Career Services is a partnered program with the Center for Vocational & Integrative Learning (CVIL), which helps students in their career planning process. Career Services helps students in a variety of ways from planning internship workshops to helping students search for graduate schools.

By partnering with CVIL, Career Services has been able to branch out and provide more resources for students.

Career Services has many workshops and resources to help any student land their dream job.

From student career coaches to Coffee with a Professional, students have many opportunities to receive the help they need.

“We try to reach students before they are seniors so we can better prepare them for what they will have to go through to land a job after college,” Jill Rossiter, interim director of Career Services said. “We try to reach students in their Liberal Arts Seminar (LAS) class, as well as setting up resume and cover letter workshops and practice interviews.

“We try to instill that the career planning process is a four year process. We are not a placement service; we just give students the tools to get the job they want.”

Career Services tries every year to implement new ways to get students to take advantage of their services and workshops.

“Some new things we are doing this fall are offering a fall break job shadowing opportunity,” Rossiter said. “Students can job shadow any professional in a particular field for a day. We have not seen a lot of interest in this yet, but we’re hoping it will interest more students as fall break gets closer. We’re doing more Coffee with a Professional programs as well.”

Career Services also offers help from a student perspective through Student Career Coaches, who usually are upperclassmen that are there to help students in various ways.

“We assist with things such as resume preparation, cover letters, online career resources, job searches, internship searches, TypeFocus, graduate school, etc,” senior career coach Nick White said. “We are trained in different aspects of career services. This year we are putting together video clips that will help students with various career planning essentials.”

Internships are a big part of what Career Services tries to get students involved in so they have the professional experience employers are looking for.

“There are a huge variety of internships available to Simpson students,” Career Services Counselor Ann Greubel said. “For example, we had students last year who had internships with Sports Illustrated, Iowa Attorney General’s Office, the Green Bay Packers, and Blank Children’s Hospital to name a few.

“Seventy-eight percent of students, including required internships, have done an internship before they graduate from Simpson. With the economy the way it is now, it is very important to set yourself apart from just any other candidate looking for a job.”

Career Services will be having Coffee with A Professional with Jay Byers, the senior vice president of Government Relations and Public Policy for the Greater Des Moines Partnership Oct. 20 in the atrium of Carver Science Center at 12:30 p.m.

They will also be holding a Career Essentials forum event October 29, which will include employers from a variety of fields talking to students about what they’re looking for in employees, advice, etc.

This will be held at 7 p.m. in the atrium and Jordan Lecture Hall of Carver.