PackPros is a new free tool that provides students with interactive workshops to assist with career readiness. With the help of career ambassadors and North Carolina employers, PackPros breaks down the preparation process for career fairs and interviews for students seeking employment.
Courtney Mulveney, career identity coach for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and career counselor, highly recommends attending a PackPros workshop. According to Mulveney, these sessions focus on creating a casual atmosphere to allow students to feel at ease when beginning their career exploration process.
“It is taught by our career ambassadors,” Mulveney said. “It is way more fun and way more interesting for you to be able to hear from your peers who have gone through training. Every session is different [and] that’s the best part … that the career ambassadors are the ones who, based on their experiences, are able to customize their presentation.”
By interacting with peer educators, students can ask questions up front and get the help they need more comfortably, according to Mulveney.
“Figuring out how to write a resume and cover letter in LinkedIn, those are not the most fun topics,” Mulveney said. “It is so easy to push them off because they seem overwhelming or kind of scary, but when you are going to a thing where your peers are talking to you about it and answering your questions, I think it is a lot more accessible to students and less daunting. For me, that is one of the key points to PackPros, making this information less scary.”
PackPros also offers a distance education opportunity to allow students with overwhelming schedules to access sessions at home.
“You can enroll in a Moodle project space and view videos of previous sessions and answer a couple of questions,” Mulveney said.
In addition to online availability, PackPros also offers one-on-one sessions with career ambassadors, catering to specific questions and walk-throughs. Marcy Bullock, director of professional development at the Career Development Center, said PackPros is offering many opportunities this year.
“We are going into the living and learning villages [and] we are doing career studio takeovers and students can just come down to the lounge [either in] the Impact Leadership Village, the Women in Science and Engineering Village, the Exploratory Studies Village, Wellness, Entrepreneurs,” Bullock said. “The career ambassadors just kind of take over the lounge, and students can come up and ask one-on-one conversation questions about their own resume, their own LinkedIn profile, their interview coming up, or how to use ePACK.”
A few sessions may incorporate North Carolina and other employers who discuss with students what their companies search for in an employee. These workshops help students in all fields make connections with local corporations.
“We do have employer take over sessions where we invite employer partners that recruit on NC State’s campus who are great with our students, like Northwestern Mutual, Allscripts, Caterpillar, and Eaton, just to name a few of our partners,” Mulveney said.
Mulveney said past sessions have focused on initiating student interaction and experimenting with career choices.
“They did one called ‘Stand Up,’” Mulveney said. “We do it first thing as an icebreaker just to get people going … this one was actually pretty cool … one of the career ambassadors reads off different aspects of a job and if you hear something you don’t like then sit down.”
Other sessions may include a fashion show for information on professional dress or activities that enable students to continue their steps in the right direction for their career plans.
“Other activities are more practical,” Mulveney said. “Sometimes we have students think about different ways to write for their resumes. Taking a job you’ve had in the past like babysitting or customer service have transferable skills [and] finding out ways to say that is what I call resume language, so instead of saying just ‘I watched kids for a family,’ it’s ‘created a safe environment for children to engage and learn through play.’”
If students complete six different sessions, whether online or in-person, they receive a certificate signed by their dean at the end of the semester on April 20.
The Career Development Center also provides other resources beneficial for student career routes, such as the Career Identity Program. The Career Development Center also posts podcasts on SoundCloud called “Pack Career Chats” that aim to motivate students to find their career direction.
Workshops are held every Monday and Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Talley Student Union. For more information about PackPros and how to register, students can visit the Career Development Center’s website.
