Whether you’re in your first year at university or completing post-graduate study, DCU Careers Service is here to guide you towards employment in your ideal area of work.
Running recruitment fairs and career preparation workshops throughout the year, as well as meeting students on a one-to-one basis, the service provides a variety of supports which may just be the key you need to unlock your dream career.
Yvonne McLoughlin heads up the service, which has recently relocated to bright new offices in Room CG26 of the Henry Grattan Building. Queries that she and her colleagues often help students with include: ‘where are the jobs?’, ‘I’m not sure what I want to do’ and ‘I want to start my own business’.
“We meet students wherever they’re at in their careers or thinking about their futures and we take it from there”, she explained.
Talks from members of her team are also integrated into modules on a range of courses. “If we’re in with classes we would discuss in advance with the class rep or course chairperson about the types of things students would like us to cover”, she said.
There is no typical type of student that engages with the Careers Service and McLoughlin is keen to advise that their door is open to all university students, including those who know exactly and those who aren’t sure what they’d like to do.
“We’d get some students who don’t know what they want to do… some who maybe have a few ideas but aren’t sure… and there are students who know exactly what they want to do but they just don’t know how to do the CV or application form.”
Service members are experienced in talking students through their skills, interests and where they see themselves in the future, while they can also put students in direct contact with graduates working in a field of interest to them through their mentorship programmes.
One such programme is the Structure Mentorship programme which offers second-year students the chance to grasp a real sense of the world of work by completing a work-shadow day.
The Service also works closely with the Student Advice Centre and McLoughlin reminds any first-year students unsure about their course that they are welcome into the office to discuss their options.
“In addition we run a Career Discovery Programme in second semester of first year”, she adds. “We introduce them to things like how to get work experience and what they should be doing as first-years to really enhance their CVs.”
McLoughlin and her Careers Service team would advise students considering their next steps, to “go off and research options – talk to the careers service, come to our workshops and events that we do, do your networking and get your applications together”.
If you’d like any help or motivation to kick-start your dream career, you can find the Service in CG26 in the Henry Grattan, just around the corner from the student advice centre.
Sarah Bermingham
Image Credit: Gianluca Avagnina
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