Career and professional development
The Office of Career and Professional Development offers personalized services to both students and alumni. Get ready for your professional life by honing essential skills and defining your career path through exploration, employer engagements, and learning opportunities.
Prepare for professional success
The Office of Career & Professional Development is committed to providing Young Harris College students and alumni with a broad range of personalized services to prepare them for professional success. Students will have the opportunity to develop essential skills and discover their career identities through major and career exploration, employer interaction and learning opportunities.
Career readiness
As a student at YHC, you are constantly building new skills, experiences and competencies that contribute to your overall personal and professional development. Many of these skills and experiences can be used to help you be career ready even before graduation. Below are eight career readiness competences developed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) that employers are seeking and highly qualified candidates often possess. The Office of Career & Professional Development is available to explore and assist you with each of the areas.
- Career and self development
- Communication
- Critical thinking
- Equity and inclusion
- Leadership
- Professionalism
- Teamwork
- Technology
Student employment through Handshake
Part-time positions for students can be found in many departments. These positions offer many advantages including a flexible schedule, income, and professional experience that can transfer to your future career goals. The Student Work program serves to assist all full-time students, regardless of family income, to apply for employment.
To view and apply for available positions, current students can sign in to the Handshake platform with YHC email address and password. Search for “YHC Student Employment”.
Internships and job opportunities
An internship is a planned work experience that provides a student with an opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience in a particular field. Young Harris College encourages students to pursue internships during their course of study.
Beyond the experience, students who complete internships gain marketable skills for the workplace. Students completing internships have greater confidence in job interviews and are better prepared for the transition from the classroom to the workplace after graduation. An internship is a supervised experience that can be full-time or part-time, paid or unpaid. Internships may be approved for academic credit or may be for non-credit.
Young Harris College offers a wide range of academic and non-academic internship opportunities on and off campus for all full-time students. Sign in to the Handshake platform with current YHC email address and password.
Focus 2 Career access for current students
To access Focus 2 Career, all new users must create an account by clicking on the “REGISTER” button after clicking the link below and filling out the “Create Your Focus 2 Career Account” form. An access code is required to submit the form.
YHC’s unique ACCESS CODE is: mountainlions
All new users share the same access code. Once you submit the Create Your Account form, you will be taken directly into Focus 2 Career. Each time you return to use Focus 2 Career, you will enter your personal Username and Password on your Focus 2 Career Login Link.
Employers: How to connect with YHC students
The Office of Career & Professional Development regularly coordinates and hosts multiple engagement opportunities for employers who are interested in meeting and interacting with YHC students. Below are some of the ways that interested employers can connect with Young Harris College students:
Post your internship opportunity to YHC students
Post an internship opportunity on the Handshake portal. If you have further questions or concerns, please contact the Career & Professional Development office.
Connect via Handshake
Most recruiting starts through Handshake. Create a free account or log-in to register for upcoming events and connect with students.
Connect virtually through sessions/webinars
YHC has had great success with our live virtual webinars, and the ability to connect remotely is more important now than ever. The College advertises and supports virtual events and sessions in the same manner as our on-campus presentations to bring you as much student interaction as possible.
Connect in person, on campus
The College has great options for reaching our students in a more personal way, all of which are easy to arrange. Connect with the Office of Career & Professional Development to learn more about these options. We will handle all of the details of your on-campus visit, including extensive targeted marketing to students, academic departments and student organizations, as well as room reservations and online scheduling.
Recruitment policies
YHC’s Office of Career & Professional Development abides by the ethical standards for professional conduct set forth by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) and we expect all employers and third-party recruiting organizations to abide by these principles as well. We view recruiting as a partnership, one where your team and our team work together to facilitate the best fit between students/alumni and employment opportunities. Organizations that do not act in accordance with these principles will have their recruiting privileges revoked.
