Career Advisors: Why, How, and What?
While everybody’s career follows a different path, many industry professionals recommend getting some experience in your field as soon as possible. At SCAD, we have a resource that many other schools do not offer: Career Advisors.
To help convey the importance of meeting with your advisor, I asked a couple of questions to first-year advisor Corey Jackson (if he is your advisor, I highly recommend meeting with him!).
First Steps for New Students
Navigating all of SCAD’s resources is hard, but thankfully CAS has an already-made outline to help begin your professional journey! Jackson recommends meeting with your advisor to discuss these resources and initiate your Career Action Plan, which can be found under the Resources tab in the Job Portal.
As well as that, he recommends attending the many Employer Presentations and CAS Workshops, which are found under the Events tab in the Job Portal. These events and workshops provide a lot of insight on companies, skills, professionalism, and more. Many of them are also virtual, so they are very easy to access and attend!
Shouldn’t I be focused on my portfolio/ reel? Why does professional development matter for artists?
Professionality matters in every industry. By pursuing connections, jobs, and internships, you gain industry exposure. As Jackson puts it:
“In the workforce, the better your network, the better chances you have for knowledge, exposure, and potential opportunities. The more students know and experience, the more they can put into their portfolio”.
Additionally, it does not matter how good of an artist you are if no one sees it. Therefore, knowing how and where to share your art is a key factor in finding success in artistic industries.
“If you have a great portfolio, but do not know how to communicate and articulate your work, then you could miss an opportunity”, says Jackson.
I’m an underclassmen, isn’t it a bit early for me to start getting involved with Career Services?
It is never too early to begin your professional journey. Jackson says that students that begin building relations with CAS earlier are more likely to be prepared, confident, and equipped. “I will say that it can be more challenging for a upperclassmen if they wait to engage CAS their senior year,” he wrote. “If a student waits to engage, then they risk the chance of missing out on employer opportunities and resources that CAS department host and/or facilitate”.
Many jobs nowadays search for experience. People ask: “But how will I get experience if I need a job to get experience?”. Now is the time. You will have to start small, but by building connections, learning about companies, and finding internships, freelance opportunities, summer jobs, etc, you will slowly gain the experience that post-graduate jobs are looking for.
How to Create an Appointment
Every major (and sometimes year) has their own career advisor. The assigned career advisor is listed in the Academic Profile section of your MySCAD and is also automatically selected when making an appointment on your job portal.
Below is a list of the Career Advisors for digital media majors as of Spring 2023:
- Corey Jackson – First-Year Students
- Vishal Venkatachalam – ITGM, IMRS, ANIM (Sophomore)
- Brandon Williams – ANIM (Juniors, Seniors, Grad)
- Randy Allen – MOME,VSFX, ITGM (Seniors and Grad)
To schedule an appointment with your Career Advisor, navigate your way to the SCAD Job Portal. It can be reached through your “MyScad” page under the “Student Workspace” tab.
From there, you will find yourself at the SCAD Job Portal, a vital hub for finding jobs offered specifically to SCAD students and alumni. Click “Career Advising” and then “Request New Appointment”.
Once requesting an appointment, it is not necessary to fill out any of the filters. Simply press “Check Availability”, and the open office hours will appear on the right side of your screen!
Career advisors typically meet both virtually and in person at the Deloitte Foundry – formerly Ruskin Hall. To reach the CAS offices, enter through the side on Abercorn Street.
What to Talk About?
Typically, if you just show up and say, “I want to know what to do to prepare myself for life after graduation”, your advisor will help guide the conversation (that is what they are there for, after all). But if you want more guidance and information on what you may talk about, below are some questions I found to be helpful when meeting with my advisor!
Can you look over my resume?
A good resume is one of the first steps to standing out amongst other candidates. Resume reviews are also a specialty of career advisors. Ask them to give you advice on how to improve your resume, both visually and your experiences.
What can I be doing NOW to help myself in the future?
Everyone is at different places in their career journey, so it is best to ask what your advisor thinks you should be doing. For some, it may be to start looking for internships in your field. Others may need to try making more connections and getting involved on campus. Sometimes all of the above. You won’t know until you ask!
How do I find opportunities?
Finding opportunities is just as hard as the application process. Career Advisors can help point you in the right direction, and sometimes know of opportunities through SCAD.
How can I improve my networking skills?
Networking is hard, especially if you are not very outgoing. It requires practice and building confidence, which takes time. CAS advisors can not magically make you a networking master – that is something you have to develop yourself – but they can help give you advice and resources (workshops, SCADamps, etc) that can teach you the necessary skills!
As my advisor told me a while ago, around 85% of jobs are found through networking. About 70% are not even posted publicly. SCAD offers its students an immense amount of opportunities to prepare themselves for after graduation; you just have to say yes to them.