Student Career & Professional Development
Most business schools expect you to figure out what degree you want and how you’ll use it. Gies College of Business is different.
We do much more than advising you on which courses to take to get your degree. We help you discover how to translate your talent and passions into the skills you’ll need to thrive in the business world. Our innovative approach is designed to create access to the best opportunities whether you’re a first-gen student or come from a long line of accountants, marketers, or Wall Street bankers.
This is how we do it:
Gies Professional Pathway
Your path to your first job or advancing your career starts long before your last semester. That’s why we integrate your professional development into your coursework and continuously integrate career discovery, skills development, and career advising into your learning experience. The Gies Professional Pathway helps you plan, organize, and manage all you do and document what you’ve gained from it.
Career Advising
Our advisors prepare you to meet the needs of tomorrow’s business landscape through coursework, experiential learning, and networking opportunities. We ground our advice in the evolving demands of top corporations and entrepreneurs, gathered through our ongoing partnerships with companies around the world. They tell us they’re looking for more than a good GPA and a command of core business skills. They are ready to hire well-rounded, critical thinkers and team members who communicate ideas well.
We give you the tools you need to create a personalized path that takes advantage of everything a degree from Gies College of Business offers. Schedule an appointment.
Discovery
Explore your interests and set personal goals with our career discovery tools. What do you enjoy? What do you value? How will you become a business professional who finds meaningful work that makes an impact on the world? Let’s find the answer – together.
Career Planning
For that extra polish, our career planning experts offer resume reviews, practice interviews, and professional development workshops.
Exclusive Gies Programs
We’ve intentionally designed our innovative programs to make every student career ready. They will empower you to turn big ideas into meaningful actions and prepare you for long-term success. View upcoming programs.
- Career Treks: These unique, immersive experiences give you behind-the-scenes looks and ways to engage with an organization, learn about career paths, meet with alumni, and make professional connections.
- Career Exploration and Optimization (CEO): Learn about and develop your professional identity while exploring business careers and building your social network through this summer program for rising sophomores and juniors.
- Career Immersion Program: Specifically designed for transfer students so they can tell their unique career story and develop professional relationships that lead to internship and full-time opportunities.
- Backpack to Briefcase Conference: This program prepares students for workplace success and features topics such as financial wellness, developing professional relationships, upskilling, and a first-90-days strategy.
Experiential Learning
We are a pioneer in experiential learning and work with more than 200 companies each year. You can apply for client-based learning opportunities through your undergraduate and graduate coursework. Action Learning courses teach you how to identify, analyze and present recommendations to a real client’s specific situation. You’ll also develop problem-solving skills as well as master how to build and manage a professional team.
Employer Engagement
Beyond action learning, we also partner with some of the biggest and most innovative companies in the world for professional development, networking activities, and employment opportunities:
- Classroom Engagement & Executive Access: Course syllabi are full of enrichment programs and research projects that expose you to real-world business problems. Experts in the field regularly drop into classrooms for workshops and informal Q&A sessions about everything from blockchain to the global supply chain. Alumni often come to campus as guest speakers on newsworthy topics or to add thought leadership to a Gies-sponsored symposium.
- Career Fairs & Employer Showcases: Gies creates customized employer engagement opportunities to learn more about a company, a career path, internships, jobs, and networking. More than 200 firms participate in our career fairs.
Extracurricular Opportunities
Expand your understanding of business and strengthen your career network through a wide range of extra-curricular activities.
- Academies & Centers: Find experiences that extend the boundaries of business knowledge. Our academies and centers encourage students to think big and produce new ideas that will redefine the business world.
- Consulting Opportunities: Build analytical and problem-solving skills while gaining real-world experience through one of our co-curricular consulting programs, like Illinois Business Consulting, the largest student-run, professionally managed consulting organization in the U.S.
- Business Clubs and Organizations: Expand your understanding of business and strengthen your career network through extra-curricular activities, including one or more of 30 business-related Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) and programs.
Securing a bright future with the right skills
Whether you're an undergraduate or graduate student, the Office of Career & Professional Development partners with you every step of the way on your career development journey, including exploration, personal branding, interview preparation, and providing employer and industry insights. Whether their goal is to secure a full-time position or pursue a higher degree, Gies students graduate prepared to succeed. See what successful outcomes looked like for the 2022-23 Undergraduate Cohort.
Craft your story
Learn to convincingly articulate your Gies experiences, so you can persuasively share your career readiness when and where it matters most: Career fairs, employer showcases, and interviews for internships or your next job.
