The University Career Center on Tuesday began its first on-Grounds interview prep week, a series of events designed for University alumni within certain industries to give students feedback on resumes, interview skills and other job application materials.
Jennifer Harvey, the associate director of the business career community, said the programming executes the UCC’s new strategy of providing students with feedback more tailored to their prospective industries.
“When you come to the Resume Roundtable Workshop, you get the opportunity to speak with employers and alumni in the industry to get feedback on your resume,” Harvey said.
Because on-Grounds interviews begin the week of Sept. 20, this week was the best time to hold the event, Director of Employee Relations David Lapinski said. In order to prepare students in a timely manner, the UCC wanted to begin early.
“We needed a mechanism to really start to prepare third- and fourth-years in particular right before the rush of on-Grounds interviews,” Lapinski said.
Lapinski said the UCC brought in alumni to mentor students by reaching out to the Alumni Association and alumni within companies.
“We worked through the Alumni Association to build that bridge and that was a bridge to other [alumni],” Lapinski said.
Paul Nolde, the former president of the Young Alumni Council and current chair of the UCC advisory board, said the week’s events are not about recruiting, but about giving students the learning experience the University values.
“The UCC is embracing that tradition of U.Va. and ensuring that value is created through that human to human interaction here on-grounds,” Nolde said.
So far, the UCC has 189 companies signed up to hold on-Grounds interviews. This number is already higher than those of past years and is expected to grow throughout the spring and fall. Harvey attributes this growing number to the University’s reputation, the skill sets University graduates hold and the improving economy.
“Whether you’re coming from the College or Engineering, you’re coming with very valuable resources and set of skills,” she said. “I think employers respect that and want to leverage those skills in their workforce.”
Further, Lapinski said employers are beginning to visit college campuses more and more to explore student talents. As the economy has become more competitive, companies have found it more difficult to find top talent by staying in their offices.
The UCC plans to continue to hold this event due to student demand, Lapinski said.
“After 24 hours of registering, we went on a waitlist with 160 students on the waitlist,” Lapinski said. “We’re at capacity for each of these events, so I think our plan is to definitely continue that.”
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