Career Advancement

Starting a new position, whether an internship or a full-time job, is an opportunity to learn and grow as a professional. In addition to fulfilling your day-to-day responsibilities, be purposeful in seeking to continuously improve in your career journey.

Set Goals

Meet with your supervisor when you start to find out their expectations for you, for both the short term and the long term. Request feedback to make sure you are on the right track. Think also about your goals for your job or internship — what you would like to learn and achieve. Share them with your supervisor, and discuss what opportunities there are to accomplish them.

Setting clear goals will help you track your progress toward achieving them. Review our guidance in setting SMART goals — specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

Connect with Your Colleagues

Introduce yourself to your team and others with whom your team works. Connect with each person and get a sense of what they do. Learn how your work relates to other people and how their work relates to yours. 

Communication is important and may require figuring out the preferences of those that you interact with consistently during your work. Be adaptable and seek out ways to effectively and consistently communicate with your team and supervisor, whether in person, via email, or in a virtual meeting. Remember that your supervisor and teammates will be juggling other priorities – you can demonstrate respect for their time by withholding non-timely questions until a calmer moment in the day or week.

Observe and Learn

Understanding the culture of an organization is important whenever you start working somewhere new. Watch and seek guidance from your colleagues and peers. What are the routines of the organization? Of the people? Learn the organizational structure, meeting practices, and opportunities for collaboration.

Onboarding and training practices will vary among organizations. In general, it is good practice to ask questions to clarify your understanding and establish clear lines of communication with your supervisor and team. Read the organizational material, policies, and procedures; if appropriate, ask to join meetings or shadow other employees so you can learn more beyond your day-to-day work. Part of learning is also asking for feedback that can improve your performance or asking for guidance in learning a new skill.  

Embrace opportunities to continue your professional development. This can include attending conferences as well as taking on new projects with greater responsibility. Reflect on which skills are important for your career, and purposefully seek out ways to develop them.

Manage Your Time

Working full-time in an internship or job can be very different from being a student. Be prepared for a shift in professional expectations, the nature of work, and the structure of the day.

Complete your projects on time, and when one task is done, ask for another. If you need more time or are feeling overwhelmed with multiple projects, talk to your supervisor about prioritizing your work.

If things are slow for you, make your supervisor aware as well. And if your schedule stays slow, read some professional journal articles, or ask if it’s fine to offer to help another employee. You can also generate ideas about potential longer-term projects and present them to your supervisor. 

Seek out opportunities to contribute, where appropriate. Initiative, creativity, and collaboration are all positive attributes to cultivate.

Stay Organized

Take notes during meetings and keep to-do lists of your tasks and deadlines. Follow data storage processes—if your organization keeps files in central locations, maintain your records in accordance with policy.

List and track your projects so that you can discuss your progress with your supervisor. Remember to pause and reflect on the work you have done. Think about your projects, the people you worked with, and the skills you gained. What was easy? What was challenging? What areas do you want to go deeper in? What areas do you prefer to avoid in the future?

Build Connections

As you start your career journey, it will be useful for your career to learn about the different paths other people have taken. Invite your supervisor and colleagues to informal chats. Connect with them on LinkedIn.

If you are interning, send a thank you note to your supervisor or mentor thanking them for their time and guidance at the end of your internship. If you hope to get a reference, this can also be an appropriate time to make a request. Also thank your teammates and other staff members with whom you worked.

Reflect on Your Experience

Reflect regularly on what you are learning and how you are growing as a professional. How has your work changed your impression about your industry and position? What discoveries have you made about yourself and your career priorities? How can you continue to challenge yourself and grow in your career?

Many workplaces have a formal review process, but also ask your supervisor and colleagues for regular feedback on your performance so you can learn what you’ve done well and what needs improvement. Update your resume with your experiences and accomplishments. Think about how you can continue to stretch your abilities. 

Check out our guidance on how to make the most of an internship.

Follow these four steps as you navigate making a career change.

Step One: Clarify your interests, skills, and values

Consider the following questions:

• Why are you interested in a career change? If there is another field you already know you’d like to explore, what interests you about it? If you know only that you want to change your current path, are there aspects of your current role, workplace, or industry that you’d like to replicate or avoid?
• What skills have you gained that could transfer into another work setting?
• What are your key personal qualities and abilities?
• What values do you hold?

CCE has many resources to facilitate your career exploration. Consider self-assessment exercises to understand yourself and your motivations. You can meet with CCE to discuss your findings from these exercises and the questions above; we can also help you decide whether a formal assessment would be valuable. A career counselor can help you explore how your interests and personality fit with different careers and understand your motivations for making a change.

Step Two: Research and develop a plan of action

• Become familiar with your new industry by consulting resources such as Vault.
• Review our comprehensive Industry Exploration pages (which include industry-specific job boards).
• Tailor your search to the industry by identifying recruitment cycles, hiring trends, and top organizations.
• Hear from established professionals and alumni in your new industry by reading their LinkedIn profiles, listening to industry podcasts, or reaching out for virtual coffee chats.

Step Three: Get connected and tell your story

• Incorporate your new career goals into a short but informative introduction. This can include who you are, what you have to offer, and why you’re interested in making a career transition.
• Work with CCE to get comfortable sharing your story with others. If there is a gap in your work history or you’ve had a non-traditional career path, plan what you will say ahead of time.
• Practice sharing your professional narrative. Actively participate in professional and campus events such as academic symposia, conferences, and career fairs. Meet with alumni or other professionals to learn more about a new career or industry.

Step Four: Gain experience in your new field 

You may need to develop skills or knowledge in your new area of interest. There are a number of ways to gain experience, including:

• Volunteering
• Working part-time
• Seeking virtual opportunities
• Initiating your own project
• Taking online skills courses

As you seek opportunities in your new career field, below are additional tips to consider:

• Synthesize the results from your exploration, research, and networking. Use this information to align your resumes and cover letters with your new industry.
• Talk to people you know to find opportunities. Search for internship, job, and volunteer experiences through LionSHARE and other job boards.
• As you conduct informational interviews and pursue opportunities; consider using tracking tools to stay organized.
• Stay motivated! The job search is draining and can feel overwhelming at times, so it’s important to take breaks when you can. Surround yourself with people who support you. 

If you have been out of the workforce for a period of time, you are not alone. Many people have periods of time during their careers when they are not working due to a variety of reasons, including:

• Losing a job
• Furthering their education
• Taking care of children or elderly or ill family members
• Tending to health issues
• Traveling extensively
• Pursuing personal projects
• Simply taking a break

As you prepare to get back to work, you can explain gaps in your employment history.

Initial Planning

When you’re ready to reenter the workforce:

• Reflect on your interests, values, skills and experiences to determine your next step
• Develop an overall narrative about your career and how that gap fits into it.
• Practice discussing your re-entry to work. Think about how you will describe your employment gap and the circumstances around the gap.
• Highlight previous and current skills that can be leveraged and applied to a new position.

Resume and Cover Letter Strategies  

Here are a few ways to address potential employer concerns about gaps on your resume:

• Drop the months from your employment dates on your resume and just use years: For example: 2025–2026 instead of May 2025 to February 2026
• Consider a summary statement on your resume to help the employer focus on your skills instead of time away from the workplace.
• Group your work experience on your resume into categories rather than following strict reverse chronology. Headings such as “Marketing Experience” or “Training Experience” will help downplay gaps.
• Include any other related experience you gained during your time out of the workforce. Think about volunteer work, projects (including independent projects), professional development courses, certifications, or involvement in professional associations.
• Address your time out of the workforce in your cover letter. For example:  “…Following this work experience, I devoted myself to volunteer work outside of the legal profession. These volunteer experiences have given me an opportunity to take on a high level of responsibility in leadership positions, helping me to hone critical skills, including management, leadership, and teamwork. This work has been rewarding, and I am excited and ready to move my focus back to my professional career in the private sector.”

Interview Strategies 

During the interview, you may be asked to address employment gap questions. Prepare a response that you feel comfortable with. There is no need to apologize for career breaks or divulge too much information. Briefly acknowledge the break and the circumstances around it, and then move on. Redirect the conversation by expressing excitement to return to the workforce and refer to skills and experiences that will be useful in the new opportunity.

• If you took time off to care for children, an ill adult, or yourself, think of all the skills you used: multi-tasking, solving problems, managing time, handling stress, negotiating and mediating (especially with healthcare issues).
• If you volunteered, worked on projects, served in a professional association, took classes, or did anything else that was professionally related during your time out of work, be sure to highlight these experiences and the skills that you gained.