Undergraduate Career Development in Four Simple Steps

Here’s what the career center won’t tell you

Career development as an undergraduate is confusing, so I wrote this article to try to clear some things up! Securing an internship or two before you graduate is a great way to get the ball rolling because you get direct exposure to the industry you’re interested in!

Four Steps of Undergraduate Career Development

Landing internships, and -more broadly- developing your career as an undergrad can be broken down into a simple four-step process.

Step 1: Student organizations and open-to-all opportunities on campus

Get involved with student organizations and other open-to-all opportunities on campus related to the field(s) you’re interested in! This is a super effective and low-key way to get a better idea of what’s out there- no strings attached. Go to as many student organization meetings as you can to help you narrow down the types of organizations you want to participate in. Rapid fire, haphazard, and outright dangerous Googling should get you started.

Step 2: Leadership positions in student organizations and selective on-campus opportunities

Once you’ve narrowed it down to a handful of student organizations, figure out where you might be able to take on a leadership role. This will help you gain experience working in a structure outside of the classroom. In addition, now that you have some experience under your belt, start applying to other more selective on-campus opportunities that interest you! This could be anything from an undergraduate research assistant to campus radio host.

Step 3: Internships at smaller companies and entrepreneurial work

Now that you have a solid amount of experience working within the campus ecosystem, you’re ready to start branching out! This is a good time to pursue internships at smaller companies whose work appeals to you. If you’re ready for a challenge, consider joining a startup or starting your own entrepreneurial endeavor!

Step 4: Internships at larger companies, networking directly with industry

By this point, you will have acquired enough experience to have a good idea of what work you’re good at and find interesting. This makes you a prime candidate for internships at larger companies. Apply to internships positions where you are able to utilizec the skills you have in a space you’re passionate about! This is also one of the best ways to start networking more directly with industry, which will increase your chances of landing a job upon graduation.

A Quick Example

Okay, so you’re probably wondering what exactly this four-step process looks like in real life. Let’s go through a quick (hypothetical) example, using a bioengineering major at UC Davis.

Step 1: This bioengineering major decided to start out by pursuing several open-to-all opportunities on the UC Davis campus. She joined several student organizations including BioInnovation Group and the UC Davis chapter of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineers! In addition, she participated in two on-campus events: the Little Bang! entrepreneurial poster competition, and the TEAM Makethon, a bioengineering hackathon. To top it all of she took a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) seminar class.

Step 2: Leveraging the experiences she gained during step 1, this undergraduate was able to successfully apply to two selective on-campus opportunities! She is now an Undergraduate Researcher with the Eisen Lab and Secretary of the ISPE UC Davis Chapter, a student organization.

Step 3: That summer, our bioengineering undergraduate was able to translate the experience she gained on campus to an internship at a smaller biotechnology company! In addition, she also started pursuing some entrepreneurial work by conducting her own research project through BioInnovation Group at UC Davis.

Step 4: With all of this valuable experience under her belt, our bioengineering undergraduate applied for internships at larger biotechnology companies where she was able to apply the skills she learned in a space you’re passionate about. With a bit of luck and lots of informational interviews, she was able to land an internship at the biotechnology company Amgen, which was relevant to her work with the Eisen Lab and BioInnovation Group!

Wait, what are Informational Interviews?

To make sure you’re on the right track, conduct informational interviews with people whose career tracks you would like to pursue very regularly. Informational Interviews are conversations between you and people whose career trajectory you find interesting!

There are three groups of people you can think about interviewing to get you started:

Connections on LinkedIn

Utilize LinkedIn Search to find people whose careers you are interested in and have one thing in common with (maybe you went to the same school, for example). Shoot them a connection request. Once they accept, send them a LinkedIn message asking to schedule a 20-minute phone call where you go through a list of questions you’ve prepared based on the information in their LinkedIn profile.

Utilize University Connections

Email Professors or staff members at your university whose classes you found enjoyable. Ask them for an appointment (or perhaps just swing by office hours), where you cover a list of question you’ve prepared based on information available online.

Utilize Friend/Family Connections

Next time you’re hanging out with friend and family, ask them if they know anyone in the industry you’re interested in! Chances are, they probably do, and you’ll be able to set up a short call with them to discuss their career experiences.

TL; DR

Landing the best internship for you and developing your career as an undergraduate can be done by identifying where in the four-step process (involvement in student organizations, on-campus leadership, smaller company internships, larger company internships) you are, and looking for opportunities that propel you towards the next step. To orient yourself, make sure to conduct informational interviews with people whose career tracks you find interesting!

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For the price of a movie ticket ($12), I’m happy to sit down with you for a half-hour video call to help you begin to craft an undergrad career development strategy, including a method to tackle your internship search! Feel free to shoot me a message via Facebook/LinkedIn or email me at lrilles@ucdavis.edu.

Lisa Illés is an undergraduate biological systems engineer at UC Davis, who has been advising high school and college students for the past several years. To date, she has completed 9 internships. Most recently, she interned at the biotechnology company Genentech. Lisa wants to help bridge the gap between early-stage career building and the undergraduate experience.

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Thanks for reading!