Career Readiness

Online Career Services at ODU

Considering that I no longer reside in Virginia and am a full-time online Lifespan and Digital Communications (LSDC) graduate student at Old Dominion University, I decided to explore their career services for online students. It is important to note that I am not new to utilizing ODU's career services. Still, I was surprised to discover today that online students had a career readiness sector exclusive to them, as shown below in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Online Career Services

Beneficial Resources:

One of the resources that initially stood out to me was the ePortfolio studio I began utilizing during undergrad for an ePortfolio course with Dr. Deri Amason, with whom I was enrolled. Notably, the assistance I received through partnering with an ePortfolio expert helped me improve and troubleshoot to develop this ePortfolio successfully. I appreciate the simplicity of the online scheduling process that allows students to select a date and time that works best for their schedules.

You can choose a specific ePortfolio expert. After virtually meeting with multiple ePortfolio experts who are also students, I decided that Ta'Niyah was the one I preferred. Although I always opt for online-only services, other options for assistance are available, including in-person, hybrid, and face-to-face. This resource has helped me both academically and professionally.

Figure 2: ODU ePortfolio Online Scheduling

Furthermore, I was excited to learn that ODU's online career services offer career opportunities for new career seekers and those like myself seeking to advance and/or their careers, which directed me to the institution's Center for Career and Leadership Development (CCLD), that I am familiar with and utilized in the past for review of my existing resume, and currently for job boards that offer both internships, part-time and full-time jobs opportunities worldwide.

However, I was excited to learn that career advisors are available for drop-in Zoom sessions because I thought all appointments had to be pre-scheduled. Although, I am a member of the ODU Alumni Career Network on LinkedIn and utilize the Handshake app often. I was unaware that Lifetime Alumni benefits exist for aspiring entrepreneurs like myself.

Figure 3: Handshake

One of the newest Handshake features is the option to follow peers and employers that you are interested in. I have attended professional workshops with the Social Security Administration and have been contacted by several interested companies, including Homeland Security. Additionally, Handshake offers in-person and online career fairs and seminars to benefit my career transition as I continue to network and advance in project management.

Future Direction

As I near completing my Master's degree in 2025, I would like to attend more career fairs, transition my free Wix ePortfolio version to a paid one that includes a customized domain, and update it to reflect less academic work irrelevant to my professional goals and connect it back to the Portfolio tab on my LinkedIn profile. Lastly, I would like to take some more professional headshots.