by The Cowl Editor on September 20, 2018
Campus
By Thomas Edwards ’20
The Center for Career Education & Professional Development is implementing new programs and resources this year. One of the major programs being brought in is Handshake, which is replacing eFriars as the Center’s main job and internship resource.
“Handshake is different because the first priority of the organization is the student,” said Laura Pellecchia, associate director of internships at the Career Center. “It works on artificial intelligence, so as students go in they’ll have profiles to apply to jobs for their favorite companies and it’ll make more suggestions of what other companies, jobs, and events that students should be looking at. It’s pretty interactive and really intuitive, and the more students put into it the more they’re going to get out of it,” added Pellecchia.
Handshake is connected to over 100 other schools, so companies that post to the program at one school can be easily found by others. “We have way more opportunities than we ever had with eFriars,” said Pellecchia.
Another development this year is FriarLink, which has been around since last year but is being updated further this year. FriarLink functions like LinkedIn for Providence College students and alumni.
“When PC students log in and alumni log in they answer a set of questions, and then once you’re in the system the system actually makes recommendations of matches like what alumni can help you with how you answered those questions,” stated Pellecchia.
Once matched with alumni, students can then use FriarLink to set up a teleconference so they do not have to give out personal information if they would prefer not to.
A program that will be implemented in the spring is V-Mock, which allows students to upload their résumés, which are graded with red, yellow, and green; green being excellent. With a résumé that gets a red or a yellow, the program will provide suggestions on how to improve the résumé.
“We’re going to suggest that students come in to the office at that point, red or yellow, and if you’re green you’re good to go, you can apply for jobs. It’s going to take the lift off of students to necessarily have to come in, especially if they’re in the green. If they’ve been here three, four, five times and they run it through and they get green then they don’t have to come in,” said Pellecchia on the program.
The other main program being added this semester is the Friar Four Career Core for professional skills development. This is split into two sections: the first being a Microsoft Office Excel certification and the second being a series of workshops.
The first series that is being run is “Professionalism & Work Ethic.” “Through these series students can work through them to get badges and put these on their resumes,” said Pellecchia.
The Microsoft Office Excel certification is going on currently, with more certifications to come. The “Professionalism & Work Ethic’s” series has upcoming workshops Sept. 20, Sept. 27, Oct. 4, Oct. 11, Oct. 18, and Oct. 25 all in room 202 of the Science Complex from 1 – 2:15 p.m.