For students
Why is career readiness SO important?
For most employers, finding new hires isn’t only a matter of seeing who made the best grades in college. While grades are important, career readiness plays an extremely important role in how employers source talent to fulfill open roles. Career readiness prepares students for life after college and equips them with the necessary skills they need to find, acquire, maintain, and grow within a job.
The 8 Career Competencies
Develop one’s self and career through personal and professional learning, becoming aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to overall embrace personal development.
Exchange of information, ideas, facts, and perspectives in a clear and concise manner with individuals inside and outside of an organization.
Identify and respond to needs based on an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of given information.
Demonstrate the required awareness, attitude, knowledges, and skills to engage and include individuals from varying local and global backgrounds while engaging in anti-racist practices.
Ability to recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve a common goal.
Understand and demonstrate productive work habits, familiarize with different work environments, and act in the interest of the greater community and workplace.
Establish and maintain collaborative relationships in order to work efficiently toward goals and values ultimately encouraging diverse perspectives and shared responsibilities.
Recognize and leverage technologies ethically to improve efficiency, complete tasks, and achieve strategic goals.
Types of opportunities
Experiential learning is an engaging process of learning through hands-on experiences. In simpler terms, it’s learning by means “of doing”. So, if you’ve ever wondered about what types of experiential learning opportunities are out there, you’ve come to the right place.
- A one stop shop for finding thousands of experiences, from volunteer opportunities to classes involving hands-on learning: Student Opportunity Center
- For internships and campus employment: Handshake
- To find leadership opportunities or join organizations that match your interests: RamsConnect
- To talk to a career advisor, fine-tune your resume, practice interviewing and get advice about jobs and internships:
- Undergraduate research
- For advice and guidance on undergraduate research participation: UROP
- To find research opportunities with a faculty member: Student Opportunity Center
- Entrepreneur and innovation opportunities (think design sprints, design thinking classes and certifications, and how to take your idea to the next level): VCU da Vinci Center
- To find ways to put your ideas to work for the public good: Service Learning
- To engage in study abroad and make a positive impact on the world: Education Abroad