Elon University’s Student Professional Development Center helps students with job, internship opportunities

For many students, it’s important to be in the know about what opportunities there are for internships or even full-time jobs. Students like junior Chris Murphy have been searching for any internships that would fit for his major in music or his minor in communications. 

One way he has been trying to find these options is through the Student Professional Development Center, working with one of the career advisers on how to apply for the careers that he’s looking for. The career adviser that was helping Murphy was Brooke Buffington, who is also the assistant vice president for the SPDC since June 2023 and has been with the organization for almost nine years.

“She usually helps me with my resume,” Murphy said. “She shows me different resources online I can go to.”

He visited their Ultimate Career Fair event on Feb. 20 located in the Alumni Gym, where employers interact with students from a variety of majors. Although Murphy was happy with how the SPDC gives opportunities in multiple fields, he felt that there were still other specific majors that should be represented. Having a major in music, Murphy wished that events such as the Career Fair also featured people who were related to that career choice.

“I think it’s easier to help business students and finance students, you know, people in that field, more than it is music,” Murphy said. “One thing we can do is just try to find more or stay connected in more to people in the music industry, that way we can have that connection.”

The Student Professional Development Center is an organization designed to help “all majors and years achieve their professional and career-related goals,” according to its website. Buffington said the SPDC has always had the goal of getting 85 to 90% of graduating seniors to work with their office in one way or another. From a survey the SPDC did with the class of 2023 graduates, around 80% of them reported having a job and, of those, 96% said their current position is related to their career objective.

Buffington also said she hopes students utilize these services in a way that will meet their personal goals or expectations. 

“For other students, it may be as simple as finding a job in a specific location, like ‘I want to work in New York,’” Buffington said. “For others, it’s down to the position and type of role that they want to pursue. So, ‘I want to work in advertising in Chicago for healthcare.’”

One event the SPDC hosted was the Ultimate Career Fair. Buffington said the event is set up with a diverse set of organizations from different locations representing the different goals students may have. 

“We want a lot of different industries represented, we want a lot of different locations represented,” Buffington said. “So that students who walk in can see an opportunity that might be a good fit for them.”

Aside from the career fair, Buffington said the SPDC has many other options for students to view any opportunities that are available to them, including the Elon Job Network database with jobs posted by Elon’s closest partners, workshops and making an appointment for a one-on-one meeting in the future. 

Some of these events include STEM internships drop-in events that happen every Thursday where students can go to the Innovation Quad building to talk about internship opportunities. There’s also a free resume printing folder and thank you sessions that happen once a month, taking place next on March 18. This involves helping students with crafting the perfect resume to send and thank you letters as a follow up for the employers on their time and interest.

She said all of the career advisers are there to help students figure out what they want to do in the future and how they can go on to achieve it.

“What we do is just highly encourage students to come in, even if they’re uncertain about what they want to pursue, even if they just want to talk about their major or their potential career path, we would like to be able to help them with that progression in regards to their professional development,” Buffington said. “So, just to encourage students to come in and engage, because the best way to know what you’re looking for to build yourself up, as a professional, is by learning.”