[ Center for Professional Excellence ]

Career Education

At the CPE we can help you plan your future – even if you don’t have a clue which career best suits you.

Self Assessment
Career Guidance
Ethics and Values Formation
Graduate School Preparation
Internships
Mentoring
Shadowing

Self Assessment
Which personal and professional paths are most likely to lead you to success?

Career-oriented assessments, including personality profiles and skill and interest inventories, can help you find out. They’ll give you a clear understanding of yourself as well as the tools to make smart decisions about your future.

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Career Guidance
We can offer lots of help as you explore your chosen career path. Meet one-on-one with career education staff to learn how to develop meaningful career goals, craft a strong resume, and conduct effective interviews. Enroll in the career exploration course (Professional Foundations of Career Development, CPP 299). Attend seminars about workplace issues, meet recruiters at on-campus fairs, and enroll in career planning classes and workshops. (Topics include conducting a job search, compiling credential files, launching an internship, and networking with working professionals.) Also browse the career resource library and job listings.

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Ethics and Values Formation
At every stage of your professional life, you’ll face tough ethical decisions. At the CPE, we’ll help you sharpen your personal sense of workplace ethics and humane values. You’ll always be ready to do the right thing for yourself and for others.

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Graduate School Preparation
Is graduate school for you? We’ll help you find out as you identify your short- and long-term professional goals. Working closely with Elmhurst faculty, we’ll determine your job prospects in various fields at all degree levels. For more information, go to our graduate school planning site.

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Internships
Practical workplace experiences – internships -- can give you professional confidence and a competitive edge.

Elmhurst offers no ordinary internships, where you master a specific task in a given field. Our internships are different. They involve substantive, real-world projects at large corporations, privately owned businesses, and not-for-profit organizations.

We carefully screen our corporate partners to ensure that they will provide interns with satisfying work and learning experiences. Students of any major can pursue meaningful internships at sites ranging from Smith Barney to the Ronald McDonald House to Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

Most internships require a time commitment of 10 to 20 hours per week and are pursued concurrently with class work for academic credit. If you prefer, you can complete an intensive field experience (40 hours per week) during January term.

Internships can serve as stepping stones to a career. In fact, many Elmhurst interns eventually accept full-time employment offers from their sponsors!

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Mentoring
The mentoring initiative focuses on what it means to be a professional, rather than on the specifics of any particular business or profession. As a result, your one-on-one meetings with mentors can address needs that aren’t typically covered in the classroom. You can discuss everything from ethics to professionalism to homelife/worklife balance.

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Shadowing
If you choose to shadow professionals in your field, then you’ll accompany them through their work day, observing them as they make decisions, engage colleagues, and pursue professional goals. Over the course of a day or two you’ll learn what “a day in the life” of a professional is really like.

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