Let’s talk the reality of career resources

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is at brown and says it’s practically useless if you aren’t interested in consulting. Every time he’s gone to the career office, they’ve obsessed over finance and given him little prep towards a career in his interests (environmental science, sustainability), so he’s stopped going.

Professors and department gatherings are helpful, etc. Is he a first year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD attends a top 10 university and is a math/cs double major. Recently I sat down and asked her about how she’s doing in her internship search, since we never talked about it during the year. She explains that she’s been doing pretty poorly so I tell her to go to the career center; to which, she complains is useless and isn’t helpful. When we toured this school, we were stoked for its career offerings in specific which were highlighted by our guides (both when we first visited and during admitted students week). Apparently the career treks are super competitive and only take 30 students, the advising often comes from students not career counselors (!!!) and students are doing the heavy lifting for everything! This is shocking to me, does anyone else’s college act like this?!

Current sophomore CS major at UMD sent out 190 resumes/applications from August-October 2024 to get ONE interview and job offer for summer of 2025. Not sure what they promised, but it would appear you have to be early and persistent.

+1

[Anonymous]

Denison has an excellent career center. DC, a CS major, made good use of it and works at a FAANG company several years out.

https://sponsored.chronicle.com/prepared-for-life/index.html

[Anonymous]

https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/?rankings=best-career-services

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD attends a top 10 university and is a math/cs double major. Recently I sat down and asked her about how she’s doing in her internship search, since we never talked about it during the year. She explains that she’s been doing pretty poorly so I tell her to go to the career center; to which, she complains is useless and isn’t helpful. When we toured this school, we were stoked for its career offerings in specific which were highlighted by our guides (both when we first visited and during admitted students week). Apparently the career treks are super competitive and only take 30 students, the advising often comes from students not career counselors (!!!) and students are doing the heavy lifting for everything! This is shocking to me, does anyone else’s college act like this?!

Current sophomore CS major at UMD sent out 190 resumes/applications from August-October 2024 to get ONE interview and job offer for summer of 2025. Not sure what they promised, but it would appear you have to be early and persistent.

Yep, the application world is insane right now. Currently, summer 2026 internships are already being posted and interviews being filled. Most students start too late

My son is a sophomore accounting student and I really hope he has the ambition and drive to apply soon for internships.

Note that some accounting internships are offered during spring semester (tax season), which can be an option if you arrange your classes to allow for this. If summer internships don't work out, take classes over the summer and intern during the following spring semester.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is at brown and says it’s practically useless if you aren’t interested in consulting. Every time he’s gone to the career office, they’ve obsessed over finance and given him little prep towards a career in his interests (environmental science, sustainability), so he’s stopped going.

Professors and department gatherings are helpful, etc. Is he a first year?

No a Junior. How professors don’t really know about sustainability careers, since he’s a physics major (he’s interested in a very specific type of research and field). He’s doing well, but I wouldn’t say it’s really to anyone’s credit but his.

[Anonymous]

I went to a top 10 school and have become very successful in a sought-after field. I have never hired a fellow graduate until last year, when a recent alum found me on LinkedIn when I had an open entry level spot. I was impressed by how proactive she was. Career services has never reached out to me about hiring alums of the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is at brown and says it’s practically useless if you aren’t interested in consulting. Every time he’s gone to the career office, they’ve obsessed over finance and given him little prep towards a career in his interests (environmental science, sustainability), so he’s stopped going.

Professors and department gatherings are helpful, etc. Is he a first year?

DS is also at Brown and has had positive experience with the Career Office. Keep in mind that Brown is a target school for recruiting and to be blunt it sounds like your kid might not be in the loop on this fact. Things start very early vs. when we were in college. 1. He should use Brown Connect to set up meetings with alums, mostly informational but a lot of good leads come from it; 2. By middle of his first year, he should have a well designed LinkedIn page and have Career Office provide feedback on it; 3. Going into sophomore year, know all the deadlines for on campus recruiting for sophomore summer and UTRA programs and then apply to those of interest; 4. Middle of sophomore year, there are a slew of on-campus company visits for summer before senior year (yes 1 1/2 years out)—have your kid get the weekly schedule of these; 5. Many kids get personal “invites” via email to apply for junior summer internships—apply to those and expect interviews to occur between February to May of sophomore year with offers coming BEFORE junior year for the summer after junior year; 6. TBH it’s tricky once one gets behind on these deadlines and it sounds like your DS needs to connect with another Brown student a year ahead of him. Most of the application action happens during sophomore year for sophomore summer AND junior summer; 7. For junior summer, DS got about 20 or so “invites to interview” and made it to several super days with a couple of offers. Keep in mind, he applied to over 150 places. The yield on on-campus recruiting vs “cold applying” is much higher because Brown is a target school for many firms. Bottom line is he has a great internship for next summer in NYC, but it’s because he stayed on top of things and hustled to get it. Career Office resources are really good. Urge your son to take advantage of them.

[Anonymous]

^^ it doesn’t seem like you read their post, at all. No one cares about it being a “target for recruiting” because that matters for the consulting and finance world, not the environmental science/sustainability. This is exactly the thing the poster talked AGAINST

[Anonymous]

PP here. I did read the post. There are several sustainability-related recruiting firms and institutions who come on-campus to interview for summer internships.

[Anonymous]

DC is at Vanderbilt and reports that the career center people are entirely inaccessible. Who knows if they are any good? You cannot get an appointment, literally cannot. And the drop in hours that they have are very limited unlimited days and when you go to try and drop in, they are often not even there.

The parents group complains about this on the unofficial parents Facebook site. But if you go onto the official Vanderbilt parent site, there’s one or two cheerleaders who I think are on the payroll of the school and they gaslight you and tell you that you’re doing it wrong. That their current student had a wonderful experience and was bestowed all kinds of coveted, consulting or engineering internships just by popping in.

My kid is incredibly intrepid and what the gaslightlers arw saying is utter bullshit. He got internships on his own with zero assistance. That said, he’s seeing lots of darkened offices during drop by hours in the career center.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. I did read the post. There are several sustainability-related recruiting firms and institutions who come on-campus to interview for summer internships.

Name…one? It still sounds like you’re still talking about sustainability finance, not the actual industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is at Vanderbilt and reports that the career center people are entirely inaccessible. Who knows if they are any good? You cannot get an appointment, literally cannot. And the drop in hours that they have are very limited unlimited days and when you go to try and drop in, they are often not even there.

The parents group complains about this on the unofficial parents Facebook site. But if you go onto the official Vanderbilt parent site, there’s one or two cheerleaders who I think are on the payroll of the school and they gaslight you and tell you that you’re doing it wrong. That their current student had a wonderful experience and was bestowed all kinds of coveted, consulting or engineering internships just by popping in.

My kid is incredibly intrepid and what the gaslightlers arw saying is utter bullshit. He got internships on his own with zero assistance. That said, he’s seeing lots of darkened offices during drop by hours in the career center.

My son’s parents site has those cheerleader types too. They shut off any complaints. Bizarre.

[Anonymous]

Harvards was useless when I was there. Don’t know if that’s changed. I figured they all were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD attends a top 10 university and is a math/cs double major. Recently I sat down and asked her about how she’s doing in her internship search, since we never talked about it during the year. She explains that she’s been doing pretty poorly so I tell her to go to the career center; to which, she complains is useless and isn’t helpful. When we toured this school, we were stoked for its career offerings in specific which were highlighted by our guides (both when we first visited and during admitted students week). Apparently the career treks are super competitive and only take 30 students, the advising often comes from students not career counselors (!!!) and students are doing the heavy lifting for everything! This is shocking to me, does anyone else’s college act like this?!

Current sophomore CS major at UMD sent out 190 resumes/applications from August-October 2024 to get ONE interview and job offer for summer of 2025. Not sure what they promised, but it would appear you have to be early and persistent.

My UMD sophomore did same thing and got a few offers including one with housing stipend in NYC. Also Math/CS major.