Mesa Community College hosts virtual student professional development workshops
Career Services at Mesa Community College are offering free professional development workshops every Tuesday during the Fall 2023 semester to help students prepare for the professional world.
Virtual workshops are provided for resume writing, cover letter writing, interviewing, and how students can brand themselves.
The workshops are available until Nov. 28, and students that are unable to attend a professional development workshop have pre-recorded Youtube video workshops available on the “mesacc” channel.
“The main objective of the professional development workshops is to provide a platform for students to identify, connect, and utilize personal skills, abilities, knowledge, and experience for their professional journey. Students pursue degrees here at MCC that are 2 years only, certificates that last one to two semesters, or degrees that prepare them to transfer to a university. Career Services wants to provide them with professional tools that will allow them to hit the ground when entering the workforce to network with relevant industries within their fields of interest here at MCC,” said program analyst and senior manager Amanda Copetillo.
Copetillo pointed out how students have indicated that the workshops have been helpful when updating and creating their professional documents. Students have also expressed they have learned new ways to market their skills and talk about who they are as professionals, according to Copetillo
Students are provided with a variety of resources and tools during, and after, the workshops.
Links to worksheets, PDFs of the workshop presentations, websites for job descriptions like onetonline.org, and videos that give greater detail on how to approach interview questions are all things participants have access to.
Information is also available on how to make an appointment with a career advisor to assist with any of the workshop needs.
“Personal Branding is a big part of all the workshops we provide within Career Services. Resume and cover letter writing focuses on how to update and write a professional document from the perspective of the individual, which allows them to market themselves and tailor a resume/cover letter to the job with their skills in mind.” said Copetillo.
Copetillo stated that career services are constantly updating workshops for the students and asking for feedback on what they are looking for when they participate in any professional development events.
The employment industry is in constant change and career services try their best to make those changes as they happen to keep our students evolving, according to Copetillo.
“Interviewing is all about answering questions that are specific to the person and how they brand who they are when they get asked questions like ‘Tell me about yourself’, ‘What is your greatest strength’, or ‘What is your greatest weakness’. The workshop on Branding Yourself shows individuals how to create an elevator speech or a networking talking point to let employers know who they are in just a few sentences and how students can express their interest in that company or industry,” stated Copetillo.
