Winter 2019 EditionAlumni & Friends Magazine
Practiced Persistence
Feeling lost about securing his first internship, geography sophomore Zach Hadley turned to OHIO's Career and Leadership Development Center (CLDC) for guidance, resulting in more than 200 applications and his current position in the City of Athens Mayor’s Office, showcasing the transformative impact of CLDC's coaching and support.
Peter Shooner | March 8, 2019
Share:
Two years ago, Zach Hadley was lost. The bright geography sophomore, making the grade with a high GPA, didn’t know where to start to land his first internship.
“I had zero direction. Do I just mail resumes to people? Do I email CEOs? I had no clue how to do this,” Hadley says. “I was super embarrassed … because that’s such an important thing to know. I know how to graph a parabola, but I don’t know how to find a job.”
Not finding answers in the classroom, Hadley visited OHIO’s Career and Leadership Development Center (CLDC), where Assistant Director Kacey Schaum reviewed his resume and assessed his communication skills through a mock interview.
Her conclusion? Hadley’s engaging personality made him a great interviewee, but he needed to learn how to build a resume, cover letter, and strategy to find the right internship. With no prior work experience to list, Hadley and Schaum knew the task ahead would be difficult.
Zach Hadley, BS ’19, practices what he’ll do with his future degree in urban planning and sustainability. Here, Zach hosts a meeting at the Athens City Pool on behalf of his internship host, the City of Athens Mayor’s Office. Photo by Ellee Achten, BSJ ’14, MA ’17
Hadley went to CLDC workshops, spoke with professors, and kept meeting with Schaum, who encouraged his progress. But putting these new skills into practice was still up to him.
“We’re [about] more than just looking at resumes or cover letters or doing a practice interview,” Schaum explains. “We’re encouraging students to engage fully in [the internship search] process, set action steps, and really take their future into their own hands.”
Hadley applied to more than 200 internships over that winter break. He heard back from just one employer who interviewed him and then later offered him the job. Hadley admits the process was defeating at first but recognizes how his hard work paid off.
Today, he’s working in the City of Athens Mayor’s Office, his third internship in two years—a feat he credits to those first steps into the CLDC.
“It’s all a process. Now that I have those connections and some networking, some experience and deliverables, I’m much more adept at finding internships,” he says. “It’s kind of like pushing a boulder. You just need to get it started.”
Launched in 2012, the impact of OHIO’s CLDC is broad. It won the 2018 National Excellence Award for Career Services Excellence from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Last year it logged more than 20,000 touchpoints with students, 7,000 of whom received the kind of coaching that let Hadley create the map to navigate his own career success.
