Career Center Intern by Amanda Chaffin

Working for the DePaul Career Center has been an interesting and exciting journey. I have been with the Career Center since October, and have really been able to immerse myself in what it truly means to be an intern there. The Career Center has evolved like crazy since I first began, and it continues to every day. There are approximately 30 full-time faculty members plus student workers and interns. Within the Career Center, there are different departments and teams, and I am a part of the Employer Engagement team.

I primarily work with employers but I also work with other teams within the Career Center to ensure that employers that are choosing to recruit DePaul students, especially through the use of our services, are satisfied and have the resources and support they need. On a daily basis, I communicate with employers for various reasons. I often speak with them about how to best reach our students, what they can do to get involved on campus, how they can increase their brand awareness on campus, and so much more. The first resource I usually set employers up with is Handshake, which is our primary job board on campus at DePaul. I also manage Handshake and DePaul’s presence on the platform, so I have the responsibility of maintaining DePaul’s brand image and I am currently working on how we can better market attractive job postings to our students. I also work with employers to access our other services on Handshake, such as getting involved in our events, job and internship fairs, and also with our on-campus interviewing option. I manage on-campus interviewing and the relationships with employers who are interested in interviewing our students on campus. Building these relationships has helped me to understand the importance of having strong communication skills, and a strong team to back you up.

I also work on unique projects that my supervisors will have, such as creating marketing content for certain events and fairs, which has been extremely fun! The one most important thing that I think I have learned throughout my time at the Career Center is how crucial having good marketing is. There have been times in which I have felt like we could be doing a better job getting the word out about our services and really showing students, employers, and alumni the value in the services we offer. Overall, I have learned so many important things throughout my internship, including patience.

My position is not always the most glamorous or exciting, and I have learned the true value in staying patient and understanding how important it is to be adjustable. All of the things I have taken away from the Career Center will be useful in all of my future positions, and for that, I am extremely grateful. Working with people whose job is to help students become career-ready has been a blessing, and I hope that I have been able to be as much of an asset to them as they have to me. The culture of the Career Center is one of a kind, and they are all such an understanding, fun, and diverse group.

2 thoughts on “Career Center Intern by Amanda Chaffin

  1. This is so cool. I knew you could work at the career center, but I wasn’t aware you could be an intern!

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