Walton Career Connections (WCC) offers many services to meet students where they are at in their career searching journey. Whether they need an individual appointment to help map out their time in college and beyond, or want to attend and network at one of our business career fairs, there are tons of resources to help students improve and learn more.
The job/internship search can be lonely and daunting for many students- having a great support system through WCC, the Sam M. Walton College of Business, family, and friends is integral for student success.
Role of Parents and Supporters
Students go to their support system time and time again for guidance! Below are a few suggestions of resources, information, and best practices you can help guide your student to!
On this website you can search through the our services, build career skills, jobs & internships, and events tabs to learn about the multiple ways students can engage in various career readiness skills. Ask your student if they have logged into their Handshake and VMock account yet!
Did you know all Walton students can schedule an individual 45 minute appointment with a business career coach to help identify areas of improvement in their job search and overall professional development? Students (and alumni!) can make an appointment on Handshake here.
You can help first-year students prepare for future careers by connecting them to a Walton Career Connections coach. During this first year, we can help identify pathways into tangible careers from their majors of interest and help them explore jobs and industries that line up with their values, strengths, and passions.
First and second year students should explore our various career path pages and the Labor Market Insight tool available for each major to help give them (and yourself) a better idea of the options in every career cluster.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified 8 NACE competencies that employers rank as the most desirable traits they seek out in students. Check out our NACE page to learn more about each competency and behaviors /skills students can work on developing to be more desirable candidates!
Attention parents of Walton College students! There is a Facebook group for parents and supporters of current and prospective Walton students. It will give you the chance to connect with other parents and get questions answered from Walton staff. We also regularly post important information from Walton that will help you better support your students. Please join us! *Note: there are membership questions that you’ll be required to answer in order to join. This helps us keep out spammers and bots. Please make sure all questions are answered!
Use this link to request to join:
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18uVMUE6jo/?mibextid=K35XfP
FAQ from Parents and Supporters
We recommend all Walton students look for an internship throughout their time in college. Internships increases a students knowledge and hireability, gives them valuable time to learn if they enjoy the path they are on, and increases their entry level salaries upon graduation!
We recommend students begin searching for an internship to complete after their sophomore year and junior year!
Supply Chain Management majors must complete a required internship and internship class before receiving their degree – all other Walton majors strongly encourage but do not require an internship.
Timelines for a student securing an internship will vary from person to person, but we do recommend students begin searching two full semesters prior to when they want an internship to begin. This means, if a student wants an internship in the summer they need to begin searching in the previous fall semester, starting in August and attending the fall career fair. This helps account for the variety of hiring timelines companies are on. Most internship positions for the summer are filled by the end of the fall semester.
Effort, beginning early, taking advantage of on campus networking opportunities, and intentional job searching will all increase a student’s chances of finding an internship opportunity – this process could take anywhere from 2-10 months. If your student has been searching for more than 3 months without hearing back from companies – encourage them to see a career coach sooner rather than later.
Intention: The more work your student does early in their college career to explore and narrow down what industries and careers appeal to them, and the more networking your student does, will greatly increase their own confidence in what they want to do, as well as recruiter confidence in them.
Network: People love connection. People are relational. Students who are active in reaching out to recruiters, attending career events, and who put themselves out there on LinkedIn are much more likely to have positive job searching traction!
Grit: The job search is something only your student can do for themselves. It is also a skill and process that takes time, energy, and tenacity to see success. Encourage your student when they feel frustrated, push them to campus resources, and reassure them of the person you know they are to help them in times of job rejections.
