Career Services

It wasn’t long ago that Christian Clifton and Kylie Shaplin were GCU students listening to lectures, working in the engineering labs and sitting in on career talks. But recently, the alumni — Clifton graduated in 2019 and Shaplin in 2020 — found themselves in an unexpected position. Instead of listening to industry panelists, they WERE the industry panelists at a recent talk by Benchmark engineers, and this time students were listening to them.

Strategic Employer Initiatives and Internships (SEI) has begun putting on virtual career fairs, and the early returns are promising. Students say it really isn’t that much different than an in-person career fair. In fact, if you prepare properly, it might even be better because there’s less pressure.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of all campus events, that included the career fairs. No problem: The Strategic Employer Initiatives and Internships (SEI) staff quickly shifted gears and will conduct four virtual career fairs before the month is over.

When students strolled through the Promenade on Tuesday at the Lopes Launch Senior Sendoff Event, they were likely to run into a graduate of GCU now working in the community who had come back to recruit them. One organization, Central Leadership Institute, has hired GCU grads for seven of its 23 residency posts in the past four years — and it sent a GCU alum to get more.

Are Google interviews really as intense as everyone has heard? Is it true that employees get free food, free massages and have access to an onsite gym and health clinic? What is the next big thing for Google? And what about privacy? A panel of “Googlers,” including account executives David Tully and Alexis Russo, account manager John Dzera and software engineer Mauricio Molina, stopped by GCU on Wednesday to answer some of those questions, give away some cool Google swag (mesh Google laundry hamper, anyone?) and talk about everything from how they got to Google, what they do, what they love about working at the $75 billion technology company and more. The talk, called “A Day in the Life of a Google Employee,” was brought to campus by Grand Canyon Education’s Digital Marketing Team and Strategic Employer Initiatives and Internships.

The Association of Christian Schools International’s first international job fair at GCU brought representatives from 28 countries to campus Tuesday. “We have a variety of job fairs and career fairs, but mostly they’re local and national. This is opening up the door in a large way to the number of professions in that international sphere,” said Dr. Tacy Ashby, Senior Vice President of K12 Educational Development. “The College of Education is really excited about this because it affords incredible ministry opportunities while allowing their students the opportunity to serve in Christian schools abroad.”

The recent Honors College Leadership Conference helped those students build connections with business professionals and better prepare themselves for the future. “I think it was a great opportunity to meet established individuals in the various fields, whether it be business or different markets of leadership, but also meeting other motivated individuals that are students as well,” Honors student Elisha Fronda said.

John Iannarelli worked some high-profile cases when he was with the FBI — the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the Oklahoma City bombing. He spent some time Wednesday speaking with students about his work with the FBI and qualities that make a good leader. Iannarelli was on campus as part of the Provost Speaker Series.

Bill Palowski served in the Air Force for 23 years. Christina Herman was a GCU student who changed her major three times and wasn’t sure what she wanted to do as a career. But after immersing themselves in four months in GCU’s Java Certificate Program, the new coders both were hired, before graduation, by a large technology consulting firm. They are examples of the success of the program, which made its debut this year. Palowski, Herman and five other Java boot camp students are finishing the camp Friday and held a showcase this week for industry leaders.

You have one minute: Rant on the topic of “Pockets.” Go! It was just one of the activities freshman engineering students tackled in Excellence in Engineering, a series of six workshops covering everything from resume-building to handling stress and public speaking. The workshops, led by engineering students, also are designed to build a sense of community in the department.