Launch Your Career is the latest iteration of content developed by BU’s Center for Career Development. It’s aimed at helping students land jobs and internships during the pandemic. Photo courtesy of the Center for Career Development
Job hunting is difficult in the best of times. Add a pandemic and the economic consequences that come with it—shuttered businesses, hiring freezes, layoffs, salary cuts—and finding employment becomes exponentially harder.
Last year’s graduates faced a daunting job market. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate was 14.7 percent last May, and 25.7 percent for 20- to 24-year-olds. “The economy practically changed overnight,” says Denise Mooney, associate vice president for enrollment and student administration.
Nearly a year later, the situation isn’t much improved: A study from Burning Glass Technologies found that since the start of the pandemic, hiring for the entry-level positions that college graduates are likely to apply for has dropped 45 percent.
BU’s Center for Career Development (CCD) knows what students and recent grads are up against—and has been providing webinars and workshops throughout the year targeted to job hunting in a pandemic. Last week, the center deployed its latest tool, Launch Your Career, a new, and free, four-to-six-week course targeted at helping students and young alumni navigate searching for a job during the pandemic.
“These are unique circumstances,” Mooney says. “COVID-19 has created a lot of worry for job hunters—and not just job hunters, but also those who have jobs and are worried about keeping them.”
When the pandemic hit the United States last March, the CCD quickly modified programs and services to include a greater emphasis on developing skills for the newly virtual world, including virtual career fairs and other events to make it easier for students to connect with employers and the CCD.
Launch Your Career is a Blackboard course that can be completed asynchronously and at your own pace. Content is presented in the form of narrated slides, with additional optional resources and readings; brief quizzes at the end of each module unlock the next. Participants will receive a certificate from the CCD after completing the modules and other requirements, such as developing a Handshake profile and refining their résumé using the CCD’s VMock tool.
The curriculum covers a variety of topics. “Participants will learn core job search skills and strategies, along with customized tactics for every stage in their virtual job search,” according to the CCD. The course features job-search essentials like career exploration and research, networking, virtual interviewing, and setting goals, as well as information on entering the workplace, such as budgeting, negotiating salaries, and ongoing skill development (plus the usuals, like how to write cover letters). There are also special wellness-themed sections on stress management and resilience, developed with help from Student Health Services, as well as Ask Me Anything sessions in March and April with CCD staff.
Emme Enojado (CAS’21) signed up for Launch Your Career as soon as she heard about it. Back in spring 2020, the CCD/Educational Resource Center student ambassador was applying for summer UX internships at tech companies in the Bay Area. She made it to the final round for a couple of positions—only to have the companies cancel the internships when COVID-19 hit.
Canceled or rescinded opportunities have been common occurrences this past year, Mooney says. And as Enojado points out, the summer before senior year is a crucial time for internships. Not having that experience on your résumé can seem like a setback, no matter how many other opportunities you might have had. For Enojado, participating in Launch Your Career makes her feel better-prepared to enter the work world.
“I’m a person who likes plans and structure, and managing the full-time job-application process on my own gets a bit overwhelming sometimes,” she says. “So I found Launch Your Career was a really great resource for guidance and support throughout the career search, and for entering the workforce as well.
“The transition from college into the nine-to-five world can be difficult to navigate, from what I’ve read. This program is going to give me the tools and strategies I need for whenever I go into a role—like, what are like my one-month goals, and what are my one-year goals? And how do I become a good teammate and communicator?”
Launch Your Career is geared mainly to the classes of 2020 and 2021, but any student or young alum is welcome to sign up. Even without a pandemic, Mooney says, “seniors and young graduates are often apprehensive about their preparedness—we want to give them as much support and structure as we can.”
She urges those taking the course to try it and stick with it. “There are segments that you might feel you already know about, but it’s more about going step by step and holding yourself accountable for doing the recommended exercises,” she says. “At the end, you should feel pretty ready for the prospect of a job search.”
Interested in Launch Your Career? Find more information and register here.
Looking for a Job during the Pandemic? New Center for Career Development Blackboard Course Can Help
Alene Bouranova is a Pacific Northwest native and a BU alum (COM’16). After earning a BS in journalism, she spent four years at Boston magazine writing, copyediting, and managing production for all publications. These days, she covers campus happenings, current events, and more for BU Today. Fun fact: she’s still using her Terrier card from 2013. When she’s not writing about campus, she’s trying to lose her Terrier card so BU will give her a new one. She lives in Cambridge with her plants. Profile
Alene Bouranova can be reached at abour@bu.edu
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