Faculty Toolkit
The sections below describe the many ways that the Block Career Center partners with faculty by providing programmatic support, access to online career resources, and helpful tips as you guide and advise Friedman School students. We look forward to working with you!
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Class Visits
Block Career Center staff are available to stop by your class and speak with students for 15 – 20 minutes (or longer, if you like!). Possible topics include:
- Introduction to Block Career Center Services & Resources
- Exploring Career Options
- Finding Internships and Jobs
- Resumes, CVs, and Cover Letters
- Networking and Personal Branding
- Interview Skills
To request a class visit, please email the Block Career Services Center team at blockcareercenter@tufts.edu with as much advance notice as possible.
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Career Exploration
- Encourage your students to reflect on their skills, interests, competencies, personality and values. We offer career exploration information and tools, such as our Transferable Skills Checklist and sample internships, to name a few.
- Suggest Block Career Center resources. Tools like our Labor Market Insights and resources available through Career Directions can be used to research career options for a variety of academic programs. Students can also schedule 1-on-1 appointments with Block Career Center advisors to continue the discussion about available resources.
- Recommend exploringe broadly. Friedman School grads purse a wide variety of paths. Tell students to check out alumni employment and grad school destinations when visiting our Career Directions subgroups, which are available on the green navigation bar on each of the Career Directions pages.
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Networking Tips
- Encourage students to join Friedman School LinkedIn groups and chat with Featured Alumni. Through both LinkedIn and the Featured Alumni in each of our Career Directions, students will be able find interesting individuals and request informational interviews from those whose career paths interest them. Helpful tips for creating a LinkedIn profile and composing questions for informational interviews, as well as more general networking info, is available via the Networking & Personal Branding section of our site.
- Share personal networking stories with your students. Networking can be an intimidating process, even for experienced professionals, and your success stories — or even times when things didn’t go as planned! — will help demystify the process for students. Have you ever found a job lead through a connection? Received great career advice from a conversation with someone? These are examples of networking in action.
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Job and Internship Search Resources
The Block Career Center offers numerous resources for finding jobs and internships, including tools just for Friedman School students, field-specific career sites, and much more. In addition, we meet with students in 1-on-1 appointments to discuss resumes and cover letters, internship and job search strategies, and more. To learn more, visit this page.
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Advice for Recommendation Letters
A letter of recommendation is “expert testimony” to a student’s ability to perform a task: contributing to a team project, succeeding in a doctoral program, or learning from a particular experience (such as research or an internship). You need to be confident of the applicant’s ability to be able to write convincingly. For detailed information, visit this page.
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Programming for Your Department (Arranging guest speakers, alumni panels)
If you are interested in holding an event for your students, the Block Career Center can help you find potential alumni guest speakers or panelists.
Typical steps to planning a guest speaker or panel event:
- Determine the program topic
- Secure date, time, room, etc.
- Determine the appropriate number of speakers or panelists (for panels, we suggest securing 4-5 people to ensure 3-4)
- Determine the various perspectives on the topic you want represented on the panel
- Solicit possible panelist names from other faculty members, students and the Block Career Center
- Send invitations to potential panelists in waves (as people are busy, you’ll need to invite many more than you need) well in advance of the event
- As alumni and others respond yes/no, determine who you’ll ask next so as to maintain a variety of perspectives on your panel
- Once panel is finalized, stay in touch with panelists. Write communication plan, including dates to send reminder emails
- Complete facilities requests and finalize logistical details
- Write blurb for advertising. The Block Career Center can publicize events in Handshake, as well as on our website and through Friedman School social media channels
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Block Career Center Workshops + Employer Outreach
Each year, the Block Career Center plans workshops that allow students to explore career options and build essential skills. Visit our calendar for upcoming events, including opportunities you may want to suggest to your students.
How you can help your students:
- Announce Block Career Center events in your classes and encourage students to attend relevant events
- Offer extra credit for attending career-building events or make an assignment out of attending a Block Career Center event once per semester
How you can partner with the Block Career Center for events and employer outreach:
- Recommend organizations that we could encourage to post jobs and internships in Handshake
- Bring a Block Career Center staff member with you if you’re planning an employer site visit
- Attend employer events to hear more about what is going on in industry