The Bucknell Center for Career Advancement (CCA) is available as a resource for students to help them navigate and prepare for life after college. The CCA provides support through career counseling, workshops, networking opportunities and much more. Bucknell has one of the strongest alumni bases, and the CCA can connect students with alumni who currently work in the industry they want to pursue a career in.
Career communities have been created by the CCA to narrow the job search for students and connect them with specified programs and alumni. The career communities include Business & Consulting, STEM, Creative Arts, Media & Communications, Government & Public Interest, Law and Health. The CCA then uses these career communities to create events based on industry and not major. Being a liberal arts institution, Bucknell students may not have a specific major for the industry they are pursuing. These communities enable students to then connect with industries outside of their major. Each community also features various student interns who help manage and facilitate the group.
Career fairs are the largest events the CCA runs. These occur both on campus and in major cities such as New York and Washington D.C. When students attend these events they are given the chance to make face-to-face connections with various employers. Employers at these events are then able to put a face to a student’s name when they apply, which can give them an advantage. Students in every grade at Bucknell are allowed to attend these events and network. They can stay up to date with career fairs and other opportunities through Handshake.
The Bucknell University Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Center for Career Advancement have also partnered together to start a mentorship program for seniors. The program has 58 volunteers who will meet with students once a week for the month of October. The goal of the program is to have students work on their networking skills and expand their network before graduation. Even though the program just started this past week, students have expressed their gratitude for as well as the initial success of the program.
“I want to be a psychologist, and I don’t have connections with or really know anyone who has taken a similar path as the one I intend to,” said Gwen Scopelliti ’24. “I am hoping to go to grad school and thought the mentor program would be beneficial to talk to someone who has been through the application process. My mentor was already very helpful and put me on a constructed plan and path to help facilitate my future career.”
Students can also utilize the CCA at any time for help with getting internships and starting the early process of job searching.
“As a sophomore nervous about their future the career center has allowed me to be a lot more confident about my goals,” said James Barker ’26. “The mentors there are so helpful and go above and beyond their abilities to assist you.”
The connections the CCA can make are one of the main reasons students use the center. “The career center has been essential in connecting me directly… with alumni in various industries,” said Caleb Schmidt ’26.
Bucknell is still here to help students even after they have graduated. As long as someone has graduated with a degree from Bucknell, the Alumni Career Services serve as a place to help alumni further their careers. These services can be for alumni trying to advance their career or switch it entirely. Julee Bertsch, who has more than 30 years of experience in the career field, can also speak to and help any Bucknell alumni. This is a very unique aspect of Bucknell and demonstrates the willingness of the Bucknell community to help their alumni.
Handshake is Bucknell’s online career-searching partner. Any Bucknell student can create an account and the site allows students to apply for jobs and internships from companies that frequently hire from Bucknell. The site updates frequently and will send students alerts when jobs are posted that they are qualified for. Handshake also provides students with lists of employers that frequently hire from Bucknell and ones that have alumni working for them. This gives students the tools they need to reach out and connect with future employers.
Appointments for the CCA are also scheduled through Handshake. Students can make an appointment for resumé reviews, cover letter writing, networking tips or just talk about their career options with the staff. The staff is available to meet with students almost every day, and provides guidance throughout students’ job hunt.
The graduating classes of Bucknell have historically performed very well in the job market. The 2022 graduating class had a mean starting salary of $69,540 which is well above the national average for graduates. The class also had a 94 percent rate of being employed, in graduate school or applying to graduate school. Results like this demonstrate the impact the Center for Career Advancement has on Bucknell students.
