Goal 1: Getting Employment

Doing the best job possible is most likely to lead to post-graduate employment. Students will identify the primary tasks, responsibilities and outcomes for their job and how they will be evaluated.

Goal 2: Show Me the Money

Too frequently, students are motivated only by money, without considering the long-term implications for professional development. Students are guided through a series of questions to help them identify the pros and cons for any possible co-op or internship experience. The purpose of this chapter is to help them choose the experience that makes the most sense in terms of their professional goals.

Goal 3: A Professional Make-Over

An experiential learning position is often a student's first foray into a professional environment. Guided by a self-assessment inventory, this chapter helps students identify ways to become more professional in their chosen field.

Goal 4: Developing Professional Confidence

Students often enter internships or co-ops with a great deal of trepidation. Frequently they lack the self-confidence and skills to be successful. Through the principles of successive approximation, this chapter gives them a step-by-step plan of action for developing the self-confidence and those needed skills in order to be successful.

Goal 5: Seeing if the Shoe Fits

Although career change is often a life-long process, an experiential learning position is an opportunity to see if a particular job or field is right for someone at that time in his or her life. The student is guided through twenty-one questions that will help them make that determination.

Goal 6: The Art Formerly Known as Networking

So much of what can help a person move forward in his or her career comes about as a result of networking. This chapter guides students in developing and maintaining professional relationships.

Goal 7: Identifying Role Models and Mentors

Internships provide a potentially unique opportunity to identify role models and mentors and to develop relationships with these individuals. This chapter systematically guides the student in the process of cultivating relationships with role models and mentors while still maintaining important professional boundaries.

Goal 8: Designing Your Career for the Future

Satisfying and successful careers don't just happen. They take proactivity and guidance. Using the concept of the "Five-Year Resume" this chapter guides students through the next five years of the development of their professional career.

Goal 9: Bringing Your Education to Life

One of the most significant aspects of the internship is the integration of work and school. This chapter helps to identify the relevance of past learning as well as the specific learning needs of the future.

Goal 10: Identifying References

References often play a critical role in bridging the gap between past employment and future employment opportunities. This chapter will guide the identification of individuals to serve as references and teach the student how to maintain that relationship over time so that references will be strong and relevant.

Goal 11: Designing a Killer Portfolio

Most students who have portfolios base them on their academic preparation and performance. This chapter will help them develop a portfolio representing the tangible outcomes of their internship or co-op experience. This type of performance manifestation often provides the competitive advantage that differentiates one student from another.

Goal 12: Preparing for Fearless Interviewing

Using a framework developed by the authors, this chapter helps to identify an individual's performance "jewels" and translates them into short, succinct narratives that can be easily expressed in an employment interview.