How to Help Your Student

At Barry University, we seek to provide a caring environment and to encourage each student to take personal responsibility to utilize the services to develop his or her career planning skills from freshman through senior year and beyond. As your student chooses their major and begins career planning, it is important to support their decisions while challenging them to utilize our services and become a sought after graduate.

How can you help?

• Educate yourself. Visit Career Services when you come to campus, and encourage your student to make an appointment with a career counselor. Our staff offers support and guidance at every stage of the career development process. Self-assessment and interest inventories can help your student organize information about his or her values, personality, and skills and the relation of this information to career possibilities.
  
• Recognize that your student's choice of undergraduate major rarely defines a career path. Interests, skills, and values will emerge from college courses, activities and work experiences. Remember that your student can have a successful career with any major, as long as he/she gains relevant & transferable skills and experience while at Barry.
  
• Encourage your student to develop networking skills; suggest names of neighbors, business associates, and community contacts for informational interviews. Encourage your student to speak with a counselor and learn about informational interviewing.
  
• While many students use internships and summer jobs to lay the groundwork for full-time employment or further education, it is just as important for students to experience work settings that may steer them away from certain fields.
  
• Emotional support and patience will help your student further develop his or her self-confidence. Mistakes are usually powerful learning experiences.

If you are an employer, consider hiring Barry students for internships or for full-time employment.