From Nov. 2-3, the Center for Career and Calling at Seattle Pacific University held a professional headshot photoshoot along with a virtual career fair. Students received the opportunity for professional headshots in addition to creating connections with recruiters and advancing their resumes and online profiles. 

Some students who attended the photoshoot, including Alexis Rogers, a third year business administration major, emphasized the importance of the opportunities presented to them.

“I am a business major, so it’s very crucial that you have everything together. While it’s not necessarily required to be a business major, it’s kind of a nice thing to have in your arsenal,” Rogers said. “Especially ones that are done high quality and that aren’t just like a backdrop in a room. It’s an improvement to get me there and to be successful.”

Other students such as seventh year life science major Eren Dodd found potential work opportunities in their time at the fair.

“In the CCC event, you sign up for online sessions for different companies with different recruiters. I was invited to join the City Year session, so I did,” Dodd said. “I hadn’t looked at the job beforehand, but when the recruiter started explaining the details, I was hooked. She was a super cool person and helped me fill out an application for the job.”

The Center for Career and Calling offers many different services to students, including one-on-one meetings and weekly events, according to graduate career advisor Melissa-Ann Lagunas.

“I provide one-on-one career counseling with undergraduates at SPU, and the counseling sessions can look a little bit different. We do job and internship search strategies. We can do mock interviews, help students figure out a major area of study,” Lagunas said. “We have a drop in hours every Monday through Friday. In terms of events, we tend to host other types of workshops.”

Some students, such as Rogers, use the Center for Career and Calling semi-frequently.

“I have been here once. I use them a lot from internships and internships through them which is normally where I come through. I normally don’t actually come in person,” Rogers said. “I normally just go back and forth over email to get my information.”

Despite the opportunities provided by the career fair, some students such as Dodd are disappointed by the exclusively digital format.

“I’m disappointed that it wasn’t in-person now that COVID is no longer a threat, but I get how this might be hard to organize,” Dodd said. “Still, it was pretty neat. I went into an event expecting nothing, and I walked out with an application to my dream job.”

Rogers is happy with the quality of support that the Center for Career and Calling offers.

“I think they do a really good job of putting on a career fair. I think before I would have been very much against the virtual side. I kind of like in-person meetings, but after COVID and after seeing a lot of stuff can be done virtually but still make an impact, I’m kind of impartial to it either way. This will be my first official virtual career fair, so I’m kind of holding judgment until after the fact,” Roger said.

The Center for Career and Calling is heavily focused on building relationships with students as well as sharing the many resources they offer, according to Lagunas.

“We want to figure out the students’ lives, and so if there’s any feedback students have for the CCC or or things that they specifically want help on we encourage them to reach out to us by coming into our office or emailing us,” Lagunas said. “We have so much information just on our website.”

For more information about the Center for Career and Calling or the resources they offer, click here.