Career Development
The Career Development Office (CDO), located in Alexander Hall, just west of the Smith Campus Center, provides a variety of resources for finding internships, summer employment, full-time/post-graduate and gap year opportunities, fellowship, graduate, and professional school information. Career Advisors assist students with seeking ways to connect their unique experiences with the value of their liberal arts education to facilitate informed choices regarding their professional aspirations. This process involves multiple steps: assessment, exploration, skill development, and post graduate search implementation. In addition to the advising that students receive to help them through the process, the CDO facilitates workshops on a variety of career topics frequently including alumni guest speakers who speak from the shared perspective of a Pomona education with lessons learned from beyond the campus gates.
Appreciating that internships are an integral part of gaining work related experience; the CDO assists students in their search for internships, whether it is during the academic year or the summer. During the academic year, the Pomona College Internship Program (PCIP) provides part-time internships in a variety of professional settings (see detailed description of PCIP in the next section). Furthermore, students are encouraged to intern during the summer months and these internships can be at sites all around the world. The CDO provides numerous resources to help students obtain internships, including an extensive database, on-line subscriptions to various industry specific sources and membership in the Liberal Arts Career Network, a consortium of 39 nationally ranked, highly selective liberal arts institutions. Thanks to our generous donors, funds are available to support students doing low-paid or unpaid summer internships. For the Summer of 2015, 88 students (domestic: 72 and international: 16) were awarded funding upon participation in a competitive application process. Information and applications are available in the spring semester.
The CDO assesses internship options and can approve a transcript notation indicating that the internship may be valued as one-half course credit by schools which award graduation credit for internships. Pomona College does not award graduation credit for stand-alone (non-course-based) internships. In order for the transcript notation to be approved, students are required to complete a reflection summary paper and return a final evaluation from their internship sponsor. Certain organizations will only hire interns with this means of remuneration. Curricular Practical Training (CPT) is available for international students.
The Pomona College Recruiting Program is national in scope. As a part of The Claremont Colleges joint on-campus recruiting program, students are exposed to various employers and graduate programs. The joint program allows Pomona students access to employers, representatives, or workshops offered at any of The Claremont Colleges. Our web-based recruiting and career information system, ClaremontConnect, is the gateway to internships, full and part time positions, on-campus jobs, graduate schools, career-related information and more. Full-time, part-time, summer jobs and internships are also available through password-protected databases that students can access either through ClaremontConnect or by contacting the office.
To broaden the opportunities for our students, the CDO collaborates with peer colleges across the nation. The CDO is a member of the Selective Liberal Arts Consortium (SLAC), and the Career and Internship Consortium (CIC). These consortia coupled with our partnership in The Claremont Colleges joint on-campus recruiting program provide our students with access to over 8,000 jobs and internships postings, over 350 on-campus events (interviews, information sessions, career fairs), and over 30 graduate school information sessions.
The office communicates with students through a number of channels. The CDO weekly e-newsletter, Sneak Peek of the Week, lists forthcoming events, alumni and major spotlights, as well as internship, fellowship, and job opportunities. The CDO Listservs send targeted email messages to students pertaining to jobs, internships and workshops. The office posts announcements regularly on CHIRPS! the daily campus wide digested email. Finally, the office maintains the CDO Web at http://www.pomona.edu/administration/career-development. The CDO Web offers a wide variety of online career resources and tips as well as other valuable career site links including the ClaremontConnect calendar, which features career event listings for all Claremont campuses. Students with a LinkedIn account can join the Pomona Career Connections and Pomona Alumni groups to connect directly with Pomona alumni in discussions about career advice and current job openings.
Pomona College Internship Program
Each semester during the academic year, the Pomona College Internship Program (PCIP) provides students with a part-time internship in the greater Los Angeles areas. The program helps Pomona students gain valuable pre-professional experience and explore career paths, while making meaningful contributions to partnering organizations. Students who participate in PCIP are eligible for internship credit in the form of a transcript notation, as well as a stipend and travel allotment.
PCIP also encourages students to integrate their liberal learning with the working world outside of academia. For the 2014-2015 academic year, over 130 students were represented at over 60 internship sites, across a variety of industries. Sites include television stations, motion picture production studios, newspapers, alternative dispute resolution centers and traditional law offices, local businesses, scientific research sites, medical service centers, museums, public and private elementary and secondary schools, social services and public policy organizations, and state and local government offices. Student responsibilities have included chemical or biological research, editing or graphic arts layout and design, landlord-tenant mediations, and helping to design and teach lessons to elementary school students. Students who wish to design their own internships are encouraged to discuss their ideas with the internship coordinator.
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