Coaching Your Students for Summer

Here in the Career Center we consider ourselves to be coaches for every step in scope of professional development.   It’s a fun element of our jobs, the ability to work one-on-one with all academic majors and years to help perfect the resume, polish interviewing skills, research internship opportunities or coach students into their future career path.  Through coaching and mentoring, students learn about themselves and what they do (or do not) what to do for a career!  (For us, both lessons are highly valuable!)

Wondering how you can act as a coach and not a director for your student’s summer plans?  That’s easy, here are some conversation starters.

1. Ask your student how they envision their summer.  Will it be spent volunteering?  Interning? Picking up a previous summer job?  Or, are their plans something totally different?  Having an honest dialogue with your student about their summer plans can give you parameters to coach them better.
2. If your student is returning to a previous summer job at the local restaurant or golf course, coach them to see if new or additional roles or increased responsibilities are available to them.  Many times, if a student with proven work record and longevity asks for additional roles employers will grant them that.  In the long run, these added elements of responsibility look great on resumes.
3. If your student seems lost or unfocused, ask what has been their favorite time at Gonzaga so far. (Other than basketball games, of course.)  If they reply mentoring youth, possibly being a part of the local Boys and Girls Club as a summer volunteer or intern is a great choice.  If a student enjoyed a particular academic course, a job shadow would be a perfect fit.
4. Offer professional and personal contacts within various fields or industry what may be of interest for your student.   Through this safe method of networking, students can job shadow or informational interview throughout the summer gaining insight to new options.
5. Many students are ready to begin the internship process as soon as possible.  (It is never too early to start!) Coach them to do consistent research, ask questions and become aware of programs and opportunities.  We’d love to invite students to the Career Center to work with our staff either with an one-on-one appointments or through Internship Open Hour Tuesdays from 11-12 pm. 

 While summer seems like a long ways off, there are great ways to help your student get prepped for their summer vacation back at home.  The more coaches student have involved, the more likely they are to be successful in regards to career development!

 If you have concerns about becoming a coach without being a director, give us a call at 313-4234 or careercenter@gonzaga.edu we are happy to answer your questions!