Good morning and welcome back for the spring 2025 semester! We hope you had a good first week of classes and are feeling prepared for another great semester at IUP. We are excited to welcome you back to campus after what we hope was a restful winter break and 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. We encourage you to take advantage of the many events/programs we have planned this spring!
If you are not sure where to start, there are multiple ways to engage with our department. For instance, we offer 1:1 student appointments (in-person, Zoom, and phone options are available), electronic document reviews (email your résumé or cover letter as a PDF or Microsoft Word attachment to resume-review@iup.edu), etiquette dinners, educational career programs, on- and off-campus career fairs and meet-ups, and much more! As always, we are committed to helping IUP 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 and career preparedness. Our full 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.
Here at the CPDC, our 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 résumé 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.
- 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 here.
- The chance to interact with employers at our on-campus career fairs and career meet-ups, multiple off-campus regional job fairs, and at our networking events.
- Educational programs, like the My Cool Career, the Professional Panel Series, and the Career Ready Seminar 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 and alumni partners.
- Experiential learning opportunities such as The Washington Center and The Disney College Program, which are fantastic ways to gain real-world experience.
- A free, professional photo booth that is available to all IUP students and alumni – no appointment is needed! Stop by to get your professional headshot this spring.
We look forward to seeing and working with you this spring! If you are open to scheduling an appointment with one of our team members, you can request an appointment by visiting this link at any time (appointments can be scheduled as much as two weeks in advance). You are also always welcome to visit us in our office 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
IUP Career and Professional Development Center