3 Ways Career Services Gives You An Extreme Advantage - NMU Blog

3 Ways Career Services Gives You An Extreme Advantage

It took me six years to graduate and I didn’t get any job I applied for when I was graduating. Looking back, there is one free service that could have helped me graduate earlier, grow my confidence, and dramatically improve the likelihood of getting the job I applied for at graduation.

This is a human story of loss, failure, and luck. My name is Grant Langdon and I came to NMU feeling pressured to choose a major because being undeclared felt like a failure. I didn’t know at the time being undeclared notifies NMU that you need help finding the correct major for you. I also didn’t realize that there was a whole department specifically designed to help me figure out what I wanted to do with my life! Instead, I wasted the first two years of my college career taking classes, doing poorly and eventually changing my major.

After another year in two different majors, I still hadn’t found what felt right for me. I considered being a teacher because I have always loved sharing my passions, but there was a GPA requirement to enter the education program and I, unfortunately, had poor grades. I started to feel discouraged. I was realizing that by wasting time in majors I didn’t feel passionate about, and thus not putting forth my full effort, I had ruined my chances to pursue my passion for teaching. It got worse. My poor GPA and degree progression also disqualified me from government loans, so I turned to my local bank and had to borrow at a higher interest rate, piling on my student loan debt.

Thankfully, I had made friends while living on campus. Living in Magers Hall treated me well. The staff were incredibly friendly and asked me to join in on conversations about making the community better. As I became involved in the hall, working on creating a community where everyone could belong, I started to feel the passion that teaching had always given me. I could make a difference in the world through these interactions. I had found purpose and hope again.

One late night, I was talking to my coworker at the Magers/Meyland front desk. She was in the Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Management program. She shared what she had been learning in her leadership development and pedagogy/teaching classes. Something lit up inside of me, I knew these classes were what I needed. I switched my major the next day and started down a path that fit me better than anything. I was learning how to help people and make a difference through recreation.

My luck was changing. The leadership concepts I learned in class were directly applicable to my favorite student job, resident adviser (RA). That job (really more of a lifestyle) was the single most important contributor to the rest of my life. I attribute everything I have to NMU’s Housing and Residence Life program.

As I was preparing to graduate, I knew I wanted to continue making a difference in people’s lives. I applied to various universities’ Housing and Residence Life departments and interviewed with many. I even got a couple of second interviews over the phone during my final semester. I felt hopeful, but unfortunately, there was no job for me as I was finishing my last semester at NMU. Looking back, I wish I had known about the practice interviews that Career Services provides. Maybe I could have had a better chance at landing any of the jobs I had applied for.

It was all for the best, however, because the next steps of my college experience set me up for everything that I am grateful for in my life now. First, I needed to complete a 400-hour internship for my Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Management major. I asked the Housing and Residence Life office if they needed any help for the summer and luckily, they did. During that internship, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and work with everyone in the department on various projects and it really opened my eyes to the depth of study that exists around universities and higher education - what I would later be getting my master's degree in.

As the internship was coming to a close, I was becoming nervous. I still had no job, and crushing student loan debt waited for me, patiently building up interest. Fortunately, the internship birthed an unexpected opportunity. A last-minute job in Housing and Residence Life opened up and I was lucky enough to be there, ready for it. Internships man, they can change your life. The job I got from my internship allowed me to pay my debt while making a difference.

It was mostly luck that landed me that job, but luck can also be defined as an opportunity met with hard work and good relationships. I wouldn’t have gotten my job opportunity if it hadn’t been for my network. This network included creating a good relationship with the Assistant Director of Housing when I was a RA, which made me feel emboldened to ask for my internship in the first place. Networking sometimes gets a bad rep for being disingenuous. The truth is, you never know who will become a helpful person in your life or how you can be helpful to them. By being a good and hardworking person who takes the time to get to know and be curious of those around you, people will want to help you and opportunities will follow.

I got lucky and eventually landed my post-baccalaureate job, but there could have been a clearer path for me if I had known the resources that Career Services offered and still offers. The following are all services Career Services offers that could have given me an extreme advantage when I was in my undergrad.

CliftonStrengths Coaching - This is not just a personality test - CliftonStrengths is backed by decades of research and is saturated with applicability in looking for a major, a job, or improving your relationships and network along the way. If I had this knowledge my first or second year in college, it would have likely saved me at least a year of schooling (and student loan debt) because I would have had the confidence and self-awareness to know when I was not in the right major. Make an appointment with Career Services for CliftonStrengths Coaching now to get a clearer vision of your path forward.

Finding an Internship - Internships are only required by some majors but they are applicable for every degree. Internships have the ability to change your life for the better by helping you create a bigger network, giving you industry experience, and, quite frequently, a job after graduation. If your major doesn’t require an internship but you’re interested in giving yourself all these opportunities, Career Services staff can help you find an internship and will teach you how to write a resume and cover letter that will slay the competition! The templates you find on the internet will lead you astray, trust me. After a resume review with us, you will have a bomb resume perfectly tailored to you.

Connecting to Alumni - The best way to know what opportunities are available is by seeking out the people offering them. Join Switchboard to ask the tons of NMU alumni who are happy to offer all kinds of help. Additionally, talk to someone in Career Services and they can hook you up with an alumni mentor. That’s right, a successful NMU alumnus can teach you how they transitioned from your major to a career in the field and what it was like. This alone could have helped me cut a year off my undergraduate degree or could have connected me to an otherwise unknown opportunity.

Moral of the story? Don’t be like me. Just go to Career Services early in your time at NMU and get involved in your community while living on campus. If I would have done those two things right away my first semester, I could have saved tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, giving me the financial freedom to do whatever I wanted after graduation. Nonetheless, I’m grateful for my journey because it has made me realize how important Career Services is and now I get to live my dream of teaching others how to succeed, making a difference in students’ lives one meeting at a time. Hope to see you in the office soon. Thank you.