Course Syllabus

This course provides a dynamic environment for you to explore and develop the essential skills needed for effective career and life planning. Through a blend of reflective exercises, hands-on activities, and peer engagement, you will navigate key areas of career development, including self-assessment, career pathway exploration, crafting competitive application materials, enhancing interview techniques, and engaging in continuous professional growth.

V252 takes a holistic approach, offering you a framework, tools, and supportive community to actively design your career journey. The curriculum evolves with input from employers, alumni, and trends in the marketplace, ensuring relevance in an ever-changing professional landscape.

Course Objectives

In this course, you will:

  1. Explore the connections between your values, interests, strengths, and skills as a foundation for informed career planning.
  2. Conduct research on industries and organizations to identify potential career pathways and develop tailored resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles.
  3. Develop your interview skills through targeted preparation and practice.
  4. Expand your industry knowledge and build networking skills by engaging in meaningful career conversations with professionals.
  5. Develop and refine your written and verbal communication skills for effective job search strategies.
  6. Understand and apply ethical practices in leveraging technology for professional development and goal achievement.
  7. Utilize the career resources, tools, and strategies offered by the O’Neill School to build and sustain your professional presence.

Course Approach and Participation

This course is designed to be interactive, engaging, and highly relevant to your individual career aspirations. Your active participation is key to maximizing your experience and growth in this course. Whether through in-class discussions, collaborative projects, or personal reflections, your contributions will shape both your own learning journey and that of your peers. If you prefer to engage outside of class or have additional questions, the instructor and GA are readily available via email.

In this course, you are not simply preparing for a career; you are designing a fulfilling professional life. By actively engaging with the course material, your classmates, and the broader professional community, you will leave this course equipped with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to pursue and achieve your goals.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) is a trusted source for understanding what it takes to succeed in the job market after college. By working with employers across different industries, NACE identified the skills that are most important for starting your career on the right foot. These skills, called the NACE Career Readiness Competencies, are relevant no matter what field you’re interested in and help you stand out as a strong candidate.

NACE highlights key skills that every student should work on before graduating:

  • Career & Self-Development
    Proactively develop oneself and one’s career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one’s organization.
  • Critical Thinking
    Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.
  • Communication
    Clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization.
  • Leadership
    Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.
  • Professionalism
    Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace.
  • Teamwork
    Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.
  • Technology
    Understand and leverage technologies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals.

According to NACE data, there’s often a big gap between how students and employers view student career readiness. Students tend to feel more confident in their skills than employers do, leading to different opinions about how prepared students really are for the workplace.

In this course, we’re focused on helping you build and improve these competencies to close that gap. We structure the class to mirror a professional work environment. Your instructor is like your manager, classes are mandatory team meetings, outside events are meetings with clients or partners, and your assignments are your work projects. Our policies reflect what’s expected in a professional setting: being on time, managing your schedule well, communicating professionally, and delivering quality work. You can think of this syllabus as your employee handbook.

You must satisfactorily pass V252/H267 in order to register for V381/H466 internship experience.