Faculty & Staff
Welcome to our virtual community space dedicated for faculty and staff to collaborate, share resources, and advance their professional development. Faculty and staff collaboration is essential in order to integrate career development into every student experience and empower students and alumni in meeting their professional objectives. We welcome all opportunities to work together across the institution Please review the specific collaboration opportunities outlined below, or contact us directly at 978-665-3151 or careercenter@fitchburgstate.edu to discuss how we can partner.
Career Services and Advising is happy to provide a presentation to your class on topics including Resumes and Cover Letters, Job and Internship Searching, Graduate School Application process, Preparing for Interviews or an overview of the Career Services and Advising Center. We can also work with you to develop a workshop around another topic.
If you would like to request a presentation from Career Services and Advising for your class or student group please fill out this request form.
The Career Services and Advising Center invites all faculty and staff to participate in the Career Champion program. The program connects and engages faculty and staff who are actively assisting students in determining and reaching their career goals. The content of the program focuses on building knowledge of career development theories, learning strategies to incorporate career learning into your practice and creating a plan for implementing these strategies. The program consists of a 5 hour workshops during the summer and a follow-up meeting during the semester.
The Summer 2026 program date is TBD. Please fill out this short survey (opens in a new tab) if you are interested in participating. If you have any questions, reach out to Susan Beddes, sbeddes@fitchburgstate.edu.
Sometimes employers looking to recruit Fitchburg State Students will reach out directly to departments to advertise a job or internship. With so many priorities to balance please feel free to refer any employers to the Associate Director of Employer Relations to Susan Beddes sbeddes@fitchburgstate.edu to get set up on Handshake and post their positions to our career platform. This ensures they have one point of contact and are able to post positions to the entire Fitchburg State student body and not just who you may have contact with.
For Employers that you know, you can use the template below to help them get set up on Handshake
[TEMPLATE] If you know the person, feel free to send them this message:
Thank you for reaching out and considering our students for your opportunities. To post your position and begin recruiting our students and alumni, please join Handshake, our online job/internship platform, by using this Registration link(opens in a new tab). If you have questions as you are creating your account, please refer to this article, Create an Employer User Account(opens in a new tab). If you are already a Handshake user, please add our school to your school list. If you need help adding us as a school, please refer to this article, School Network Management(opens in a new tab).
If you have additional questions, please contact Career Services and Advising at careercenter@fitchburgstate.edu. We look forward to partnering with you!
If you are interested in planning a career event, such as a panel discussion, employer class visit, or employer roundtable, we encourage you to refer to our Event Planning with Employer Partners Guide (PDF) so that you’re aware of all of the planning steps. Please reach out to Susan Beddes to discuss your event ideas and planning timeline, sbeddes@fitchburgstate.edu
Each year the Career Services and Advising Center conducts a first destination survey of recent graduates 6 months after graduation to learn more about their post-Fitchburg State plans including employment, continuing education and more. Encourage your graduating seniors to complete the survey each semester and check out our Career Outcomes page https://career.fitchburgstate.edu/outcomes/
Handshake(opens in a new tab) is our online career platform for all students and recent alumni. Students can activate their profile to access job and internship postings, events, and more.
Encourage students to activate and complete their profiles
- Students are 5x more likely to get messaged by an employer with a complete profile
- Employers search for students by the information in your profile
- Get job recommendations based on your interests
Bring it up in your day to day interactions
- Invite CSA into your area to share a presentation/passive programming
- Require students to log in and complete their profile as an assignment for class
- Mention Handshake when you meet with students (meetings, office hours, advising, etc.)
- Add CSA and Handshake as a resource in your syllabi
[TEMPLATE]
Career Resources: Visit the career services and advising center for career planning, job and internship search resources, resume review, and interview preparation.
Handshake is the school’s official job/internship portal. Thousands of employers are hiring students on Handshake. Once you fill in your career interests, you’ll get personalized recommendations for jobs and events and direct outreach from employers interested in students like you—80% of students with a complete Handshake profile get messaged by employers!
- Activate your account at app.joinhandshake.com(opens in a new tab)
- Download the Handshake app from Apple(opens in a new tab) or Google Play(opens in a new tab) so you get notifications on the latest jobs, events, and employers
- Learn more: “5 Reasons You Need Handshake More Than Other Career Sites(opens in a new tab)”
Register your own “student” account on Handshake
- Experience firsthand what students see in Handshake
- Explore jobs and events and share those links with your students
How to register:
- Go to app.joinhandshake.com/register (opens in a new tab)
- Enter your .edu email address and other basic info
- Career Services will need to approve your account. You will receive an email once approved.
- Login to your account! Build your “profile” with a representative student population in mind so you see the most relevant job postings
See this help article(opens in a new tab) for a step-by-step guide with photos (the article is for alumni account creation which is the same process)
Faculty engage students in career conversations in the classroom and during office hours and advising sessions. They serve on the frontlines of supporting student career development and many incorporate career development lessons into their classes and advising work. We are here to support you in these efforts and are happy to share customized resources to fit the unique needs of your students, collaborate on assignments such as resume review or mock interview assignments, or offer custom lessons to your class. If you would like to work together to create lessons, activities, and assignments for your class or group, please contact us 978.665.3151 or careerscenter@fitchburgstate.edu.
Below are some of the top tools available on our website to help students explore career options, find opportunities and prepare for interviews.
What Can I Do With This Major? is a resource that allows students to learn about the multiple career paths associated with a variety of college majors. This resource is great to use with first and second year classes and with advisees who may need support with identifying career options related to their major. This resource is always a favorite with students!
ONet Online pulls together government labor information into a user-friendly format that allows students to learn specifics about the job duties, skills, training and salary information for a wide variety of job roles. This resource is a great follow up to What Can I Do with this Major? or a stand-alone that students can use to research career roles.
Career Shift is a job search tool that helps users find jobs, internships, and networking contacts. It aggregates job listings from many sources, including job boards, company websites, and newspapers. CareerShift also provides contact information for professionals and alumni. This tool can be used with students to identify companies in their field in a specific location, as well as competitor companies. It can also be used to identify professionals to reach out to for an informational interview. For faculty, this tool is a great way to identify potential internship or research partner organizations and contact information.
Quinncia is a resume review and interview preparation tool that can support your career development efforts in the classroom. Faculty can request advisor access to create a class resume or interview preparation assignment. Reach out to Career Services and Advising careercenter@fitchburgstate.edu for help with getting set up on Quinncia.
Forage allows students to explore careers and prepare for the job with hundreds of free job simulations designed by the world’s top employers. The job simulations are updated on a regular basis and cover a wide range of fields. Faculty can request faculty access to create a class assignment with specific job simulations. Reach out to Career Services and Advising careercenter@fitchburgstate.edu for help with getting set up on Forage.
