Crafting New Career Development Professionals: An Internship Program Presenters:

Jennifer Frick, Rachel Higgins, Christin Hydeman and Debra Ignelzi

Carnegie Mellon Overview

• A private 4-year global research university with over 86,000 alumni and staff and 7 colleges.

• Recognized for its world class arts and technology programs and collaboration across disciplines.

Enrollment Data

12,058 total enrollment

• 91% full-time students• 33% international students• 27% enrolled in the College of Engineering• 48% graduate students

Career & Professional Development Center (CPDC)

OverviewThe CPDC empowers students and alumni to optimize their

professional and life potential through career exploration, experiential learning, and connecting with employers and opportunities.

• A focus of “high touch and high tech”• A centralized center with 20 full-time staff members;

organized using a college-specific model• 4 Career Counseling Interns• 15 Career Peer Mentors• 4,770 career counseling appointments, 8,083 interviews,

2,657 job postings and 250+ workshops during the 2010-2011academic year

CPDC College Model

Career Counseling InternshipA History

Hypothesis: Career Services is a rapidly evolving field; and there is a pending shortage of emerging professionals adequately prepared to enter the field

Key Strategic Area for our office: To become a training site for graduate interns in counseling and higher education administration in Western Pennsylvania

• Started during the fall of the 2010-2011 academic year• Year 1 - 3 interns participated; 2 second-year and 1

first-year students• Year 2 - 5 interns; all second year, will graduate in

spring 2012• Year 3 - 5 interns to be recruited (currently in progress)

Benchmarking: Relevant Grad Programs

• Regional Benchmarking: 8 institutions and 9 programs• 4 programs offer a career counseling class as an elective• 1 program requires a career counseling class• 4 programs do not offer any type of career counseling class

• National Benchmarking- U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Higher Education Administration Programs”: 11 schools and 13 programs

• 0 programs require a career counseling class• 5 programs offer a career counseling class as an elective• 8 programs do not offer any type of career counseling class

† Most programs do require Student Development courses and many offer and require counseling courses, but these do not specifically focus on Career Counseling and Development.

Research on Employment Trends in the Career Services Field

Career Professionals Hiring Trends Survey currently

distributed to career services offices.Early Results

• “There are too many one-year programs; too much focus on a research/thesis paper; little or no real time counseling or assessment”

• “Most aren’t prepared” to work in the field of career services

• All survey respondents admitted that they needed to provide new hires with additional training in categories such as career exploration, experiential learning, career theory, career development models and assessment

Career Counseling Internship

Internship Requirements

• Interns work 17 hours per week at $12 per hour for a full academic year

• Three mandatory training hours each week (Friday morning)• Program manager trains, supervises, coordinates schedule

and hiring• Each belongs to a college team and is co-supervised by the

Career Consultant of that team; rotations through other teams or internal departments are considered based on learning goals

• Interns conduct individual and drop-in appointments, and organize and facilitate a wide variety of career workshops

• Interns work for an entire academic year (August-May)

• Interns receive mid-year and final performance reviews and attend weekly meetings with their supervisors

Curriculum at a GlanceInformed by:

• Council for Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) for Career Services

• National Career Development Association Career Counseling Competencies

• Professional Standards for College and University Career Services, 2009 National Association of Colleges and Employers

Includes:

• Intensive week-long orientation and basic training followed by professional staff shadowing and 1:1 mentoring

• Weekly 3-hour training and case management sessions (30 sessions)

• Professional development (ACPA & NACE) encouraged and financially supported

• Individualized learning goals depending on graduate program• Topic of interest research and presentation

Curriculum cont.Training Topics

• Blackboard-based course materials and resources• Foundational career theories (Holland, Super,

Krumboltz, Savickas, Brown) • College student development theories (Baxter

Magolda, Chickering)• Advanced counseling skills: career, diverse

populations, international• Self-assessment and career planning• Occupational and job market information and

resources• Internship/experiential learning/employment/job

search• Multiple career assessments (MBTI, SIGI3, Strong,

CTI, card sorts, etc.) • Emphasis on peer-to-peer learning (developmental

support)• Special topics of interest

On the Job

Typical Responsibilities

• Daily drop-in resume and cover letter advising for ALL students/majors

• Job fairs and assorted workshop planning and implementation

• Individual student appointments for all career development topics

• Mock interviews• Employer development activities• Lead CCI role

Intern ExperienceTraining

• Week-long training before semester began helped to prepare us quickly and adequately to meet with students

• Friday trainings offered equivalent of a semester long class on career and student development− No counseling or career related classes offered in our

curriculum− Lead CCI had opportunity to lead some of these

• Provided a time to discuss how to utilize theories in our individual career counseling appointments− Case studies

• Comparison to training received at other internships

Intern ExperiencePractical Experience

• No internship requirement for our graduate program• Total intern appointments for the academic year: 342 appointments

– Rachel has had 108 appointments from a variety of majors– Christin has had 104 appointments from a variety of majors

• Assisted with daily drop-in hours• Provided full-service appointments

– Assessments, mock interviews, career documents, job and internship searches, negotiations, etc.

• Experience interacting with employers through staffing job fairs• Weekly mentoring appointments with consultant/supervisor

Early SuccessesOutcomes• 1 CCI admitted to the PhD program at the University of Florida• 1 CCI hired as a Career Consultant in the College of General

Studies at the University of Pittsburgh• 1 CCI “stolen” to become a Career Development Specialist in

the College of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh

• 1 CCI hired to be a Career Development and Education Specialist at the University of Washington, Tacoma

Other Results• Wait-times for appointments decreased and customer service

improved• Career Consultants able to offer higher level services to

students and obtain professional development through supervision and training

The Future

A work in progress…

• Strategic Plan Developed but in need of updates• Career Counseling Intern Handbook for 2012-13• Continuous SWOT (interns and office staff) analysis

• Holding interviews on March 30th to hire 5 CCIs for next year; ultimate goal is to hire 6

• Conducting research to examine career professionals “pipeline” and career progression of new hires

Questions?