Over 100 students applied for February Break career trips. Only 50 were admitted.
All students are encouraged to apply for the career trips, said Molly Steele, the dean of career and professional development. But, with more interest and applications, the trips have become more selective.
“I think the interest in trips has been growing steadily for the past eight or nine years,” Steele said. “We wish we could do more trips and take everybody, but we’re just capacity-constrained.”
The Office of Career and Professional Development (CPD) has offered trips to New York City every year during February Break for over 20 years. The trips help students make connections with workers in their future career fields.
The bus seats are few and the conference room space is limited, Steele said. The limited space forces CPD to be extremely selective. This year, CPD added interviews to the application process, Steele said.
“We had many applicants this time, and we were trying to figure out who would really be interested in these opportunities,” said Steele. “That can be hard to tell in just a single essay, so we decided to do interviews. The interview had nothing to do with interview performance, it was really just for us to get to know [students], get their interests and understand what they’re looking for in the trip.”
In the interviews, CPD was looking to see if students had the same expectations for the trip as what would be in the proposed itinerary. The interview questions were similar to those in the online application but allowed students to provide more information behind their answers.
For students who weren’t selected for a career trip, Steele advises them to make connections in other ways. Then, they can apply for the career trips again next year.
The CPD office appreciates when students “aren’t deterred” and reapply for the trip the next year, said Steele.
“While these trips are an awesome opportunity, it by no means dictates your success on your career trajectory. I’m happy to sit down and talk with any student and figure out what your individual future career plan is,” said Steele.
To meet demand, CPD added a fourth February Break trip this year. This was the technology trip, where students get to meet with alumni who work in technical roles at companies rather than technical firms. This trip aims to help students decide if they’d prefer to work at a larger technological company, a startup company or something in between.
In the oldest trip, the finance trip, students meet with people from areas like investment banking, sales and trading. Its target audience is students who know they want to be involved with finance but are unsure about the sector they want to be involved in.
There is also the advertising, marketing and communications (AdMarCom) trip, which is more of an exploratory opportunity. Many companies in this field recruit later than other fields, said Steele, so it’s less about forging work opportunities and more about having students understand the differences of AdMarCom careers.
The final option is the healthcare trip, which is a combination of both clinical and business opportunities, said Steele. Students will get to meet with a wide range of individuals, from clinical practitioners to people working in medical records software to admissions representatives from graduate schools.
In the past, CPD has also offered a law career trip. “I only had a vague idea of what I could do with a law degree,” said Career Fellow, Jocelyn Chavez, ’27. “Touring and speaking with W&L alumni about their journey in law school and their experiences in corporate versus public service law allowed me to reflect on what is going to work best for me. It opened up my perspective on the various ways a law degree can be used.”
Career trips will continue for years to come to help more students plan for their futures, Steele said.
