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Welcome to the Center for Career and Professional Development

The Center for Career and Professional Development provides comprehensive services and resources to assist with researching careers, finding job opportunities, preparing for graduate school, improving resume writing and interviewing skills, and landing appropriate internships for career advancement.

We aim to assist you with your job search and career development needs.

Career tools for students, alumni, and employers

Handshake
Handshake is NJCU’s career management platform where students and alumni can review NJCU career resources, schedule career advising appointments, register for career events, and find internships and jobs (there are 750,000+ employers recruiting on Handshake).

• Activate your account at 
• Download the Handshake app from Apple or Google Play so you get notifications on the latest jobs, events, and employers

FOCUS2
FOCUS2 is an online, interactive, self-guided career and education planning system.
FOCUS 2 engages and guides you through career & academic (your major) decision making to help you choose programs offered at NJCU, explore occupations & make career decisions that align with your values, skills and interests.

How to Setup Your FOCUS2 ACCOUNT and Log In: 
You will need the access code to register. 
Access code: gothicknights

New Users

• Step 1: Create your account by linking to the NJCU FOCUS 2 registration page:
  
  
   
• Step 2: Please remember, you will need the access code to register; the access code is: gothicknights
• Step 3: Complete your registration by creating an account.
• Step 4: After creating an account, the system will prompt you to begin the assessment.

Using FOCUS2

FOCUS2 is designed to walk you through the steps of your career planning process. You can review any parts of the system at any stage in your process.

• My Career Planning Readiness
  A self-assessment tool that helps you determine where you stand in terms of your career planning process
• My Academic Strengths
  A self-assessment tool that helps you determine where your academic strengths and weakness exist. Recognizing your academic strengths will bring you one step closer to pursuing a satisfying area of study and career path. 
• Self- Assessment
  Used to help you learn more about how your personality, skills, values and what you enjoy doing in your free time which can lead to your career path.
  The following are under the Self-Assessment:
  • Work Interest: will identify occupations and tasks you most enjoy 
  • Personality: matches your personality type to compatible occupations 
  • Skills: identify occupations that match your profile 
  • Values: identify occupations that are compatible with what’s important to you 
  • Leisure Interest: identify occupations that provide opportunities and activities compatible with your leisure preference 
  • Combine: the results from the assessments and give a table of the top careers that best suit student’s answers 
• Take Action: Assist you by organizing your educational and professional development activities in preparation for resume creation, graduate school applications, and/or job search activities.  
• Education and Planning Results
  Keeps track and produce a summary of your saved career preferences and assessment results. The following is under My Career and Education Planning Results: 
  • My Saved Occupations 
  • My Saved Majors 
  • Review and Print My Portfolio

Need help? Please contact Center for Career and Professional Development  at 201-200-3005 to make an appointment with your career advisor.

Forage
 offers virtual experience programs for NJCU students. Develop your skills and obtain more information about different careers and jobs by working through these self-paced modules, with tasks similar to those you would undertake during a traditional internship.  Discover what everyday life is like at different organizations, learn more about which career path is right for you, and acquire new skills. Forage programs are free for NJCU students and alumni.

The Following Services Are Offered

• Providing individualized career counseling to discuss the choice of a major for careers of interest, planning a job search, researching career information, selecting a graduate program of study.
• Administering self-assessments to evaluate values, skills and interests so students can identify careers where they best fit.
• Conducting workshops regarding selection of majors for careers of interest, applying to graduate school, writing resumes, learning interview skills.
• Hosting employer recruitment events. 
• Advising non-declared students regarding appropriate majors for career interests.

Employment Services

• Internships for declared majors.
• Part-Time job opportunities.
• Campus recruitment program.
• Access to Handshake to view/apply to full-time, professional and internship positions.
• Career Fairs and other employer recruitment events.

Whether you are exploring multiple majors or searching for information about your chosen field, the  will help you connect majors to careers.

Staff

Ms. Melissa Faulkner, Director
201-200-2181

Christopher Cofone, Assistant Director
201-200-2180

Ron Baines, Assistant Director of Athletics for Student Development
201-200-3317

Sarah McGough, Internship & Postgraduate Outcomes Coordinator
201-200-3331

Andrea Squillante, Career Coach
201-200-3054

Andrea Tider, Career Readiness Manager
201-200-3322