Susan L. Wagner ’82 Career Advising Program
The Susan L. Wagner ’82 Career Advising Program
What do you want to be when you graduate? Rest assured that most Wellesley students are unsure about their career paths and even those that feel certain often do — and should! — change their course. When beginning your career journey, it can be tempting to imagine that it will be one straight line. However, as countless alums will tell you, that’s not the way it works — and that’s a good thing! As the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, the average worker will have 12-15 jobs in 5-7 different career fields in her lifetime.
Career Exploration
Regardless of what year you are at Wellesley, we are here to help you explore potential career paths. Every student is matched with an Advisor for Career Exploration (ACE), who is available for conversations about your values, strengths, and interests. Your ACE will provide the mentorship, tools, connections, and space for self-assessment and reflection to identify the paths you want to pursue. Schedule an appointment in Handshake to meet with your ACE as follows:
- First Years & Juniors: Marisa Crowley, ACE for the Class of 2026 & 2028
- Sophomores & Seniors: Ariane Baker, ACE for the Classes of 2025 & 2027
Career Advising for Specific Industries and Fields
You may already have some inclination about what industry or field you might like to work within. You also may still be quite uncertain — and that is both normal and completely okay! You don’t need to know exactly what you want to do to meet with a specialized Career Advisor — simply having curiosity about a field or industry is a great place to begin.
To meet with an industry/field specific Career Advisor, make an appointment in Handshake by selecting “Career, Internship, and Graduate School by Industry/Field.“ If you aren’t sure which Advisor covers your field of interest, email careereducation@wellesley.edu and we’ll point you in the right direction! The categories are broadly encompassing, so no matter what your career interests are, there is an Advisor who can work with you to explore the fields you are considering.
Sign up for Industry newsletters by filling out your Career Interest profile in Handshake. You’ll receive advice specifically related to the industries of your interest, along with highlighted events, resources, jobs, internships, and fellowship opportunities in your field of interest. Subscribing to multiple newsletters is a great way to explore career options!
Career Essentials: Resumes, Cover Letters, Interviews, & More!
Through the Career Essentials workshop series, you will develop skills and the foundational knowledge necessary to navigate career development. Learn about resumes, cover letters, interviewing, informational interviewing, negotiation, and personal statements.
Recruiting Timelines for Specific Industries and Fields
Many industries have different recruiting schedules—learn about timelines and career paths, and explore your interests with the help of our industry/field specific Career Advisors, and through the drop-downs below!
Career Advisors
Peer Career Mentors
Explore Employment Around the World with GoinGlobal
GoinGlobal is the leading provider of both country-specific and USA city-specific career and employment information. Our unlimited access subscription database features 38 Country Career Guides, 53 City Career Guides for the United States and Canada, corporate profiles and more than 16 million internship and job listings within the USA and around the world.
Consulting
The word consulting encompasses a wide range of industries and professional job opportunities. To put it simply, a consultant provides “external advice for organizations that require specialist experience or an objective outside perspective on their business.” There are many different types of consulting that can be explored, including management, strategy, economics, healthcare, human resources, and technology. Likewise, there are endless opportunities in all types of industries that use consultants: from education to healthcare to the public sector, consulting can provide many opportunities for you to explore different industries or even just a specific field.
Finance, Accounting, and Insurance
A career in Finance can mean many different things, depending on what type of work you’re interested in or what specific subsect you want to explore. Within Finance, you can work in the financial department of an organization (governmental, nonprofit or for-profit) or you can work at a company that provides financial services to individuals, groups, institutions and/or organizations.
Business and Operations
Business is a large sector of the global economy in which goods or services are exchanged, generally, for money and profits. Businesses need customers who purchase their goods or services. Additionally, businesses require some form of investment.
Management and Human Resources
Management refers to the organization, oversight and coordination of people and activities in a business or organization so that it meets it objectives or vision. Management broadly encompasses creating corporate policy and strategy, and setting objectives, and then organizing, planning, controlling and guiding an organization’s people and resources in the achievement of these objectives or vision. Human Resources is the part of a business that relates to employees, including recruiting, orientation of employees, overseeing benefits, training, and more.
“By living in vegan communities and exploring their foodscapes, I hope to understand the lived experiences of being vegan across cultures and find ways to adapt veganism to various cultural contexts and customs.”
Introduction to Careers in the U.S. Federal Government
If you are passionate about making a difference in the world and eager to help the United States government tackle complex issues, you may want to explore career opportunities in the federal government. From climate change to national security, highway safety to space exploration (and everything in between), the federal government offers a huge range of internship and job opportunities in every branch of government and in over 400 federal agencies.