Career Center Resources & Support at Lehigh

This post is a go to stop to review and connect with all of the career specific resources and support available to you as a student at Lehigh University.

The Center for Career & Professional Development (Career Center) is here to support you on your unique career journey from day one. Whether you are an undergraduate student, first-year, senior, grad student, interested in pre-med/health, pre-law, graduate studies, or looking for an experiential learning opportunity, internship, full-time role, or just exploring career options…we are here for you!

Where to begin?

Handshake: Available to all Lehigh students, this is our central online career platform. The platform hosts hundreds of thousands of employers for you to explore and connect with. Handshake is also a hub to search for internships, fellowships, full-time roles, on-campus jobs & more. In addition, the platform houses all of our career events including: in-person & virtual employer information & networking sessions, career workshops, & career fairs.

Beyond exploring employers and searching for opportunities, Handshake allows you to make career coaching appointments, access the 24/7 Career Resource Library, and explore details on our week day drop-in career question hours.

Getting started on Handshake

Log-on and start to build your profile. To develop your profile, click on your name in the

upper right corner from the top menu and choose “My Profile.” Follow through each of

the sections. You can always make updates and changes if your career plans and interests shift. When you feel you have completed all that you can, change your settings to public so that employers can search and sort for you (in the same way you sort through job postings). Many students have received messages or emails from employers who wanted to encourage them to apply for one of their openings or directly offered them an interview for positions within their company.

Career Resource Library: Located in Handshake is our resource library. On the resource page we have tiles on every major career topic including resumes, cover letters, career exploration, interviewing, LinkedIn, digital portfolios and job/internship searching, graduate students, offer & salary negotiation, pre-health, pre-grad, & pre-law to name a few. This page offers the career education foundation we want every Lehigh student to learn. Most sections have an associated career guide, at times - a video, and links to help you get the information you need 24/7. This is a great place to begin if you have career questions because it helps you get a solid understanding of your topic of interest. And, If you have questions and need further support, please make sure to join us in Career Lab (see below).

Career Lab: Our week day drop-in career question hours. Our team of career coaches and career interns assist students 1-on-1 and in small groups. These hours are open to all Lehigh students for all career questions. Consider bringing a laptop so you can stay and work on next steps or suggestions for your career goals. Details for days and times can be found on Handshake under Events, search ‘career lab.’

Career Coaching Appointments: After you review the resource page and visit during Career Lab hours, sophomore - seniors are welcome to work with a Career Coach 1-on-1! We ask that our first semester first-year students start in Career Lab. Our center has a liaison model so each undergraduate college, graduate students, and those with specific interests in pre-health, pre-grad, & pre-law have a specific career coach to support you. Simply visit appointments in Handshake then pick the topic, day and time, and Handshake will remind you before your appointment! A Career Coach can provide individualized career support to help customize the information you need related to your unique career goals.

Important notice: Please give 24 hours notice for any appointment cancellations and be sure to arrive on time. This courtesy allows us to best serve our students.

Additional Digital Career Resources

We have some of the latest technology in the career center and have invested in new, innovative technology, apps and digital platforms to connect Lehigh students to jobs, internships, career coaching, career information and mentors. These tools and online platforms are available on demand, 24/7 to fulfill your career needs - anytime, anywhere.

Lehigh Connects: This platform is our alumni & student mentor online community.

Open to all majors, this is a way to connect to thousands of Lehigh alum who are interested in helping you explore, learn and prepare for careers.

• Browse the network and use the filters to search for an ideal mentor.

• Choose connection options: long term mentorship, meeting request or send a message.

• Use the resources and quick guides to help organize questions to ask the mentors.

• Gather advice for your job or internship search but don’t ask for jobs. Not all mentors can hire, but all mentors are here to provide valuable information, insight and advice for your job or internship search.

Throughout different times of the year, we will also advertise alumni led virtual projects that you can review and apply to in order to gain additional career skills and experience. Learn more about Lehigh Connects and the art of networking in our Networking tile in the resource library section of Handshake.

Big Interview Online Tool: This is a unique and useful career tool that helps you to learn more about the fine art of interviewing and allows you to practice interview skills with industry specific questions or a custom set of questions. Big Interview is powerful because you will gain experience with digital interviewing which is a very common practice for many employers. You can use your computer to practice and record an interview. Then, you can review the results on your own or for more valuable feedback, you can send the recording to a Lehigh career coach, networking contact, friend or mentor. Big Interview offers immediate feedback which mimics the ATS (applicant tracking systems) used by employers. You can find the instructions in the Interviewing tile in the resource library section on Handshake.

LinkedIn & LinkedIn Learning: With over 60,000 Lehigh alum, you can visit the LinkedIn Alumni Page for Lehigh where you can filter & review profiles and explore career paths and options related to your major and career interests. You can take this tool to the next level and start networking by connecting with a quick personalized note. Then once connected, send a more detailed networking message to industry professionals. You can learn valuable career insights and tips from those who have gone before you. If you don’t have a profile yet, do not worry, get started building your profile today and use all that LinkedIn has to offer.

With LinkedIn Learning you can explore over 12,000 courses and 5,000 video tutorials from industry experts and leaders all in one place. LinkedIn Learning is available to all Lehigh students. Build new skills and expand on existing ones and get an added edge in the internship & job market.

Hire Lehigh YouTube: Access dozens of career videos to compliment your career learning from our guides in the Career Resource Library in Handshake along with many other topics. You can also watch our series called Industry Insights with key tips and advice from industry professionals.

Hire Lehigh Blog: Well, here you are! Explore all of the other blog posts with spotlights from our career team, employers, recruiters, alumni, and fellow students to learn tips, advice, stories, and ways to move your career path forward.

Instagram: Stay connected with quick snapshots of student success stories, career events, highlighted opportunities, career expo (fair) details, and important career announcements.

Additional Specialized Career Support

Current Lehigh Graduate Students: Are you a current Lehigh graduate student? If so, did you know you can access everything mentioned above AND you have access to additional specialized grad student resources and career coaching support? Learn more HERE.

Pre-Health, Pre-Grad, Pre-Law: Are you considering one of these specialities? We have extensive resources that are very specific to these areas to help you on your career journey. There is also an assigned career coach and student mentoring team well versed in your unique needs to guide you through all of the information you will find. Learn more HERE.

Interstride: A specialized interactive career platform designed to enhance the career exploration and job search experience for international students. Although this resource is primarily for international students, it also provides a variety of other tools that can be utilized by all students especially students interested in working abroad.

Interstride offers visa & immigration resources, visa sponsorship data, an online community, career-related resources & networking tools, productivity resources, webinars & newsletters. and the ability to search for internships/jobs around the globe.

More Career Support

How can there be more…but there is! Check out these last few pieces that may help you in your career path:

Career Expo: Each semester we host a Career Expo. An Expo is our fancy word for a fair since it is so much more than just looking for a job. A Career Expo is an opportunity to explore employers & industries, networking with our employer partners, pitch your unique skills and value to employers of interest, and make great strides in our career plan. Through our various communication channels like Handshake email newsletters, blog posts, and Instagram we will post all the details about the next upcoming career expo. On Handshake, you can review the employers who are registered, sort companies by your major or industry interest, RSVP, build your expo schedule and start to do research to best prepare.

Digital Portfolios: Your resume will always be an important part of a job or internship search, but a digital portfolio allows your skills, education and experiences to come to life. Especially for arts, communication, technical, creative and many other fields, a one dimensional resume simply doesn’t do justice to your work. Platforms like wordpress, wix, Squarespace, Github and others allow you to provide examples of your work and talents.

Conclusion

No matter what your career interests are and even if you do not know yet, we are here for you and have resources to support you along the way. Many of our resources are available anytime and anywhere, whenever you need them.

You are always welcome and encouraged to dive deeper and connect with our career team through Career Lab and coaching appointments. We look forward to getting to know you better and assisting you on your career journey and helping you become career ready!

You can always contact and visit our center for career support and assistance:

Center for Career & Professional Development

careercenter.lehigh.edu I 610-758-3710 I careercenter@lehigh.edu

lehigh.joinhandshake.com I Hire Lehigh Blog

Instagram I Hire Lehigh YouTube

This post was updated and adapted from a previous post about career technology platforms.