Not Sure Where to Start?
As you begin your journey to career readiness, having a plan can give you direction and purpose. These are suggested steps — your path may be a little different, and that’s OK. The important thing is to engage with the career resources and opportunities and make progress every year.
You chose the College of Arts and Letters because you want to “study everything and do anything." The Beyond the Dome program is here to help you discover YOUR thing. Many tools and resources are available to help you discern what you want to do, and find internship and job opportunities.
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Meruelo Family Center for Career Development
The Meruelo Family Center for Career Development has an aggregated database for exploring all the websites that post internships and job opportunities. -
P2C
Peers 2 Careers, a student-led initiative of Beyond the Dome, is a powerful driving force toward instilling a sense of community among all Arts & Letters majors. Each hall has two peer career mentors to help with everything from resume writing and cover letter reviews to advice on interviewing and networking. -
Career Communities
Arts & Letters students are invited to join one or more of the six Career Communities of Beyond the Dome. Through workshops, speaker series, networking events, and more, students in these communities will discover opportunities to utilize their majors in a career that interests them, as well as how to break into these industries. Additionally, Beyond the Dome's Career Communities provide Arts & Letters students with a supportive network of like-minded individuals who share their passion for creative expression and intellectual exploration. By engaging with fellow students and industry professionals within these communities, students gain valuable insights, advice, and connections that will pave the way for their future success. Career Communities empower Arts & Letters students to transform their academic passions into tangible and fulfilling professional endeavors.
First Year
It’s time to discover more about yourself, your interests, and your likes and dislikes — then start thinking about how you want to make an impact in the world.
- Sign up for Handshake
- Complete your profile with your past experiences, a photo, and any other pertinent details
- Determine your privacy preference: Private, Open to Employers, Open to the entire Handshake Community. Do you want employers looking to fill jobs and internships to be able to find you, or do you want to seek them out?
- Follow employers of interest, then search for and read job descriptions to learn more about what different roles involve
- Sign up and complete two Handshake learning labs — “Introduction to the Center For Career Development Learning Lab” and “Discerning Your Career Path” — which are listed under the Events tab. First-year students need to complete these labs before they can make a one-on-one appointment with a career discernment counselor. One-on-one appointments are available starting in your second semester.
- Join the career communities for your industries of interest.
- Pay attention to the two weeks of career content offered during your Moreau First-Year Experience course in February!
- Register for IrishCompass and use it to start connecting with the Notre Dame alumni network
- Sign up and complete your PathwayU assessment.
Second Year
Now is time to branch out and continue working on your career readiness
- Meet with a Center for Career Development career counselor
- If you think you know what type of job or internship you want to pursue, make an appointment via Handshake with an Industry counselor (Industry Specific One-on-One)
- If you are still deciding, talk to a Discernment counselor (Deciding a Career Path)
- Complete your resume, have it reviewed by someone at the career center, improve it, then put it on your Handshake profile. Employers will look for you!
- Attend one of the Career Fair Prep workshops before the Fall or Winter Career Fair — sign up for them on Handshake
- Attend the Fall and Winter Career Fairs — bring copies of your resume
- Become involved in campus activities that interest you
- Establish and polish your digital presence — LinkedIn, Handshake, IrishCompass, and anywhere else employers might find you
- Explore possible career paths
Third Year
Gain experience through an internship, experiential learning opportunities, conducting research, campus activities, and volunteering.
- Make a check-in appointment with a career counselor
- Conduct informational interviews with alumni through IrishCompass. Create a Google Sheet or a system so you can keep track of the people in your network who you’ve talked to or would like to learn more about
- Update your resume and digital presence
- Take on leadership roles in your campus and volunteer activities
- Attend the Fall and Winter Career Fairs — bring copies of your resume
- Research and apply to summer internships, research opportunities, etc.
Fourth Year
You’ve prepared, so now it’s time to execute and engage for the next step on your journey.
- Make a check-in appointment with a career counselor
- Research post-graduation options (jobs, service opportunities, graduate school)
- Be able to articulate the value of your liberal arts degree to others
- Use Handshake, PathwayU, and other sites to look for opportunities in your field of interest
- Center for Career Development website has many industry-specific job boards
- Attend the Fall and Winter Career Fairs
- Understand that for many liberal arts students, the hiring cycle is different than for students in business or engineering. Many employers of liberal arts students don’t hire in waves — they hire when a position is open. So the perfect opportunity for you may not come up until the end of the school year or after you graduate. Don’t panic — be persistent.
- Interview and engage with employers on and off campus — be proactive in your search
- Continue to network — remember, according to LinkedIn, 85% of jobs are filled through networking.
- Build job interview skills by going through mock interviews at the Center for Career Development