said. “They helped me in revising my resume, finding a job and getting set up on Handshake.”
The Career Closet is a recent and quite helpful addition to the CCPD. The closet is where students can go try on formal clothes and accessories to wear for interviews and even keep them if they like them. All of this is done free of charge to the students.
“We never want a student not to attend an event because of lack of dress attire,” Erin Gabriel, director of the CCPD, said. “The closet right now is filled to the brim and we almost need a second closet.”
Photo by Peter Pottorff
The CCPD also tries to prepare students according to the standards of the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The NACE has eight attributes they look to find in students and recent graduates: critical thinking, oral/written communication, teamwork, digital technology, leadership, work ethic, career management and international fluency.
In order to help students with these attributes, the CCPD hosts various events throughout each semester. These range from networking nights to workshops on interviews to career exploration workshops.
Office hours for the CCPD are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday and there is always the possibility of scheduling an appointment outside drop-in hours.
“If you wait, you waste opportunities,” Kelly said. “We want to start to have a conversation about your future now.”
Further information about the CCPD can be found here.
