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The Parents Program hosts regular Parent & Family Connections webinars. To learn about future sessions visit our website.

Our Career Services team was delighted to have over 180 parents attend the Parent & Family Connections webinar on Friday, January 29, 2021. The questions and concerns raised about their son’s or daughter’s future matched those that we grapple with and respond to each and every day. Unfortunately, due to the high number of questions, we simply didn’t have enough time to answer them all during the Zoom session. Therefore, our leadership team in Career Services got together to examine the list of questions and developed themed responses around the most prevalent issues and concerns raised by the parents who attended the January 29 session.

On behalf of our entire Penn State Career Services team, thank you for your interest in our Center and the types of programs, services, and resources we offer to your sons and daughters. We hope that our thorough response below offers many strategies and resources for you and your Penn State student to utilize during this challenging time!

Start Here! Individual Career Counseling

Working individually with a Career Counselor is the best place to start, for every student has a unique set of skills, interests, and career goals. We want to personalize the career development process for your student and help them to develop customized career plans.

Within Career Services and throughout the campus and college-based career offices across Penn State, staff are available to assist your Penn State student in developing and pursuing their career goals. Whether your student is exploring career ideas and possibilities, pursuing internships or full-time employment, or thinking about further education, career counselors and career coaches are prepared to meet with students, now and through their future.

Within a first appointment in career counseling, the student's goals as well as a broad action plan are discussed. In follow-up appointments, details are added and adjustments to the action plan are made, new career ideas and options are discussed, and the student takes their search out to their network which includes PSU alumni, personal contacts, and establishing new contacts with employers and potential graduate programs they are considering. Students, and the family and friends who support them, are understandably concerned about the effect that COVID has had in limiting opportunities such as in-person internships and other in-person work experiences. Our message to students is to persist in their search, to develop a plan of action that builds upon their strengths, their accomplishments at Penn State, and leverages their network to bring them in to conversations with employers about their career goals.

Our team of professionals values the opportunity to meet and to work collaboratively and creatively with students in pursuit of career goals. We currently offer virtual drop-in sessions and virtual appointments, through zoom meetings and on a limited basis, career counselors are available for in-person appointments. These virtual and in-person services include the possibility of practicing for networking events and practicing for upcoming interviews through our Mock Interview Program. Next steps to see the range of services available and to schedule career counseling appointments are available at: https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/career/counseling. Students who are ready to set a time to meet with a career counselor can make appointments directly at www.nittanylioncareers.psu.edu . For recent graduates and alumni, career development services are available through Alumni Career Services.

Virtual Career Fairs – Making Improvements for Spring Career Days!

In response to the pandemic and the need for virtual activities, Penn State signed a contract with Brazen for its virtual career fairs in 2020-21. Brazen facilitates one-on-one chat-based, phone, and video interactions between students and employers in virtual booths. Students “get in line” to talk with employers in their booths, are prompted when they are available, and have about 15-minute conversations with employers. Brazen also facilitates many-to-one interactions between students and employers where employers can present to a large audience of students and answer chat-based questions.

Our Fall 2020 virtual career fairs weren’t perfect. We learned a lot from offering these fairs for the first time, asked Brazen to make system improvements, and are ready to offer higher quality virtual career fairs this semester. Long lines will be mitigated with multi-chat functionality, allowing employers to speak with more than one student at a time. Students will be able to view their wait times in virtual booths and employers will be able to see how many students are waiting in their lines.

Spring Career Days 2021, our largest virtual career fair of the semester, will be open for student registration the week of February 8. Registration includes uploading a resume, which will be viewable to employers when students enter their virtual booths during the event. Students will also be able to access a database of attending employers the week of February 8. Recent alumni are welcome to attend Spring Career Days 2021. Information on all of Penn State's career fairs can be found here. To help prepare students for career fairs, many preparatory workshops and programs are available.

Recruiting & Nittany Lion Careers

Nittany Lion Careers, Penn State’s job and internship posting system, is a powerful tool for students and alumni to connect with employers and career services professionals. This system allows users to find job and internship postings, on-campus (or virtual) interview opportunities, workshops, networking events and more. Students who have been invited to a virtual interview can take advantage of 40+ private interview spaces available at the Bank of America Career Services Center.

Penn State is working hard to identify as many internship, coop and full-time career opportunities for students and alumni. Despite the challenges of the current economy, recruiting at Penn State is still active and strong. By leveraging as many resources as possible and leaning on our strong alumni network, Penn State has a growing number of opportunities available through Nittany Lion Careers. To be specific, Nittany Lion Careers currently has over 12,000 internship, coop and full-time opportunities – a number which has grown by more than 2,500 opportunities this past year*. To maintain the strength of our recruiting program, we need your help! Are you able to advocate for hiring a Penn Stater? If so, email interviewing@psu.edu to connect with our recruiting team.

* Data reflects opportunities posted on Nittany Lion Careers between Aug 1, 2020 – Feb 1, 2021 compared to Aug 1, 2019- Feb 1, 2020.

Internships & Project (Gig) Work

At any given time, there are over 1,000 internship opportunities on Penn State’s online job board, Nittany Lion Careers. In addition to internships, employers may also post short-term, part-time, and/or project (Gig) opportunities for students that can be fit in around coursework during the semester. Students can also explore and learn more about internship and project opportunities and create their own by leveraging available networks including upperclassmen/peers, professors, academic program coordinators, career services offices, and alumni via LionLink and LinkedIn.

Conducting informational interviews and job shadowing can both help a student decide on a direction in which to take their own career and identify strategies that can help them get there. Particularly during these challenging times, students who build and leverage their networks to brainstorm career strategies are more likely to position themselves for a successful transition. Encourage your students to explore these tips on networking.

Visit Your College Career Office to Learn about Internships

Because the majority of internships are for credit, internships are primarily managed through your college career office. Here is a link to a list of the College Career Offices on our website. Have your student meet with a member of his/her college’s career office to discuss internships, including any requirements for graduation that might exist, resources of previous internship sites in which students from their college participated, and other strategies for finding internships.

If your student wants to complete an in-person internship for credit, they will need to contact a member of their college’s career office to determine their eligibility due to COVID restrictions and concerns. Here are the current Internship Guidelines that students can review to get started.

Tips from Penn State Career Services Industry Advisory Board

Many employers are hosting virtual internships this summer. But for students who have either not found a virtual (or in-person) experience or who would like to craft their own, advice from several Penn State Career Services Industry Advisory Board members encourages students to seek out innovative opportunities. These experiences will enhance their resumes and help employers see a student’s level of flexibility and creativity in the face of unprecedented times. Students can:

• Volunteer in something related to what they want to do
• Participate in research projects through the university
• Look for possible job shadow opportunities leveraging family, friends, or alumni through LionLink
• Check with professors or their advisor as they often know of less visible opportunities
• Listen to the Penn State Career Conversation podcast which is career related and features companies like PPL, UPMC, Kohls, LB Foster, Allegheny Health Network, Lowes, and Enterprise
• Explore LinkedIn and make new connections
• Take career-related assessments and explore the DOL book of jobs associated with their interests
• Talk to people and make connections

Employers also recommend that even if students have had Internships or other experiences cancelled because of COVID, they can still represent what they have spent time doing on their resume. Make sure to include part-time jobs and the skills learned within this setting. These often include highly valued key competencies that students can build upon once they do have an internship or full-time position.

• If students have not been working, what have they been spending their time on? Be sure to include involvement with a Student Organization or time spent learning a new skill.
• Many entrepreneurial employers want to see a flexible, resourceful, “street-smart” approach to uncovering opportunities. Such traits are easily demonstrated by the way in which students use their downtime to upskill their knowledge and abilities.
• Employers know this time will look very different for many and that's okay, but they want to know what students are doing in preparation for the future.

Our employers also had a special message for any third-year or fourth-year students concerned about the job market: Keep an open mind. Prior to COVID, they may have had a very specific career or position in mind that they were going to pursue after graduation. If that field has been hit hard by the pandemic and isn't hiring, this is the time to think about their unique skill sets and how they can use what they know in another position. Many industries/companies are actually hiring more people now, so there are still plenty of opportunities out there that would offer a great place to start a career.

Navigating a Virtual World

Career Services has created resources for our students to help them transition into the virtual world of work and professional networking. Please urge your students to take advantage of workshops, webinars, and podcasts which provide them with best practices for forging a career path while studying and working remotely. These are hosted by career professionals, recruiters, alumni, and student peers. One of our most comprehensive resources for students is the Career Guide, which contains a plethora of information on essentially every career topic.

Relationships in our Backyard

Penn State has cultivated strong relationships with companies and organizations globally and around the Commonwealth. We also have a wonderful network within our local business community and business development organizations at University Park.

In Center County, Penn State works closely with the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County, the Small Business Development Center and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners. These organizations support hundreds of small businesses and tech start-ups in and around the Centre County region. Many of these member companies have virtual and in-person part-time and full-time opportunities as well as short-term projects (gig experiences) and internships available to Penn State students.

Small companies and startups local to all Penn State campuses engage with and recruit Penn State students at a variety of events hosted by the University throughout the year, including our annual career fairs. Of particular interest to many of these small businesses, is the Penn State Small Business and Start-up Fair in March, hosted in collaboration with Startup Week. These local companies also participate as guest lecturers, panelists, resume reviewers, and student mentors in collaboration with Career Services. Students can learn more about and participate in these networking and professional development events by logging into Nittany Lion Careers and exploring the events section of the platform.

Special Note on Employment Scams:

Please encourage your students to do their due diligence when engaging with potential employers. Scams and fraudulent recruiting are on the rise. Following please find a few of the tips we regularly share with students to help them spot – and avoid – a scam. For more information, please visit https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/career/scams