McAbee - Week 2 - Career Center

Activities:
-Attended Freshman Orientation and gave important information out regarding the Career Center and what we do: Resume Critiques, Mock Interviews, Co-Op Opportunities, Internship Opportunities, and Off-campus/ On-campus Work Opportunities.
-Conducted Mock interviews for English as a Second Language students as well as students enrolled in the Organizational Communication class participating for class credit\
-Met with Scott Maynard (Site Supervisor) to discuss Learning Contract
-Met the Career Services Department from University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
-Updated and reviewed the "What Can I Do with a Major in...?" Information lists with the assigned career counselors of those majors
-Became more familiar with the Connections page on the Career Center website

Reflection:
This past week really opened my eyes up to how career services at a university can benefit those of other cultures. It never occurred to me how much more difficult it would be to provide professional development to those born outside of the United States and are only here for their education. Many of the English as a Second Language (ESL) students were actually very good in their English speaking skills, others were not. For some of the questions I asked during the mock interviews with ESL students, I was asked to restate the question because some of the terminology I was using was not familiar to the students. I had to think of another way of making the question easier to understand or finding another way to translate it to them. You think you have everything figured out when working with students, but then the multicultural aspect gets introduced to you.
Shaking the ESL students hands before and after the interview greatly differed from one another. Many cultures, firm hand shakes are not custom. Other cultures, it is required. There was one hand shake that I did not even think they were touching my hand it was so soft. You never think about these things until they actually happen. I wish I could have known what country each student was from to see what kind of introduction and salutation gesture was most appropriate. However, this information was not given to me until after the interview had already started. I got to interview students from China, Jordan, Mexico, Japan, and Taiwan. I got to experience a wide range of cultures and the English speaking capabilities of each student. It was definitely an eye opening experience for me for sure.  http://www.eslc.msstate.edu/
You know, people like to give Ole Miss a hard time because they are "The School Up North." However, they are very nice people, well from who I got to meet from their career services department. They were very passionate towards career services and they really felt like they could get along with our Center here at State. I wish I could take a field trip out to their Career Center one day to see how it differs or is similar to MSU.