Career Readiness Defined
A career-ready DePaul graduate is able to demonstrate the attainment of specific skills, competencies, knowledge and experiences that broadly prepare them for a successful transition to life after DePaul.
Career readiness components include:
Knowledge: Possess deep knowledge in a subject matter area and an understanding of the related career options
Competencies: Possess at least a basic level of competency for each of the essential transferable skills that can be utilized in many roles across jobs, the community, etc. Able to both identify and articulate these skills.
- Career & Self-Development
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Equity & Inclusion
- Leadership
- Professionalism
- Teamwork
- Technology
Career Plan & Job/Internship search toolkit: Has a personalized roadmap for careers of interest and the necessary materials required to conduct a job/internship search.
- Personalized Career Plan
- Resume
- Cover letter
- Personal statement
- Portfolio — only required for specific career paths
- Elevator pitch
- Interviewing practice
Career Experiences: Has at least two work experiences prior to leaving DePaul that enable you to apply course learnings to a work setting. It is recommended that at least one of these experiences be relevant to their intended career path and be at least a quarter in length.
- Internships
- Job shadowing
- Micro-internships
- Research projects
- Volunteer work or service-based learning
- Military service
- Study abroad participation
- On-campus employment
- Off-campus employment
Social and Cultural Capital: Possess an understanding of why social and cultural capital is important and how to build and nurture both.
- Strategic — Identification of who they know and who they need to know
- Proactive — Scheduled time to build and nurture relationships
- Diverse — Open network of people from different practice areas
- Social assets — Understanding the various assets that promote social mobility including select knowledge, skills, material objects, and academic credentials
Values & Purpose: Has reflected on what role values, purpose, and meaning play in decisions about a future career path or job.