The following message was sent to all students on August 30, 2024:
Good morning and welcome back for the Fall 2024 semester! We hope you had a fantastic first week of classes and are gearing up for another great academic year at IUP. We are excited to welcome you back to campus, after what we hope was a relaxing and productive summer break and we want to remind you that your IUP Career and Professional Development Center (also known as the CPDC or Career Center) team stands ready to assist you. The IUP community is a special group that continues to do incredible things on and off campus, and we are looking forward to another great year together.
We can’t wait for you to take advantage of everything we have planned for this fall! There are multiple ways to engage with our department – 1:1 student appointments (in-person, Zoom, and phone options are available), electronic document reviews (email your professional document as a PDF or Microsoft Word attachment to resume-review@iup.edu), on and off campus career fairs and meetups, etiquette dinners, educational career programs, and so much more! As always, we are committed to helping our students prepare to enter the workforce and find meaningful career paths.
We have a full lineup of events for you to engage with employers, find potential job and internship opportunities, and aid in your professional development. Our fall event calendar is attached to this email and event information is updated regularly on our website iup.edu/career. When possible, we will livestream events via our Facebook page. We especially hope that you take advantage of some of the programs we have that involve IUP alumni and prospective employers coming to campus to engage with students like you. Employers know the incredible talent that is here at IUP, and we cannot wait to help connect you with opportunities that are both fulfilling and worthwhile.
At the Career Center, our main goal is to help students design their dream life, while finding long-lasting professional and personal success. If you DON'T use the CPDC during your time at IUP, you are missing out on many valuable resources at your disposal, such as:
- The chance to engage in 1-on-1 career coaching sessions with a trained team member who can assist with things such as life design, developing and editing your resume or cover letter, helping you understand what you can do with your major (consider taking the Focus 2 Career Assessment, conveniently located on MyIUP), and providing you with helpful job search strategies (check out the Handshake platform and activate your profile, if you haven't already!) – among other things!
- An extensive online professional resources library that addresses everything from salary negotiation and how to prepare for an interview, to how to use LinkedIn effectively. Access these resources.
- The chance to interact with employers at our on-campus career fairs and career meetups, multiple off-campus regional job fairs, and at other networking events.
- Educational programs, like the Career Ready Seminar Series and the Professional Panel Series, where you can learn about key career competencies/skills that employers industry-wide have indicated are just as, if not more, important than your degree, in addition to the chance to interact and connect with some of our engaged employer partners.
- Experiential learning opportunities such as The Washington Center and The Disney College Program, which are fantastic ways to gain real-world experience.
We look forward to seeing and working with many of you this fall! If you are open to scheduling an appointment with one of our team members, you can request an appointment at any time (appointments can be scheduled no more than two weeks in advance). You are also always welcome to visit us in our office space in B20 Stabley Library, where we have space for you to study and engage with one another!
Best wishes for a great semester! We're here for you!
Kindly,
The IUP CPDC Team