2022 Career Boot Camp Outcomes
The 9th annual Career Boot Camp for sophomores represented a compromise between previous in-person events and last year’s online program. Due to Covid19 precautions, Career Boot Camp was a two-day hybrid event consisting of both virtual and in-person activities. This compromise enabled alumni and parents to participate virtually as well as allowing students who were home sick and/or tested positive for Covid on arrival campus to participate in some of the activities, rather than missing the whole event. The industry panels this year were aligned with the Center for Career Excellence’s career coaching industry areas.
Students heard from alumni and parent panelists’ paths to their careers, got advice about what skills and experience are required to work in the field, and received suggestions about courses and potential internships to pursue. There was also a panel where students heard from young alumni about their experiences in the job/graduate school arena immediately after graduation, the reality of job-searching and moving during Covid, as well as the benefits and challenges of life after SLU and how they’ve handled them. The What Employers Want panel served as an introduction to presenting oneself effectively in application materials, as well as interviews.
All students participated in Intro to Career Exploration, Young Alumni Panel, What Employers Want, as well as their top industry choice, and were able to choose three of the additional sessions, according to their interests and needs. 91% of respondents indicated that the time allotted for boot camp was appropriate, although some respondents did indicate a desire for additional workshop choices and/or longer sessions to create documents or fully build-out networking and job search profiles. While we did not track prior student engagement with career/professional development activities this year, previous participants have demonstrated increasing familiarity with career topics and resources. This year, respondents expressed significant interest in hands-on activities around resume creation, internship application, and networking profiles. Based on this, we will explore additional advanced and more in-depth workshops for future events.
Selected Student Quotes About Their Experience:
“The internship session was extremely helpful, I learnt that work experience is vital to getting a job later on, and as much as that sounds intuitive, as an international student we tend to focus more on GPA and much less on work experience. I also learnt very valuable strategies on how to find employers and internships, especially ones that would for instance accept to sponsor me or offer OPT. Overall the session really demystified Handshake and LinkedIn for me and I'm much less intimidated by using it and actually applying for internships. It was also a good reminder for me as a sophomore to start applying now rather than later as previously expected.”
“Some of the most helpful things I learned was how to reach out to SLU alumni and also finding out how many resources there are on handshake and offered by the school that I didn’t know about before.”
“[I learned] how important it is to start thinking/planning your career while still in college and the SLU alumni network is helpful in finding job opportunities.”
“[I gained an appreciation of] the SLU alumni network [as] a very useful tool after college. Don’t be afraid to reach out.”
“I learned that internships are important and that I need to start figuring out the process of my future now.”
“I need to gain experience in my field before I graduate, whether that is through an internship, being a TA, or learning specific skills. I should start building my resume now.”
2022 Sophomore Career Boot Camp By The Numbers
103 registrants (up from 89 in Fall 2020 for the all-virtual program); actual participants closer to 84 due to late-breaking conflicts)
43 Alumni/Parent Panelists registered (most ever; lost 3 due to illness/scheduling conflicts)
7 Industry Panels (Business, Finance, Communication & Arts, Education/Counseling, Environment, Health & Science, Government & Social Impact)
9 (up from 1 in Fall 2020) career skills presentations/panels:
Introduction to Career Exploration/Assessment (with Focus 2)*
Resume Creation (with a digital resume development tool*)
Academic Planning & Major Selection
Study Abroad Planning
Professional Communication Skills
LinkedIn Creation/Networking with Alumni
Navigating Cultural Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace
Grad School Planning
Introduction to Handshake (Internship Searching & Career Resources)
*New Activity
Sophomore Career Boot Camp/Professional Knowledge/Skill Development Outcomes
There was a 42% post-program survey response rate. This was down from 63% response in Fall 2020 and 70% in 2019 and reflects increasing challenge of securing voluntary student response, particularly during Covid19.
Respondents were asked to rate their agreement with the following statements: the industry panels were: helpful to learn different career options, discussed ways to prepare for careers, conveyed internship and other relevant information
Panel Agree/Strongly Agree
Business 90/100/100%
Comm/Arts 0% (1 respondent)
Education & Counseling 100/100/100% (1 respondent)
Environment 77/100/100%
Finance 75/75/75%
Gov’t Social Impact 100/100/100% (1 respondent)
Health & Science 75/100/100%
To what extent did the following sessions help you develop career-relevant skills or improve your understanding of professional and/or academic development?
Not at all A little Somewhat Quite a bit Greatly
Intro to Career Exploration 10.34% 6.90% 31.03% 31.03% 20.69%
Resume Creation 23.08% 0.00% 7.69% 15.38% 53.85%
Handshake/internship 5.00% 5.00% 5.00% 40.00% 45.00%
LinkedIn/Networking 4.76% 0.00% 28.57% 28.57% 38.10%
Professional Comm Skills 8.33% 16.67% 29.17% 16.67% 29.17%
Study Abroad Planning 8.33% 16.67% 25.00% 16.67% 33.33%
Grad School Planning 6.25% 18.75% 25.00% 37.50% 12.50%
Academic/Major Planning 12.50% 0.00% 25.00% 25.00% 37.50%
Cultural Diversity in Work 33.33% 0.00% 33.33% 0.00% 33.33%
Student Motivation
As a result of having attended Boot Camp, how inspired or motivated do you feel to continue career exploration (internships), professional development and/or networking activities?
2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017
Not at all 0% 0% 3% 2% 1% 0%
A little 5.7% 1.5% 6% 4% 2% 4%
Somewhat 11.4% 15% 17% 16% 14% 11%
Quite a bit 40% 44% 44% 43% 53% 50%
Greatly 43% 40% 29% 35% 30% 35%
Additional Student Reactions
90% (up from 86% in Fall 2020; was 93% in 2019, 89% in 2018, 96% in 2017) said they “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that the What Employers Want panel was useful in learning how to present themselves effectively to an employer.
86% said they would recommend Boot Camp to their classmates (11% “maybe”; 3% “no”); significant improvements over Fall 2020, likely due to the increased in-person aspect.
For the sixth year, students were asked to name the two most important "take-aways" from the boot camp. In descending order of frequency, these were:
Importance of SLU Networking/ 15
Linkedin/Networking Skills
Value of Handshake Resources/ 7
Internship Exploration
Importance of Interpersonal/ 6
Communication Skills
Importance of Early Career Prep/Planning 6
Specific Interview Strategies 9
Importance of Communication Skills 8
Internship Importance/Search 7
Exhibiting Professionalism 3
Role of Resume/Cover Letter in Application 2
Mentioned singly were: Excel skills, importance of grad school planning, importance of work experience, the resume building workshop, the importance of career motivation, role of co-curriculars in the application process, vet conflicting career advice according to career field of interest