At its heart, this area is about self-marketing skills. Some students have a harder time with effective self-marketing than others, depending upon where their personal strengths lie. At the COC we endeavor to help students hone their natural strengths and we teach simple tricks that will enable anyone to operate at their most effective regardless of personality type or personal style.

The best way to prepare for interviewing or self-marketing, such as introducing yourself to a recruiter at the career fair, is to be prepared and to practice. If your student knows what to say and practices how to say it they will make a good first impression and quickly reach a comfort zone with the conversation.

The COC provides practice interview opportunities for students year-round - please encourage your student to call the COC and participate! These video taped sessions are the perfect chance to practice and hone interviewing skills and to make mistakes in a consequence-free environment so that they don't make them in front of an employer!

In addition, the COC offers many training workshops to help develop these very important personal skills, including:

• Professionalism and Interviewing
• Conquer the Career Fair
• Survival Skills for Introverts

Throughout the year employers will also conduct seminars on a wide range of topics designed to give your student the knowledge they need to capture companies' attention and give them a glimpse into what companies might be of interest to them at graduation.

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