Success Center Offers Professional Development Class

Landing a great job after graduation takes work. Baylor University now offers a class that prepares students for that process.

This fall, Baylor began offering the University’s first-ever professional development course (PRD 2101). This class represents the next step in the Paul L. Foster Success Center’s continuing effort to provide resources to help students find success beyond Baylor and arm them with the tools they need to start their careers on a strong course.

“We want students to be thinking about their career ideas as freshmen if they can be,” Director of Employer Relations and teacher of the class Kevin Nall said. “It’s about them thinking about the endgame sooner rather than later.”

The class is classified as a sophomore-level option, but anyone is able to take it. More specifically, it is targeted to liberal arts majors, many of whom may have a general idea of what they want to do with their degrees but lack a real focus or an idea of how to get there. The class utilizes resources from the Office of Career and Professional Development that de-mystify the job search for students regardless of where they are in their college career.

“We used to have an old slogan – inspiring confidence through competence,” Nall said. “That’s what we’re doing with this class. We give them a game plan, a strategy, so they’re not scared to death. They don’t make little mistakes that could hurt them. We want to help them with real steps they can follow as opposed to just a nebulous job search.”

To help sharpen a student’s focus, the class requires projects related to skills and interest inventories, interview and resume prep, mock interviews and applying for internships. The class also teaches students how to research a company and ask the right questions, and market value for various majors. Along with hearing from various professional speakers, students gain networking opportunities, attend job fairs and learn to navigate the Hire A Bear database.

“I think it’s important that if we’re going to recruit students that we also prepare them,” Nall said. “We believe this class will really put them ahead and will help them find a better fit for that first job that will set the tone for the rest of their career.”