{"id":5392,"date":"2023-11-15T16:37:08","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T21:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=5392"},"modified":"2023-11-21T23:11:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T04:11:00","slug":"how-hunter-students-can-prepare-themselves-for-life-after-graduation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2023\/11\/how-hunter-students-can-prepare-themselves-for-life-after-graduation\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hunter Students Can Prepare Themselves for Life After Graduation"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the wall of a bathroom stall in the fifth floor girls\u2019 bathroom reads a message: <\/span>Absolutely devastated. I\u2019m graduating and feel like a failure.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"
Notes exchanged on the bathroom stall wall on the North Building fifth floor girls\u2019 bathroom. (Top) Absolutely devastated. I\u2019m graduating and feel like a failure. (Left) I know just how you feel. Everyday I wake up in pain and agony just wondering what the hell I\u2019m going to do. (Right) Same\u2026 Did I make a mistake choosing passion over practicality? Maybe I was too stubborn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alongside it, someone else agrees: <\/span>Same\u2026 Did I make a mistake choosing passion over practicality? Maybe I was too stubborn.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This sentiment goes beyond girls’ bathroom stalls; it even goes beyond Hunter itself. College students across the United States don\u2019t feel prepared for life after graduation. According to a <\/span>LendEDU survey<\/span><\/a> of over 7,000 American college students, 36 percent of seniors did not feel prepared for their careers.<\/span><\/p>\n

While this issue isn\u2019t unique to Hunter, the school is taking measures to combat the unease students may feel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Shayne Bernstein Lazar, the associate director of Career Development Services at Hunter, says that the Career Center provides an abundance of resources to job-seeking students who visit the office.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have individualized counseling to fit each students\u2019 needs, resume help, mock interviews and we bring employers to campus to network with students prior to graduating,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bernstein says it\u2019s not about whether or not Hunter has the resources, but if students take the opportunity to tap into them. \u201cThe students who are focused and motivated do not have a hard time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the Career Center is looking to do more. Bernstein says that the office is continuing to develop programs that will be relevant to the future of the workplace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to get the job, but we want them to be successful throughout their time there,\u201d she said. \u201cThings like understanding AI in the workplace, understanding [Applicant Tracking Systems], these are what future employers are looking for.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yashika Parwath is a senior graduating in the fall of 2023 with a bachelor\u2019s in media studies. She says that the media program at Hunter has provided her with lots of valuable hands-on experience, but students need to work for it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents need to push themselves, the resources won\u2019t just come to you,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to be the ones to approach professors and ask them what employers are looking for.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Parwath is not alone. From speaking with students outside of Hunter, it has become a common sentiment that students need to put in a little more effort than their counterparts at other schools to get the results they\u2019re looking for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Parwath says that, although Hunter has done a lot in terms of hands-on experience in the classroom, she\u2019d like to see more outside of class.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like more workshops and guest speakers,\u201d she said. \u201cAs media students living in New York, I think something like a trip to a production set organized by the school would be very valuable to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To students like Parwath, Hunter can be supportive in some areas and lacking in others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But they\u2019ve also helped those who have left campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jillian daSilva graduated in the spring of 2023 with a bachelor\u2019s in dietetics from Hunter\u2019s nutrition program. She says the program did a lot to prepare her for life after graduation, but with caveats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to dietetics, since the program was small, there was a lot of one-on-one support,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it\u2019s something you want to do in the long run, there are lots of avenues you can take.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DaSilva says that, although there is a lot of support once you get into the program, there isn\u2019t much before you do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo gain access to the resources you need to get ahead after graduation, you really need to struggle through the process of getting into the program,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that daSilva is not currently working in the field of nutrition, but as a freelance tattoo artist \u2014 but she says that Hunter has helped her in finding what she truly wants to do, regardless of her major.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy primary focus was nutrition but I also did a lot of art-oriented classes and I was also a religion minor,\u201d she said. \u201cI had access to a lot of great role models who encouraged me to get creative with my career and not feel limited by my major.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DaSilva says her career is untraditional, but nevertheless feels supported by her time at Hunter. Through Hunter, she obtained a job teaching nutrition, and it made her realize what she liked and didn\u2019t like about a career in nutrition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason I was able to make the right decision for my career were the outlets I was given by the nutrition program,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In short, the resources at Hunter are there \u2014 students just need to take the initiative and tap into them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Handshake<\/span><\/a>, obtained by Hunter in July of this year, is an online job search platform that curates job postings based on how the applicants fills out their profile. And the Career Center is available to any student at Hunter, full or part time, in any major.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a city as competitive as New York, settling into life after graduation may seem like an impossible task \u2014 but with motivation, diligence, and a little help from Hunter, it can be within a student’s reach. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the wall of a bathroom stall in the fifth floor girls\u2019 bathroom reads a message: Absolutely devastated. I\u2019m graduating and feel like a failure.\u00a0 Alongside it, someone else agrees: Same\u2026 Did I make a mistake choosing passion over practicality? Maybe I was too stubborn.\u00a0 This sentiment goes beyond girls’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":5406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,324],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-student-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5392"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5451,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions\/5451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}