Guest Blog: Career Development Classes (CRDV)

“Find out what you like doing best and get someone to pay you for doing it.” -Katherine Whitehorn

One of the best gifts that Tulane will gives our students is an alumni network broader than almost any other school in the country. We have alumni clubs in 75+ cities around the world and over 130,000 living alumni. Because students travel an average of 900 miles to attend Tulane, many alumni also travel far after graduation. Whether you are in SF, LA, DC, Chi Town or NOLA, there is a phenomenal Tulane alumni network waiting for you.

Our alumni network is just one piece of the greater employment puzzle here at Tulane. Through amazing initiatives like Career Wave and HireTulaneGrads.com, we make sure that you, as a student, can hit the ground running with some epic career-prep opportunities. This week alone we have two big events for Tulane students looking to practice their filmmaking skills and get advice about breaking into the entertainment industry from top entertainment executives. On Thursday, CAMPUS MOVIEFEST will roll out the red carpet to premier over 120 student films, all less than five minutes in length, that were shot over the past week by our students. And on Friday, Jack Sussman (CBS) Nina Rosenstein (HBO) Doug Ellin (Entourage) Mathew Rosengart (Greenberg Traurig), Rick Roskin (CAA), and Julie Yorn (LBI Entertainment) will headline our TULANE TO HOLLYWOOD panel where out students will hear what it takes to start a successful career in the entertainment industry.

We're always up to something career-orientated at Tulane, so while you're at it, check out one of our best career prep programs: the CRDV 1090 class. I am going to have my girl Geneva Torrence, one of our Career Advisers and Educators here at Tulane, tell you all about CRDV.

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"The Best Class at Tulane…in My Opinion"

When you are a senior in high school the biggest decision to make is where to attend college. Maybe that was a simple decision or maybe it took some soul searching. Ultimately you found Tulane to be the best fit. So now that you are here and can finally breathe right? Well...not really. See, something magically happens when you start college. Everyone around you expects you to know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life. You stop counting after the one thousandth time you are asked, “so what are you going to major in?” How are you supposed to decide what to study and what you want to do after Tulane? It’s hard enough to choose where you want to eat dinner, or what to watch on Netflix. I know the struggle and we at the Career Center are here to help. Did you know that you can get help deciding on your academic and career path, while earning an hour of college credit? Well you can!

Tulane offers a unique course called CRDV 1090, taught by Career Educators, which helps students with the entire career development process. Career development is an ongoing process that begins with self-exploration. This is the most important step and it is unfortunately the step that too many people skip over. If you don’t fully understand yourself, how can you know what classes you want to take, the type of internship that would best suit you, or even a career path? In CRDV students get the opportunity to explore their personality traits, interests, strengths, and values, and they learn how to connect that to a major and career.

CRDV helps students create and develop the tools necessary to be successful in the internship and job markets. Students create professional documents such as resumes and cover letters. CRDV also prepares students to market themselves when networking or interviewing. Not only do students gain tools inside the classroom, but they have their own personal career advisor for the semester. Each Career Educator is available for 1-on-1 meetings.

CRDV offers students the opportunity to put their skills gained in class into real live practice. Students in CRDV participate in a Mock Interview Day. The Career Educators bring in 40+ professionals representing 20 different industries, including Executive Directors, COOs, CEOs, company Founders and Vice Presidents, to conduct mock interviews with CRDV students. After each student is interviewed, they receive feedback from their interviewer. Our students consider Mock Interview Day to be extremely helpful in calming nerves and improving their overall interviewing skills.

Mock Interviews 

If you would like help or just need that push to get started choosing a major, finding an internship and exploring career paths, CRDV is right for you. Contact your academic advisor or the Tulane Career Center for more information.

If you are still not convinced on how great CRDV is, look what past students have to say about the class:

“The main reason I initially enrolled in this course is because I wanted help deciding what to major in. I surprised myself by figuring out my major just weeks into the semester.”
-Tulane Sophomore

“I originally took this class with the intent of it helping me find an internship for the summer as well as improve my resume. This class, however, went even beyond my expectations in that I found an internship, made a great resume, and also learned many other useful skills that I would not have known otherwise. When I first joined the class, there was a huge gap between where I was and where I intended to be. I started without a resume, no experience in interviewing or job searching, but now that gap has been filled in such a short period of time.”
- Tulane Junior

“I am officially employed! Thank you for all of your help throughout the process! I couldn’t have done it without this class!”
- Tulane Senior

More mock interviews as a part of CRDV 

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” -Confucius