Career Support & Internships

Students are encouraged to sign up for a Handshake account so that they can interact with employers, attend career events, and explore valuable career resources. 

Handshake is an online recruiting platform for higher education students and alumni. Handshake partners with universities and employers to streamline and simplify the recruiting process.

As a student or alumni on Handshake, you get a personalized opportunity to:  

• Experience a simple job search with many customizable options to find the right jobs and internships for you 
• See employer reviews from other students 
• Apply for jobs directly through Handshake with the click of a button 
• Register for job fairs, information sessions, and other career events
• Explore thousands of jobs available around the country
• The membership on Handshake is made up of over 14 million students and alumni from over 800 universities and there are over 250,00 thousand employers that use the Handshake platform to recruit college students 

***When you sign up for Handshake please make sure you fully read the Handshake terms of service. 

• Already have a Handshake account? Log in here.   
• Need a handshake account? Sign up here. 

Be sure to check out general career services news: monthly content to students, faculty, and alumni to increase engagement and keep everyone abreast of all career service activities and programs. 

Are you career-ready? 

NACE is a professional association that connects recruiting professionals, companies, and college career services professionals. They are the leading source of information on the employment of the college-educated, and forecast hiring and trends in the job market. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified eight key competencies that college students need to acquire so that they can be competitive candidates in job markets. Being “career ready” also means that you can demonstrate your competencies through your resume, cover letters, LinkedIn profile, and interview opportunities.  

Because each person has a unique situation, skill set, and career objectives, career paths vary widely and there’s no set formula for professional development. Typically, individuals who take responsibility for planning their own development and actively seek growth opportunities are the most successful in achieving their goals. Listed below are some career tools that can assist you as you begin designing your career path and professional future. 

• CareerOneStop is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration and is a nationwide workforce information center that helps job seekers, students, and workers by providing comprehensive, relevant, and personalized workforce information tools and resources. 
• If you want to explore career options related to your major use this major and career profiles tool: Majors Matched with Careers College Board. 
• The Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, can help you find basic career information on duties, education, and training, pay, and outlook for hundreds of occupations. To get started, choose an Occupation Group to explore, then learn about common job functions within that interest area of the field. 
• Holland Career Code Test The Holland Code self-assessment examines your suitability for different careers based on six occupational themes. The test identifies your top interest area and how and what this means for your career interests. 

• 16personalities Test This link is to the free version of the test and takes less than 12 minutes.16personalities' assessment is similar to the Myers-Briggs personality test. 
• My Next Move Interest Profile: The O*NET Interest Profiler from MyNextMove uses a very specific methodology to determine your real work interests. You will be asked to rate your interest in certain tasks, rather than career fields. Warning: this is a bigger time commitment than other career tests, but worth finishing. The free results include detailed descriptions of your best job fits as well as an outlook estimation for the field, required education, and common skills. 
• Sloan Career Cornerstone: The Sloan Career Cornerstone has great information on STEM, computer science, and healthcare careers. Explore over 185-degree fields. Browse interviews with hundreds of professionals. 

It's important to dedicate time to your job search. New positions are posted daily and competitive opportunities can be filled quickly. Networking and building your social capital are critical components to tapping into the, “hidden job market.” Utilizes the job search tools below to maximize your job search efforts. 

• MassHire: https://portal.masscis.intocareers.org/  

MassHire connects jobseekers across the Commonwealth to quality education, skills training, and employment opportunities. Log in using the city “Boston” and zip code “02115 or 02116” or any other city/zip code combination. This Commonwealth of Massachusetts website provides a wealth of occupational and educational information. 

• Indeed is one of the biggest job search engines that aggregates job listings from thousands of job boards, career sites and recruiter listings.  Job posts usually include a description of the job's responsibilities and qualification requirements. Candidates can either apply to the position directly through the job board or get directed to the employers' application website.  

Tracking System-Do you have a system for tracking your job search applications, interviews, conversations? It can quickly become overwhelming. These recommendations are simple tools to organize and track your job search: 

• Excel
• Google Sheet
• Evernote
• Airtable
• Onenote 

• Photo— Choose a clear, friendly and appropriately professional image. 
• Headline— Your headline doesn’t have to be your name, job title and company. You can use that space to succinctly (5–6 words max) showcase your value proposition and goals 
• Summary— This is your opportunity to share who you are, what motivates you, what you’re skilled at, and what your goals are. 
• Experience— Your LinkedIn work experience section doesn’t need to be as detailed as your resume. It should instead be a summary that highlights your main achievements. Paragraph form is acceptable because you won’t be including a ton of information. 
• Work Samples— In each section of your work history you can add presentations you’ve authored, videos you’ve helped create, web pages you’ve written, campaigns you’ve designed and more.
• Education— Starting with college, list all the educational experiences you’ve had. Don’t forget summer or study abroad programs! 
• Courses— Include courses that helped you gain industry experience or unique skills. 
• Skills— Add skills you’re most proud of to highlight them. 

• Endorsements— Connections can “endorse” you for skills you’ve listed as well as others they think you have. 

• Recommendations— Give your profile a credibility boost by asking managers, professors, or classmates to write a recommendation for you.  

Whether you’re negotiating your salary for a brand-new job or asking for a raise at your current one, the first rule of negotiating is to know what you’re worth. But figuring that out can be harder than it sounds. How, exactly, are you supposed to know what salary you should ask for? Here is a handy list. 

• PayScale - PayScale is a market leader in global online compensation data. With the world's largest database of individual employee compensation profiles, PayScale provides an immediate and precise snapshot of the job market. 
• Salary.com - Salary.com offers helpful resources for people at every money moment of their career. 

• MoneyGeek.com - MoneyGeek.com offers several money management calculators including this Cost of Living Calculator. 

Networking is an ongoing process of discovering and utilizing connections between people and can help you to clarify and define your interests and career goals. Networking is NOT about meeting people to ask for internship or job opportunities but is about building mutually engaging and rewarding professional relationship that may open the door for career enhancement.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 70% of jobs are found through networking. 

You can network face to face, via phone, video, email, or other online communication. You can network at: Career Fairs, Company Information Sessions, with RCC Alumni, at  RCC Clubs, while participating in community volunteering, career fairs and events, Career Panels, Online groups such as LinkedIn, Professional associations/conferences, Connections of family, friends, faculty/staff,  

Be prepared to talk about yourself and ask focused questions of the people that you meet. You may want to create a spreadsheet so that you can keep track of your contacts. Remember, networking is not an event but an ongoing, lifelong process of building relationships with individuals and exchanging mutually beneficial information when possible.