What Steps Can I Take to Find a Job I Love?
Explore your options with Discover You and create a plan for college and career success
Key Highlights
- The career readiness program Discover You helps students create a tailored college-to-career roadmap for success
- Interactive modules, networking opportunities and action plans turn academic exploration into professional direction
- Students uncover what drives them, learning how to align passions with their future career
You’re not alone if you’re unsure about choosing your college major—or wonder where your current one might take you. Figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life can feel a little overwhelming. What if there was a tool that could guide you from campus to career with confidence?
Asked and answered! At Sacred Heart University, Discover You, a career exploration program offered through the Center for Career & Professional Development, helps current and future Pioneers explore their options, discover careers that match their interests, connect with real-world opportunities and map out a plan for their future.
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Apply Now“Discover You gives students an opportunity to fine-tune their career path,” said Connie Cuccurese, a SHU alum and an assistant director at the Center for Career & Professional Development. “As students move through the program, they dive deeper into their own personal reflections of their interests, aspirations and goals, which can help them as they think about a major.”
We spoke with Cuccurese and Annie Suffredini, executive director of the Center for Career & Professional Development, about the service’s benefits, as well as advantages of getting a jump on post-graduation plans.
How does Discover You help students move from college to career successfully?
Designed for first-year students to seniors, Discover You helps students discover what truly energizes them—whether they are undecided, rethinking their current major or eager to see where their studies could take them. Through interactive activities, students match their interests to real-world career paths and learning-by-doing opportunities. For instance, students set short- and long-term goals as part of their action plan to help them with their campus-to-career journey, Cuccurese said. This could be setting a goal to find or complete an internship or job shadow experience, explore graduate school programs and create an application action plan or join an academic club or organization related to their interests or major.
Throughout the experience, students learn to network like a pro, explore potential career paths and discover roads they may not know existed. As they embark on that unique career journey, they build connections and tap other career center resources to find job opportunities and connect with alumni who have active openings.
“Through Discover You, we are not just educating them on potential career paths but also helping them take what they are learning in the modules and implementing those skills in real life and in real time,” Suffredini said. “For instance, they are learning about the value of informational interviews, even as they are gaining the skills to line them up by establishing professional contacts.”
Is this program only open to undergraduate students?
At any point during their time at SHU, undergraduate students can use this service, Cuccurese said. However, the earlier a student starts the better. And while undergraduates might predominantly find value, graduate students can explore as well, particularly if they know the field they want to enter but might not know all the career paths available.
What are some examples of the activities the students complete?
In this self-guided, module-based learning platform, students might learn how to translate what they’ve learned at an after-school job into professional skills on their résumé. Or they might attend a career fair or workshop and log that activity to continue along the program’s steps. Students routinely check in with career planning staff to make sure they are hitting important milestones and making their way through each lesson.
“Many of these assignments encourage the students to be reflective and to dive a bit deeper into purpose and meaning and to connect that to their major and career journey,” Cuccurese said. “These check-ins ensure students are getting the support and encouragement they need and their questions answered.”
How does this career planning service fit in with other resources?
Discover You complements another assessment tool, PathwayU, which students use to assess their interests, values and workplace preferences as the first step of their career journey. SHU students are also given pointers on other professional platforms, such as LinkedIn and Handshake, as well as the in-house Pioneers Connect platform that links current students with alumni in their field. These tools, and the work the students do in Discover You, help them to create an action plan to map out their campus-to-career journey.
“Students are being set up for success, by learning the step-by-step skills of how to transition from college to work, how to effectively reach out to others and how to build and maintain that professional network,” Cuccurese said. “By the end of the program, they’ve learned how to connect with professionals. They’ve learned how to conduct informational interviews. They’ve utilized different platforms to find opportunities. And they know how to utilize these skills to continue exploring their interests.”
Interested in learning more about Discover You?
This career planning tool helps you to recognize your dreams while addressing the reality check of securing a job after graduation. Why not start working toward discovering what you love to do and taking steps to learn how to do that for a living?
For more information about Discover You and other resources that can help you identify your unique skills and interests to lead to future professional success, visit Sacred Heart’s Center for Career & Professional Development or call 203-371-7971.
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