Students face many decisions during their time at Notre Dame, including important choices about their future after graduation. These choices will begin to shape them as individuals and the potential impact they will have on the world.
Career services at Notre Dame offer a holistic approach to helping students find their calling through a number of resources and experiences. These services and programs are about to be significantly enhanced as a result of the Campus Crossroads project.
When completed in the summer of 2017, the new student center, which will be housed in the west building of the Campus Crossroads project, will provide an expanded career services center that will tout an unprecedented global reach with state-of-the-art technology, comprehensive services and resources accessible in one location for Notre Dame’s undergraduate and graduate students, and students in business, law and interdisciplinary professional programs. Construction on Crossroads is expected to start in November.
“This world-class facility will not just be bricks and mortar,” explained Lee Svete, associate vice president for career and professional development. “This is going to be special in offering students an opportunity to think about their heart and mind. We take student discernment very seriously at Notre Dame in that we help students on their path to completeness. This new career services center will allow us to do that in more innovative ways than ever before.”
Notre Dame’s career services center is expected to become the nation’s largest university career services facility of its kind. At 32,000 square feet, the new center will include 40 interview rooms as well as expanded career coaching space to offer more student advising and recruitment services. With cutting-edge video and voice conferencing capabilities, the career services center will connect Notre Dame students with potential employers and organizations from around the world in ways not currently available on campus.
While the University is utilizing online technology for interviews now, the new facility will offer the latest digital technology to connect students and potential employers.
Svete said the new facility will give Notre Dame the opportunity to double the resources currently offered to students for things like internship and career coaching, interview preparation and workshops.
He anticipates the new facility will be able to host more than 10,000 on-campus career interviews annually and expects the number of visits by students each year to grow from 13,500 to nearly 20,000.
For employers, the new career services center will feature easy access to students and faculty alike in a more conveniently located section of campus. With new space such as an employer lounge for receptions with student groups and “hoteling” work space for visiting recruiters, these enhancements will enable the University to expand on-campus employer relations and student recruiting.
Scott Nygaard, senior vice president of hardlines at Target Corp., visits campus regularly to recruit Notre Dame students. “Target has had tremendous success with Notre Dame hires over the past decade,” Nygaard said. “At Notre Dame, the candidates leave with a very well-rounded education. The skill sets and work ethic of Notre Dame students are a very good match with Target.
“When Target recruits on campus, our goal is to provide a positive interaction so we get to know the candidates as best we can. If the new Notre Dame career services center can make a campus visit more convenient for the recruiters and the candidates, we are all going to get better results,” he said.
According to Svete, throughout the last 10 years, the University has achieved a 98 percent placement rate within six months of graduation for undergraduate students.
“Now we’ll be able to combine great services with a world-class facility,” he said. “That combination will allow us to be even more highly competitive in this tough marketplace where jobs are often difficult for students to find, internships are critical for success and employers want to recruit the best students in the country, which they can find right here on Notre Dame’s campus.”
Originally published by at news.nd.edu on October 14, 2014.