During the spring of my junior year, I embarked on a long and arduous foray for a summer internship. Like most A&S students anxiously looking to put my liberal arts skills to use in the real world, I was quickly frustrated with the seeming lack of opportunities for internships outside of the financial sector. Sure enough, I became overwhelmed by the internship fairs that offered a choice between investment banking and accounting.
As I was nearing the end of my rope and wondering if I would end up a jobless college graduate, I was struck with a novel idea - why not give the Career Center a chance?
Similar to many of my A&S colleagues, I had assumed that the Career Center is entirely devoted to serving CSOM students and that I would be laughed out of the building when I mentioned that I wanted to find an internship outside of the private sector. On the contrary, I was relieved and excited to learn about the many opportunities available to liberal arts majors like myself to pursue careers in the public and nonprofit sector.
The Career Center staff, who are available for drop-in hours Monday through Friday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday and Wednesday 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., were very helpful in introducing me to the many resources available for finding jobs and internships. Search engines like UCANN, Eagle Link, and Idealist.org are useful to get a start. These sites allow you to specify your field of interest and geographic priorities.
Additionally, they have a listing of professional work fellowships, especially tailored to graduating seniors seeking to delay making major life decisions, and a page that outlines career fields based on your field of academic study. In short, the best way to find out about these opportunities is to make an appointment or go during drop-in hours to the Career Center.
The alumni career advising network is another significant opportunity that few Boston College students seem to utilize. If you log onto Agora and go to career services, you will find the option to search a career adviser network, which is essentially a listing of BC alumni in varying fields and locations that are willing to give BC students career advice. Depending on what career track and where you would like to be, you have the ability to focus your search and find those BC alumni who can be of assistance.
Spring Break
