Career Development Center

Career Development Center

COLLEGE EXPERIENCE

Extend your education beyond the classroom! Expand your experience beyond the degree! Apply what you are learning in your coursework to real world settings!

Employers continually express a strong preference for candidates with experience that goes beyond mere academic credentials. With more and more college graduates entering today's competitive job market, it becomes necessary for candidates to demonstrate how their college experience yielded more than just a degree. Employers seek candidates who gained additional experience during their college tenure through involvement in campus organizations, internships, community service projects and part-time jobs.

UM Campus Clubs and Organizations

UM Student Government Association

UM College Night

UM Campus Life

UM Intercultural Activities

UM Internship Postings

UM Study Away

UM Service Learning & Community Engagement

UM University Program Council

UM Intramural Sports

“Today’s college students tend to prefer more concrete, hands-on learning experiences. Our incoming class of freshman represent a new generation of students that can be described as smart, ambitious, incredibly busy, and ethnically diverse. One other characteristic about this generation is that they like to plan. They are focused on the future and believe that any work they do today should be a planned and preparatory investment for the permanent life they wish to lead tomorrow. They are more likely to find summer jobs that serve the community or teach new professional skills than to bother with jobs that simply generate spending money. The popularity of the word internship is suggestive. The jobs this new generation of students find most attractive are apprenticeships that promise to pay off over a lifetime.”
-HOWE & STRAUSS

Impact of Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular Activities: Impact and Types

Activities: Types and Benefits

Beyond the Classroom: Extracurricular Activities

Extracurricular Activities Just as Important as Academics

Experiential Education: Internship Tips

List of Extracurricular Activities

Why Extracurricular Activities Are Important

Impressive Extracurriculars

Extracurricular Activities: A Positive Force

Activity Planner

Experiential Education

College students have available to them a wealth of on-campus opportunities related to their professional and personal growth. Most universities offer numerous services, resources, and activities that might be beneficial to students' development. Students should take advantage of the many social, cultural, and recreational activities that take place on campus, including concerts, art shows, guest speakers, plays, and sporting events. A variety of support services, including tutoring, counseling, advising, special training, and assessments, await the student who realizes the intrinsic value of these offerings.

Also available throughout the school year are career fairs, career information expos, employment conferences, career issues forums, job skills workshops, and graduate school fairs. Career counseling and career testing are available. The extent to which students take advantage of the resources offered for their development will be reflected in their level of preparedness and employability upon graduation.

Transferable Skills

Through active participation in campus clubs, organizations, and other extracurricular activities, students are provided an opportunity to use and develop their skills in leadership, supervision, organization, instruction, interpersonal relations, event planning, project management, fund raising, finance, and a variety of other skills that can easily transfer to the workplace.

Students learn collaborative skills and teamwork while working in groups. They learn discipline and determination through athletic involvement. They learn creative and communication skills through artistic and theatrical projects. They learn analytical skills through research projects.

Volunteer activities also offer students a chance to gain valuable experience through a wide range of community service projects and philanthropic efforts.

Guide Star: Directory of Charities & Non-Profits

Love to Know: List of Non-Profit Organizations

UM Service Learning & Community Engagement

United Way: Central Alabama List of Non-Profit Agencies

UM Campus Clubs and Organizations

Practical Experience

Practical experience in a risk-free environment can be gained through internships, research projects, on-campus programs, part time jobs, temporary jobs, or seasonal jobs. In addition to acquiring career-related knowledge and skills, students are able to make important personal contacts within their field of interest. It is a chance for them to "get their foot in the door." Moreover, candidates with experience have more credibility and maturity and a better chance in the job market than candidates without experience.

Experience does not need to be in the form of a paid or fulltime job in order to be relevant. Valuable experience might be gained in any number of part time, freelance, or voluntary settings. Some of the best experience students gain take place on the college campus and perhaps for no pay.

Career Planning Resources

Career Exploration Information

Job Market Tools

Resume Writing Resources

Skills Employers Value

"Understand that there are other important things happening on campus besides the classroom experience."

-DR. BILL COBB | UM English Professor

"The total university experience is far more than the opportunity to pursue one's career goals in the classroom. It also offers the unique opportunity to serve and to lead. An essential part of your education is linked to the opportunity to participate in student organizations and activities. Leadership, character development and socialization of an individual are enhanced when one chooses to affiliate and participate actively in one of our campus student organizations."
-FREDA SHIVERS | UM Student Affairs Professional

"Campus experiences outside the classroom enhance and expand the education a student receives while in college. Extracurricular activities are an extension of one's college education over and above the pursuit of a degree and clearly make the student more valuable and marketable upon graduation."
-MICHAEL LEBEAU | UM Career Counselor