Photo by Patrick Verel
When Nishi Akter enrolled at Fordham, she was determined to take advantage of all the resources available to her at Fordham’s Career Center. It paid off: Soon after graduating, she started as a corporate and investment banking graduate analyst at Barclays.
After interning at Whole Foods and JPMorgan Chase, Akter graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in business administration. A native of Bangladesh who immigrated to the Bronx in 2013, she was the first in her family to graduate from college.
She credits Fordham’s career center staff for their help at every stage of her job search.
“Staff members looked over my resume multiple times and made suggestions, and every time I got to the final round of interviews, they would give me questions and resources that could help me prep for interviews.”
Akter shared five Career Center resources that helped set her on the path to success.
1. Mock Interviews
I have a bit of a speech impediment, and for the longest time, I thought, ‘I cannot go to these interviews. I cannot work in finance.’ But the more I practiced, the easier it got over time. I had this amazing conversation with a company recruiter [via the Career Center] one time that never felt like it was an interview. She was telling me the whole time to just be myself, explain my experiences and skills that I have, and why I want to be there.
2. Resume Writing
The resume workshops were really helpful because they showed me how to better structure and format my resume. I learned how to write strong bullet points and decide which experiences and skills to highlight for specific roles.
3. Employer Fairs
The Career Center brings in so many employers throughout the semesters that if you miss one of them or if you discover you have a different interest, you can go to another. You can connect one-on-one with the actual recruiters on the spot and hand them your resume.
4. Online Recruiting and Learning Resources
I didn't know about LinkedIn Learning or [the online recruiting platform] Handshake before I met with the Career Center. If you're a student, you have free access to LinkedIn Learning. I took a few basic accounting and Excel courses, as well as a time management class. With Handshake, which is an online recruiting platform, I was able to connect with various employers, register for different events, and apply for internships and jobs.
5. Career Workshops
The Career Center offers a lot of workshops on different topics. In February, I attended an online workshop about how to overcome indecisiveness. One of the things they went over was how your career values are related to your personal core skill sets and your motivators. I felt like that was something that all college students should learn. In college, we're so focused on just trying to find the next internship and the next job, and we are looking to our peers, and they're getting these internships. But I think it's really important to look internally and tune out all the external noise and see what you want to do, what brings you joy.