Students Explore Jobs at Local Career Companies

The day started at LinkedIn, where the world’s largest professional networking site gave career advice to the student attendees.

“At LinkedIn, they really reinforced the idea that rejection is redirection,” said Sidney Hayman ’27, a communication studies major. “They talked about priorities and challenges when you’re applying to jobs. Like, what are the top priorities of the company? How will you assist them with achieving those priorities? And what are the gaps that the company has and how can you fill those gaps?”

After lunch, the students visited Handshake and learned about the technical aspects of running the site, which works with more than 1,400 universities to help students and recent graduates land jobs and internships.

Adrienne Sy Chu ’27, a computer science major, said she appreciated the diversity of fields represented.

“I’m interested in UX/UI, so I was glad I got to talk with people in that field,” Sy Chu said. “But I also spoke with people in adjacent areas like software engineering and program management. Even though those roles aren’t exactly what I want to do, I still learned something valuable. One of the big things that I learned is trust where you’re going.”

Handshake included a networking session with alumni, where attendees got to hear from USF graduates about their career paths.

“Most of the people that I talked to had made career changes later in their career,” Hayman said. “It helped me realize it’s OK doing what I think I want to do now, and it’s OK if I change that in the future.”