Career and talent Development coaches students through college career

Lizandra Portal/Contributing Writer

After four years of going to classes, participating in school events and studying in the library until late at night, graduating seniors must face life after FIU.

Preparing for graduation means more than meeting with advisors to figure out what classes seniors need to take to fulfill requirements. For some seniors, it means having a professional resume, good interview skills and experience in the field they are studying through internships.

“I’ve been preparing for my graduation for two years now,” said Alexander Melendez, a marketing major. “What I’ve specifically done is… last summer, I landed an internship and that really helped position me to feel confident about graduation.”  

Melendez will be graduating in June with a job as the new account manager for Procter & Gamble, a consumer packaged goods company that makes household items.

Getting a job after college is something the Career and Talent Development office on campus hopes to help students with.

“Our goal is to be able to provide the support, resources, tools and knowledge to help students find gainful employment,” said Assistant Director for the Career and Talent Development office Nelly Leon.

One of the things Leon mentioned when helping students find jobs after graduation were internships.

“Statistics are showing that students who have an internship before they graduate, and even multiple internships, are more likely to find employment either right before graduation or after graduation,” Leon said.     

The Career and Talent Development office helps students with multiple aspects of finding employment, such as creating resumes, improving interview skills and writing cover letters.

“We don’t guarantee employment, but we definitely are able to coach [students],” Leon said.  “We bring employers to campus, we do career coaching, we host career fairs [and] workshops on career development… so we have a lot of events happening at this main office.”

All of the events the office holds are posted on the Career and Talent Development website every semester.

“We have some great events coming up for the summer,” Leon says. “For the summer, all the students are gone, but our office continues working. We have the federal government conference… that’s June 21 that attracts more than 30-40 federal agencies… so if [students] are looking for federal government hiring, this is the place to be in June.”

But for some graduating seniors, job offers are not their priorities. Journalism major Yanaisis Collazo is more interested in applying to graduate school.

“[It] really depends where in life and how much money it is,” she said. “But I do plan to leave, so… I’m looking into Columbia University and [New York University].  If I do end up staying, [University of Miami] does have a good master’s program for journalism.”

Eliana Olivero, a psychology major, is also interested in going to graduate school, but not for psychology.

“I went to the business master’s program because I wanted to get a master’s in human resources but the master’s in business administration really interested me,” Olivero said.

With all the steps seniors take to get ready for graduation, there is one thing they can’t prepare for, and that is what life outside of school will be like.

“One of the things I’m going to miss the most is that I’m in this place in my life where everyone else is on the same path as me,” Melendez said. “We’re all going in the same direction and there is this sense of unity at the University, and I’m going to miss that.”

For more information on Career and Talent Development, visit their offices at SASC 305 MMC, 2852 at the Engineering Center and WUC 255 at BBC.