The Student Engagement Center offers a variety of services to the Whitman community. From personal career advising to small-group workshops, the Student Engagement Center can help students develop skills that will be beneficial before and after graduation. We invite you to explore what our Center has to offer by clicking on one of the links below. The descriptions give a good idea of our services, but we encourage you to visit the Student Engagement Center in person and take advantage of all of our services and programs.

Career Advising

The Student Engagement Center offers comprehensive career advising services to Whitman College students and alumni. Here is a brief list of topics that are frequently addressed during appointments:

Resumes--We encourage students to develop a resume and regularly update it as they gain more experience and progress in their academic career. A Career Advisor can help you learn the basics of writing an effective resume and then critique your resume after you have developed your first draft.

Job Search Preparation--We can help you develop the necessary "tools" you need to conduct a successful job search including writing a resume, learning interview techniques and targeting employers. You can obtain great introductory information by attending one of our scheduled workshops which will then make the time spent with a Career Advisor more productive.

Graduate School Application Process--We can assist you in obtaining information about graduate school options that are available in various fields, as well as how to improve your candidacy and select the program that is right for you. Check out our Center's in-house publication, Making the Graduate School Decision

Career Advising--Career advisors can help you explore the myriad of career options available to you. We have several instruments that can be helpful in this process including the Strong Interest Inventory and MyPlan.com computerized career information system.

Networking--We can introduce you to the Career Consultant Network--a database of alumni and parents who can provide you with information regarding their jobs and career paths, as well as job shadowing, summer jobs, internships and full-time employment opportunities. It can be accessed by appointment.

The Student Engagement Center maintains an in-office library that includes many books and publications of interest to students. All of the books that are part of our Library are included on the Penrose Library database with the location listed as "Career Center" and a note to ask the reference librarian if you have any questions. To check out these books, come over to the Student Engagement Center.

Books are organized under the following categories:

Student Engagement Center Publications:

Making the Most of a Career Fair

Creating a Professional Resume

Interview Preparation Guide

Magazines:

The Student Engagement Center subscribes to a number of magazines such as: Verge (work and study abroad), Equal Opportunity, Careers and the Disabled, Salary Survey, The Black Collegian, Affirmative Action Register and others.

Check Out Procedure and Policy
Books and magazines can be checked out for five days, or longer by request, unless they have a "no check out" sticker. You must be a current Whitman student in good standing.

Career Consultant Network
Both students and alumni can utilize the Career Consultant Network, a database of Whitman alumni, parents and friends who have volunteered to provide career guidance, informational interviews and internship and job information. The Career Consultant Network is available to alumni through the Student Engagement Center by contacting us by e-mail or phone. Simply provide us with information as to your geographic area and the type of employment areas you are pursuing and our staff will do a search for you. We will e-mail an Excel file with the contact information from the database or if you can't access Excel, we can send paper copies.

Mock Interviews
If you are not confident with your interviewing skills or just need a little more practice, schedule a mock interview in the Student Engagement Center. The interview can be targeted to the type of job or graduate program for which you will be interviewing. Just come in and sign up for this helpful service.