Blog

One of the most enduring benefits of a Duke education is the opportunity to network with successful alumni around the world. Connecting with alumni can help students enhance their studies, explore career options, make new contacts and identify potential jobs and internships.

Now, the Duke Alumni Association is making it far easier for students to tap into that network. This fall, DAA created a student portal into its redesigned alumni directory, for the first time giving students the ability to search for and contact more than 100,000 alumni. Students can access the directory through DAA’s website (alumni.duke.edu), where they can search for alumni in specific industries or locations. Students use their NetIDs to sign in to the directory; there is no additional registration necessary.

Due to industry demand and a shift in recruiting trends, many consulting firms will now begin internship recruiting on college campuses during the 2016 fall semester.   This is a change from the past when internship recruitment was limited to later, in the spring semester.  Because of this change, students interested in consulting, will begin interviewing for internships three to five months earlier, in September. 

Recently, 2015 computer science alumnus YJ Yang spoke to a crowd of students on coding interview strategies as part of the Fannie Mitchell Expert in Residence Program.

[Gearing up for the Career Fair]

9:35: I'm eating breakfast and reading The Chronicle. Kind of. Pancakes at Penn are really hitting the spot, and consequently distracting me. 

9:36: Headed to the Career Fair today. Job. Career. The Future. Watcha gonna do with your life, Elizabeth? Nerves? Nah, it's just the rest of my life starting right now, in a gym that smells like sneakers, at a table, with a stranger who can only be so excited to work yet another career fair... Piece of cake! 

9:37: Advice I read in The Chronicle from the Career Center: Know what you want to get out of the fair. Right. Obvious. Hi, I'd like an internship-that-becomes-full-time-job, please. Preferably highly paid that allows me to eat local and organic. Got one? Great. See you this summer.

It’s that time of the year again when we all start to hear the question… The one that if you’re like me and knee-deep in internship applications, can put your stomach in knots: “You have plans for the summer?”

Excuse me while I binge on Downton Abbey episodes and Trader Joe’s dried mango slices. I will do all the dishes, scoop up the dog poop, and stare down those creepy squirrels that jump out of the trash cans on West Campus. Just don’t remind me that I. Don’t. Know. Because let’s be honest, there are few things that Duke students like less than not being on top of things. And now, with lots of internships to find and emails to write, it’s not only “not on top,” it feels like I’m at flat bottom.

As a first-year, you may think you won’t engage with the Career Center for at least another year.  We hope you’re wrong! Look below for ways to engage and think about how you can add to your experience here at Duke!

There are four ways to stay informed about excellent ways to engage:

I spent the previous week studying for finals and writing papers with limited sleep, but when I handed in my last assignment, I felt a mixture of relief and resignation. 

“Thank you,” the department secretary said, “You’re all set.” 
“That’s it?” I asked.
“That’s it!” She replied cheerfully.

First-year undergraduates are often faced with a double-bind: the need for professional experience in order to gain professional experience.  Compounding this challenge is the fact that when vying for summer internships, first-years find themselves in competition with more experienced sophomores and juniors.

Recognizing this unique situation, the Career Center established First-Year Internships at Duke, a competitive program that matches first-year students with project-based internships throughout the University and Medical Center.

A Letter from Bill Wright-Swadel, Fannie Mitchell Executive Director of the Career Center

A liberal arts buffet is an educational meal of choice, depth, range, and integration - a mix of academics, experience, and reflection. However, a plate too full is a bad casserole, not a sumptuous feast.

During the fall semester I shared a tweet that was an appropriately cryptic version of the above statement on the Student Affairs/Career Center website. It was in many ways a summation of the conversation the career staff has with students all the time. “How can they take advantage of the wonderful opportunity that is Duke, while not becoming so immersed in the possibilities that the experience becomes a chaotic mix of too much, done not well enough?”