Be a Career Champion

As BC faculty and staff, you are key partners in empowering students to pursue meaningful careers and lives. Our community's collective participation in career education is vital to ensuring all students have equitable access to career resources and opportunities. Because the academic experience is the one and only common experience among all BC students, your role in a student's career discernment and planning is a critical part of ensuring equity. Without your assistance in integrating career development into the classroom and advising, students from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds may miss out on career opportunities, be less aware of their options, and feel less prepared to pursue their goals. We are here to support you in this work.

Let's Work Together

We invite you to partner with us to provide the best possible career resources to our students. Below are actions you can take to support students with their career journeys. 

Partner With Our Team

Invite a member of our team to help organize a program for your students, develop a resource, or join a department meeting to share resources and information. 

Share Ideas and Feedback

We want to hear your ideas and feedback, both positive and constructive. If you hear feedback from students, please share as well! Reach out to Joe Du Pont or Rachel Greenberg to discuss. 

Seek Our Consultation

If you have an idea you want to pilot or you have a problem you seek to solve, we are available to serve as thought partners. Reach out to Joe Du Pont or Rachel Greenberg to discuss. 

Request a Classroom Presentation

Our team is available to facilitate interactive workshops for your class or to provide a brief overview of our services and resources. We invite you to request a presentation.

Share Employer Leads

When you receive job/internship opportunities from employers/alumni, please forward them to our team. We can then connect with them about all the ways they can recruit BC students.

Review First Destination Data

Use our career outcome data to better understand the types of opportunities students majoring in your discipline pursue. Reach out to Joe Du Pont to discuss the data if you have questions. 

 

Contribute to Our Blog

We have an active and well-read blog where we post content for students on a variety of career-related topics. Contact us if you have suggestions for a topic or an interest in guest blogging.

 

Add Career to Your Course Syllabi

Students are gaining the skills they need to succeed in their careers in the classroom. To help them make the connection, highlight the skills they will be learning in your class on the syllabus. 

Link to the Career Center on Your Website

To demonstrate to students the interconnectedness of our work and to help students easily find our resources, we encourage you link to the Career Center website on your department website. 

Key Resources

Eagle Exchange is Boston College’s online platform to connect students, alumni, and the rest of the BC community for professional conversations, networking, and mentorship. We invite you to join the platform to connect with alumni and reconnect with your past students. 

Handshake is a student’s go-to tool for career-related activity at Boston College, from searching for jobs and internships, to accessing events, to scheduling appointments with career coaches. We invite you to explore the job/internship postings on Handshake and learn about employers who are hiring BC students.

Tips for Writing a Strong Letter of Recommentation

One of the most common ways that faculty and staff can support students in their career journeys is by providing letters of recommendation for job, internship, fellowship, and graduate school applications.

 

Reference relevant skills

Discuss students’ specific skills as developed and applied in their work with you and how they may translate to the opportunity to which the student is applying.

 

Provide specific details

Be specific about students’ performance in your course. Was the course a demanding one? How well did the student perform relative to other students? Did the student do something that stands out in your mind? For example, did the student write a superior term paper or essay? If so, indicate the topic and why it was a superior work. Note the student's potential for intellectual development.

Provide context

Indicate how long and in what capacity you have known the student. If you are familiar with the student’s achievements outside the classroom, you may mention them, but remember, keep your comments specific to your direct work with the student. Do not simply rehash the student’s resume.

Make it official

If you are submitting a hard copy, print the letter on Boston College letterhead, and seal it in a letterhead envelope. It is advisable to sign your name across the seal.

 

Keep it confidential

Avoid any questions about confidentiality. Send the letter directly to the institution via mail, email, or an application service instead of giving it to the student to send on your behalf.

Keep it ethical

Under no circumstances should you have students draft their own letters of recommendation to which you will sign your name.

Career Tools for Faculty and Advisors

Use the interactive resources below to help your students or advisees identify their strengths and areas for growth and connect what they’re learning in the classroom to potential career opportunities.

Use this resource to help students reflect on the skills they built in a class that they have taken. Recommended time: at the end of a semester.

 

Use this resource to help students set goals for building skills in their future coursework. Recommended time: at the beginning of a semester/during course registration.

 

Additional Career Center Resources
 

Get to Know the Career Center

Learn about our mission, vision, and shared values that form the foundation of how we work at the Boston College Career Center.
 

About Us