SHREVEPORT – The Career Services office on any campus is best known for resume building, job hunting, and interview prepping aimed at students nearing the end of their college careers.
But LSUS’s Jennie Flynn-McKevitt is getting ahead of the curve, inviting incoming freshmen to explore how their choice of major aligns with their career goals and personal values.
Career Services is hosting its second Finding Your Fit session this Friday after assisting five incoming freshmen in their June session.
“Finding Your Fit is an interactive exercise where we’re helping them use a particular framework to understand themselves in the context of the world of work,” said Flynn-McKevitt, director of Career Services at LSUS. “We want students to understand their interests in a particular framework and use that framework to understand options that are compatible to them.
“It also gives them permission to ignore things that are incompatible with them, which is one of my favorite features.”
Flynn-McKevitt said four of the five freshmen in the first session were reaffirmed in their major and what a career might look like in their chosen fields.
But one student walked away from the session looking for a new direction, which Flynn-McKevitt said is also a valuable outcome.
“We want students to think through this stuff, to make thoughtful choices about what they want to do inside and outside of the classroom,” Flynn-McKevitt said. “This framework gives them language to talk about themselves and to understand the feel of a major and its career paths.
“This gets into what the culture of a particular profession might feel like, and students can talk through that and reflect on that with the group.”
Based on student input and opinions, Finding Your Fit generates codes that relate to specific interests or skill sets.
“We use a cupcake metaphor in that your primary number is the cake – that’s the primary taste experience and the primary skills or tasks that are used in a particular career,” Flynn-McKevitt said. “Then you have your icing, which complements the cake and adds complexity.
“And then there’s the sprinkles, something you may have to do occasionally in your major or career. The point is to have a platform for students to explore themselves and how they might fit in a particular career or major.”
The sessions also serve to establish a relationship with students and Career Services, hopefully encouraging students to interact with the office and explore their resources throughout their college journey.
If incoming freshmen can’t attend Friday’s session, Career Services is hosting another session Aug. 13.
For more information about registering for these events or Career Services in general, email career@lsus.edu.
