BC Parents and Families
As such an important part of a student’s support system, parents and families are key partners in supporting students’ career journeys. Together, we can cheer on and support our students as they discover what brings them joy, what they are good at, and how they can use those gifts and talents in the world to lead a career and life of meaning and purpose
Key Resources For Families
Explore where Eagles land after they graduate from Boston College. Filter first destinations data by school, major, industry, location, and more.
Handshake is our centralized platform where top employers post positions for Boston College students. Students have access to 400,000+ employer profiles, which include information about their organization, peer reviews, interview tips, and open positions.
Eagle Exchange is an interactive virtual platform that fosters connections between students and Boston College alumni. Students can use Eagle Exchange to build their professional network, ask career-related questions, find alumni mentors, apply to projects to build skills, and more.
Get Ready with the Career Center | A Year by Year Guide
Our mission in the Boston College Career Center is to empower and support your student to incorporate their career goals into a life of meaning and impact. Our hope is that all students take the time to fully explore their interests, skills, and values while they are students so they can soar when they leave the Heights. Following are some suggestions you can also share with your student on how and why they should connect with the Career Center this year.
Parents often wonder how they can support their student’s career exploration and planning.In general, the greatest support you can provide to your student as they make their career (and other life) decisions is to be a strong cheerleader.
- Encourage your student to discover what brings them joy, what they are good at, and how they can use those gifts and talents in the world to lead a career and life of meaning and purpose.
- Remind your student that career paths are rarely linear; part of the college experience is learning new information and growing in ways that inevitably lead to rethinking longer-term plans.
The programs and services mentioned here are merely a sampling of what our Career Center offers (see here for more). If at any point in your student’s education they have questions or are in need of career coaching and guidance, please encourage them to schedule an appointment with a career coach via our Handshake platform.
We encourage first year students to get acclimated to their courses and their new living environment, and to get involved on campus. Their primary connection with the Career Center should be around developing self-awareness of their skills, interests, and values as they relate to exploring careers. They should:
- Complete the Focus 2 Assessment to learn about their interests, skills, and values and how they might align with majors and careers. Bring the results to a career exploration coach, academic advisor, or other trusted mentor to discuss how to incorporate these results into their education and career exploration
- Create a professional resume, which may be adapted from their high school resume, to start articulating the skills and experiences they have already gained
- Complete their Handshake profile to gain access to relevant events, schedule career appointments, explore opportunities, and more!
We encourage sophomores to start to engage more deeply in exploring how their interests, skills, and values align with possible careers. If they didn’t connect with the Career Center in their first year, they should in their sophomore year, with a focus on how to explore career options that align with what brings them joy, what they are good at, and who the world needs them to be. They should also begin connecting their academic, work, and other co-curricular experiences to career readiness skills.
- Attend the Endeavor program to explore career options and meet alums in a range of careers
- Register for our 1-credit Designing Your Career course to learn how to design a career and life that feel meaningful and purposeful
- Attend a Career Center workshop, panel, networking event, or career fair to gain exposure to new people and opportunities
Junior year is when students start focusing more on career decisions and planning. They should learn to articulate how they have gained career readiness skills through coursework, jobs, leadership, involvement, etc. Many students place a strong emphasis on getting an internship or other experience-based opportunity for the summer after junior year.
- Make a strong connection with an alumni mentor by signing up for MentorMatch
- Explore the summer experience dashboard to see how other BC students have spent their summers, and connect with peers for advice about finding and applying for summer positions
- Attend career fairs and networking nights (and other relevant career events) to make connections and explore internship opportunities
In their senior year, students focus on determining and pursuing their post-graduation plans. They may pursue jobs, post-grad service, graduate school, or another meaningful opportunity. It is important for them to keep in mind that timelines vary widely. While senior year can be a time of anxiety about the uncertainty of their next step, our hope is that students see the many exciting adventures and opportunities ahead of them!
- Reference BC’s post-grad outcomes data to learn more about hiring timelines, opportunities, and more
- Attend career fairs, networking nights, and information sessions to make connections with employers, alumni, and graduate programs
- Make a strong connection with an alumni mentor by signing up for MentorMatch
Parent & Families FAQs
It’s never too early or too late for your student to connect with our office. Whether your student has a sense of what they want to do or if they are just starting to explore, we can meet them where they are to provide support and resources.
A student who is unsure about their career path should embrace the college experience as a journey of discovery and exploration to define a life of meaning and purpose. From day one at Boston College, students embark on this journey through academic courses, extracurriculars, and professional opportunities. The Career Center supports this growth by helping students develop a strong understanding of their core interests, skills, and values—connecting what they are good at and what brings them joy to potential career paths. Students can begin by utilizing tools like the Focus 2 assessment, and then by participating in structured exploratory programs like Endeavor to meet alumni and gain broad exposure to various fields. Because a student's path is rarely linear, the focus should be on building a supportive community and engaging in intentional exploration. Ultimately, the Career Center uses a cluster model to guide exploration beyond traditional major-to-career pathways, ensuring students are prepared for a variety of meaningful careers, regardless of their declared major
If your student has a specific career path in mind, the Career Center can help them understand and prepare for that specific field by focusing on the critical skills and steps needed to enter it. Through our career cluster stucture, your student can work directly with a staff member who is an industry expert in that area. This dedicated coach not only provides tailored guidance but also curates specific programming and resources for students interested in those fields. This helps your student identify the necessary competencies, development opportunities, and connections that employers in that specific industry seek, ensuring they build a focused, actionable strategy for securing jobs and internships.
Yes! Internships can be a big part of a student’s path to a meaningful career and life as they provide a great way to explore a career field and gain skills.
As with all aspects of a student’s career discernment and preparation journey, the student is expected to take initiative in this process, and the Career Center is here to guide and support them wherever they need help along the way. Career Center offers programs and resources to help students discover the types of internships they want to pursue, identify internship opportunities for which they can apply, connect with professionals in their field, prepare their application materials, practice for their interview, and more.
You can find more information on internships and internship resources here.
While internships are an important way to gain professional experience and further explore a field of interest, there is no one perfect time to complete an internship. Timing will vary depending on factors such as a students’ field(s) of interest, career readiness, and motivation. We recommend that your student connect with a career coach to determine the timing that makes the most sense for them.
Yes! While many students choose to work in the Boston area during summers and after graduation, we can help students find internships or jobs anywhere in the world. We offer many resources -- including Handshake, Eagle Exchange, career fairs, networking events, and Interstride -- that help students connect with opportunities, alumni, and employers across the globe. You can access more details about where our students land through our summer experience dashboard and post-graduation dashboard. We also have reciprocity agreements with many of the other Jesuit colleges and universities. Students who are interested in accessing the resources offered by one of these partner schools should reach out to our office to make this request.
On-campus jobs provide a great way to gain skills while earning money. All on-campus student employment as well as off-campus Federal Work Study opportunities are managed through the Office of Student Services. See here for more information.
Students are encouraged to access the Career Center for resources and assistance with their resumes and cover letters, which they will need to apply for most work-study roles.
The most impactful support you can offer is through expressed interest and encouragement, while actively helping your student build self-sufficiency. This means stepping back from the impulse to intervene and instead becoming a supportive listening ear, acknowledging that the career search is ultimately their journey of discovery.
Show genuine curiosity about their evolving interests and, if they're open to it, you can learn about industry trends and hiring timelines alongside them—just remember to let them take the lead. Encourage them to actively network and leverage the alumni community through platforms like Eagle Exchange, in addition to using all other available resources like the Career Center and career coaches. Finally, remind them to prioritize self-care throughout the process.
Your student's path will be shaped more by the skills they develop and their exploration than by their field of study. To ease your mind, we encourage you to look at our First Destination data to see the wide range of careers and graduate schools where our alumni land with every type of major. You can best support your student by encouraging them to explore broadly and connect with a variety of alumni. Using resources like Eagle Exchange to search for alumni who pursued that specific major will reveal the many different career paths open to them.
Thank you for thinking of us - referrals are vital to the Career Center and to our students’ success. Please contact the relevant member of our Employer Engagement team based on their areas of focus, or send a note to their general mailbox at employer.recruiting@bc.edu. They will be happy to speak with you or your HR department to explore how we can help with your company’s hiring needs.
In general, we strongly recommend that you follow the lead of your student when it comes to their career discernment timeline and process. As your student seeks your advice and guidance, it is helpful to be equipped with information about our programs and resources you can refer them to. Below are some examples that may be helpful:
- A first year student who is considering their major or career can complete the Focus 2 Assessment to learn about their interests, skills, and values and how those might align with majors and careers. Bring the results to a career exploration coach, academic advisor, or other trusted mentor to discuss how to incorporate these results into their education and career exploration.
- A sophomore may attend the Endeavor program to explore career options and meet alums in a range of careers or enroll in our 1-credit Designing Your Career course to learn how to design a career and life that feels meaningful and purposeful.
- A junior who is starting to focus more on career decisions and planning may benefit from having a strong connection with an alumni mentor through MentorMatch.
- A senior who is putting their plans into action might reference BC’s post-grad outcomes data to learn more about hiring timelines and opportunities and attend at least one of our career fairs or networking nights to make connections with employers and alumni.
The Career Center is located at 38 Commonwealth Avenue. You can find more details, including our hours of operation, on the Visit Us page.