When I found out about CareerQuest, I was elated because of the various opportunities I could use to advance my professional growth and development. Importantly, the internship listings provided me with a rough idea of the corporate world and the different approaches I could use to realize my career goals. During my job hunt, I had various concerns, which were answered by the CareerQuest platform. I learned about the different requirements from employers and how I could position myself to stand out from other job seekers in my line of profession.
Given the limited formal career development tools, the availability of informal approaches such as informal mentoring, job shadowing, and cross-training provided me with an opportunity to understand the best approaches that entry-level employees can use to overcome the initial hurdles of job hunting. Notably, University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) students and alumni have an unlimited access to CareerQuest where they can explore different job, internship listings, and mentorship offers. I am grateful for the platform because of its ability to expose me to contacts within my industry that I can use to gain an understanding on different conflicting aspects.
The fact that one can use CareerQuest as an alumnus provides recent graduates with an opportunity to network and offer mentorship to students seeking internship opportunities. The interaction feature of the platform equips it with an added advantage that exposes students to an enabling environment where they can engage experts in the corporate world (Sarabipour, Debat, Emmott, Burgess, Schwessinger, & Hensel, 2019). Additionally, the information on the platform is audited and represents a true image of the business environment, unlike other mentorship programs that can mislead individuals with unverified information.
