Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to those soon-to-be Syracuse University graduates who are searching for their first professional jobs after graduating.
With Commencement rapidly approaching, it’s only natural for members of the Class of 2024 to feel anxious if they don’t have a job lined up yet. But instead of feeling uncertain, Adam Capozzi, the University’s director of career services, assessment and student success, recommends students exercise patience and focus on identifying opportunities that resonate with their passions to help advance their job searches.
Career services offers a variety of resources available to help students at every step of their job search.
Adam Capozzi
“The important thing is there are resources here to help with your job search,” Capozzi says. “Or maybe you don’t know if you want to go into the workforce. Maybe you want to continue your education, maybe you want to take on an internship or go into volunteer work, or maybe you even want to take a gap year. Figure out what you’re passionate about and a lot of that will be figured out within six months of graduating.”
Career Services annually conducts a survey where soon-to-be graduates provide information on their plans after Commencement, including whether they had accepted a job, enrolled in graduate school, joined the military or took on a volunteer or service program. According to the most recent data available, for the Class of 2023, only 8% of respondents were still searching six months after graduating.
It’s easy for students to access job and internship-based resources on the newly launched career services website, which features relevant content and information, including links to central and individual school/college Career Center websites, upcoming career services events, ways to build and enhance career skills, and more.
Students are encouraged to take advantage of the following resources:
When applying for jobs, one best practice for students is to tailor their resume and cover letter to match the specifications of each opening.
Among some of Capozzi’s favorite tips and pointers for students:
Capozzi sat down with SU News to share how the University can help advance your career, explain the best practices when it comes to asking for a job reference or recommendation and discuss the impactful role immersion programs play in setting students up for professional success.
Once our students graduate, they are Syracuse University alumni, and they get to take advantage of lifelong support to our vast career services resources. Once you graduate, you have up to one year to tap into our central career services office and the career services support in your individual school or college.
After that period, the Office of Alumni Engagement is there to assist with everything from networking to writing your resume and job-searching advice. And we all know how much our alumni love networking with our students and helping them launch their careers. We want our students to know we’ll always be there to help them at every point of their careers.
We like to refer to the rule of three. Step one is making the outreach. Step two is having a conversation where you build a rapport with the connection. Gain an understanding of not only the individual but let them gain a foundation where they know who you are and know about your capabilities. Step three is setting up consistent conversations where you pick their brains on what you could be working on to better enhance your professional profile—whether it’s your resume or through your online professional websites like LinkedIn—to really stand out.
Once you’ve hit those three, it’s game on. You can be a bit more strategic and mention specific job openings at their organization, asking “is this job a good fit for me and if so, do you feel comfortable engaging with the people you know to put in a good recommendation for me.”
Immersion programs are the perfect segue into understanding where your initial interests lie. Students get to engage with alumni in specific locations and meet with companies at their facilities and learn about the industry and the organization and how they could potentially fit in. The more opportunities to get that hands-on training and real-world experience, it’s only going to set students up for a better understanding of what they want to be doing and where they want to be going with their career.
