Preparing for the Unpredictable
As the final months of completing his undergraduate degree creep around corner, graduating Brockport senior Javon Williams begins to brace himself to enter into his field, and to prepare to finally put his knowledge to the test. In the past, preparing for this moment included shaking hands with potential employers at job and internship fairs, or meeting with career advisors at Career Services. Before COVID-19 altered the campus at Brockport, departments provided these resources for seniors, like Williams, to prepare them to enter into the workforce. Because of Covid-19, those same departments have grown to adapt to our current more virtual reality.
Williams has been preparing for graduation since first learning that he was set to walk the stage to receive two undergraduate degrees. With one bachelor’s degree in finance, and another in accounting, he was ready to take on the world and conquer any challenge. Much to his surprise, the world was preparing to take on a challenge of its own.
As the coronavirus swept through Brockport, causing the university to closed its doors, student resources available at Career Services and the Academic Success Center became unavailable. With this, Williams says he immediately felt overwhelmed and filled with anxiety. Since his first year at Brockport, the Academic Success Center and Career Services has provided useful tools to aid in both his academic and career journey.
“Prior to the pandemic, I utilized the Academic Success Center for multiple services,” says Williams. “As a Freshman I would seek advisement, and participate in personal and career development programs. I also had the opportunity to receive tutoring for a challenging Accounting class my Junior year. Prior to starting my final year, I participated in resume workshops, and attended Brockport’s 2020 Jobs and Internships Fair.”
Williams says, “having the opportunity to get in front of over one hundred employers helped me land interviews weekly leading up to the shutdown. After the shutdown however, most of those opportunities became obsolete almost overnight.”
Without in-person student resources, preparing for graduation became a daunting task. After the closures, Brockport seniors, like Williams, were faced with the challenges of finding job and internship opportunities during the pandemic, on their own.
When confronted with the feeling that he would not find these opportunities, or have these resources available to him, Williams felt alone. That was until he started to receive invitations for virtual events that were to be hosted by Career Services.
In addition to the invitations, he also started receiving notifications from Career Services via Handshake to join in on their 2021 Virtual Jobs and Internships Fair.
Later that week, he says he was ecstatic when he opened his inbox to find a student employment newsletter, and a weekly job roundup from a platform called Handshake.
“Handshake is an amazing platform that is used by Career Services. On Handshake students are not only able to search employment and internship opportunities through the site, but they also send out weekly emails with links to direct job postings,” says Williams. “Within the weekly emails from Handshake, they also encourage students who are struggling to find opportunities to utilize their new resources,” Williams explains.
In attempt to aid students during the pandemic, Career Services and other departments have opted to continue their services to students via online. In addition to job and internship search assistance, now students are able to do one-on-one appointments via Zoom to receive services such as resume or cover letter assistance, interview prep, and career planning, to name a few.
Like Williams, many students are utilizing these resources to manage the anxieties that arise when preparing for graduation. Having these new opportunities, Williams explains, has encouraged and reenergized graduating seniors who are challenged to prepare during one of the most unpredictable times of their lives.
As the world slowly learns to adjust to our current circumstances, the departments on Brockport’s campus slowly convert their resources to an online base to better serve their students.
Williams concludes by addressing how stress-relieving it is to know that Brockport departments are reconstructing their resources to better accommodate the students.
“Knowing that there are educators in Career Services that are dedicated to the students, so much so that they’ve adjusted to an online platform to better reach students, has helped me gain the confidence that I need to break out into the world.”
