Undergraduate Four-Year Plan

Freshman Year

• Make an appointment with Career Development to get acclimated with our services
• Make the grades (maintain a 3.0 GPA Make the grades(study, seek faculty assistance or a tutor at the SSC) 
• Experience a variety of courses to help determine areas of interests 
• Determine your interests, values, skills and personality as they relate to occupations (use Focus II) 
• Research occupations to determine their appropriateness to you 
• Enhance involvement to build skills (join a campus organizations, sports or community activities) 
  Start gaining experience through a part time job or volunteer work
  

Sophomore Year 

• Make the grades (study, seek faculty assistance or a tutor at the SSC) 
• Check-in with your Career Development Counselor
• Continue with career exploration and research (take various courses and talk with Career Development) 
• Pursue leadership roles in extra-curricular activities (join a committee or run for office) 
• Seek part-time employment in a professional environment (look through Career Development job postings) 
• Begin informational interviewing (talk to Career Development and use Alumnet) 
• Declare a major (talk to Career Development, family, professors and friends about options) 
• Begin writing your resume and cover letter (attend a workshop)
• Research possible internships (talk to your faculty internship coordinator) 
• Develop skills and knowledge needed in your field (talk to your advisor)
  

Junior Year

• Study hard to make the grades (seek assistance from faculty) 
• Check-in with your Career Development Counselor
• Participate in internships and gain experience in professional environments 
• Update your resume (attend a workshop and have it critiqued)
• Begin looking at graduate schools (use career resource library to obtain information) 
• Start building networks (make a list of professionals you know or use Alumnet 
• Build interviewing skills (do a mock interview with Career Development)
  

Senior Year 

• Do your best to make good grades (employers look for a 3.0) 
• Check-in with your Career Development Counselor
• Update your resume and cover letter (attend a workshop) 
• Determine parameters of your job search such as location, size of company, industry 
• Register with Career Development for job search assistance 
• Set job search goals 
• Apply to graduate schools (take appropriate exams) 
• Identify target companies (use career resource library, talk to professors and family) 
• Network (contact old and current employers, professors, join a professional assoc.) 
• Actively seek, apply and interview for jobs (participate in OCR, job fairs, search want ads, Internet etc.) 
• Begin building professional wardrobe 
• Research starting salaries in your field
  

BEN There Done That Now What?  

Now that you have successfully gone through the four year plan… Did you make sure Benedictine has your most current contact information?  Did you make sure to connect with the Alumni Department?  Alumni will be your ongoing source of connections, communications, and support in a wide variety of services for a life time at Benedictine University.  Visit them on-line at www.ben.edu/alumni. Let the Alumni Office continue to help you transform tomorrow!