School officially kicked off last Friday. I met with several incoming students and their parents in receptions. One parent asked me what classes I teach. I teach three upper-division classes. One of them is Leadership & Career Management, which prepares students for a hospitality career. Even though I normally do not teach freshmen and sophomores, I encouraged them to visit me at anytime when they have questions about internships or jobs. A parent told me it was way too early to worry about her son’s career. Is that so?
Entering college is indeed a huge change for most high school students. They need some time to get used to a new life. As a result, I do not recommend freshmen to work part-time because I want to ensure they adjust well in college lives and truly enjoy their first year college experience. However, it does not mean they cannot start preparing for a career when they are still freshmen.
I conduct research in employee recruitment and selection, and I deal with corporate recruiters for years. I know the important factors that influence hospitality recruiters’ hiring decisions. Recruiters evaluate candidates on their leadership skills, relevant internship and job experience, person-organization and person-job fit, interview behaviors, and professionalism. Graduating seniors need to articulate these qualities when interviewing for jobs. However, building such credentials takes time. During recession, the unemployment rate has reached record high of 9.5% or above for a long time, I believe the only way students can stand out from the crowd is to start preparing for a career early --- the earlier, the better. Gaining relevant internship or job experience may not sound critical to freshmen, but it is time for them to build their leadership skills and learn how to conduct themselves professionally.
If it is too early to start preparing for a career in first year of college, please tell me when is a better time?
References:
Picture was downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08302010P
Entering college is indeed a huge change for most high school students. They need some time to get used to a new life. As a result, I do not recommend freshmen to work part-time because I want to ensure they adjust well in college lives and truly enjoy their first year college experience. However, it does not mean they cannot start preparing for a career when they are still freshmen. I conduct research in employee recruitment and selection, and I deal with corporate recruiters for years. I know the important factors that influence hospitality recruiters’ hiring decisions. Recruiters evaluate candidates on their leadership skills, relevant internship and job experience, person-organization and person-job fit, interview behaviors, and professionalism. Graduating seniors need to articulate these qualities when interviewing for jobs. However, building such credentials takes time. During recession, the unemployment rate has reached record high of 9.5% or above for a long time, I believe the only way students can stand out from the crowd is to start preparing for a career early --- the earlier, the better. Gaining relevant internship or job experience may not sound critical to freshmen, but it is time for them to build their leadership skills and learn how to conduct themselves professionally.
If it is too early to start preparing for a career in first year of college, please tell me when is a better time?
References:
Picture was downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok08302010P
This blog post made me think. When I was in high school deciding where I wanted to go to college, I was positive I wanted to attend a college that had a program for hospitality. I was so sure that this was the path I wanted to take that I took a class at FIT in New York City during my sophomore year in event planning and once I fell in love with that, I applied for a job in a hotel to work at the front desk and in the catering department. During my junior and senior year of high school I worked at the Grand Summit Hotel two days a week further proving my strong interest for the hospitality business. I believe that a student can hold a job during college to help explore the many different aspects and possibilities however I also agree with what you mentioned about how freshman need to have the typical college experience and not be thinking so far in advance... this is a confusing idea and there are so many different opinions but I do know that either way, Syracuse hospitality has fantastic resources and hopefully when we graduate we will be able to be placed into a great job!
ReplyDeleteYou actually brought a very good point. I am very glad to have you in the program --- it seems you are well-prepared and know what you want for your career, which is steps ahead. In your case, I feel a structured internship program and a supervisory role at work could be important. Keep up with you good work!
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