Career Development
A degree in the humanities and social sciences can help prepare you for many options upon graduation. The knowledge you will gain through your studies will be instrumental in allowing you to increase your communication, analytical, and reasoning skills to only name a few, all of which make you competitive for a career. Sometimes the flexibility of this degree makes specific career paths seem unclear, but there are several resources on campus to assist you in meeting your goals.
When deciding your career...
- Talk to faculty advisors in areas of interest
- Explore the interactive resources at "What Can I Do with This Major?"
- Visit the student page for resources on "Choosing a Major"
- Schedule an appointment with a Career Decision Making career counselor in the LSU Olinde Career Center
Make sure to plan accordingly...
Here is a helpful guide to getting your career on track from the start
Get experience
What Is An Internship? Why Is An Internship Important?
An internship is a practical work experience related to your major that allows you to apply classroom knowledge and academic principles. It is a single, planned educational experience and its duration may be one semester, a summer, or any length of time agreed upon between you, the employer, and the university. Internships may be paid or unpaid and the student may receive academic credit with approval from an academic department (see below- link to Internships for Course Credit).
Many government agencies, corporations, and non-profit organizations offer internships to qualified individuals. An internship can be an excellent way for a student to obtain professional work experience and make useful contacts in a given field, increasing his or her chance of obtaining desirable employment after graduation. Research shows that employers: 1) are more likely to hire graduating students with proven major-related work experience; and 2) typically offer those hires a higher salary than someone without internship or co-op experience. Upon graduation, students completing Internships and Co-ops are definitely more marketable in the eyes of employers.
Internships for Course Credit
- Acquire an internship position related to your field of study. You must do all the work for this yourself though there are several resources listed below that you may find helpful. Some of the summer internship opportunities have application deadlines of November 1 or earlier, so you must begin this process early.
- Obtain approval from the Departmental Internship Advisor for the internship and register for the course. Credit will not be given for work completed prior to obtaining department approval.
- Complete all the duties assigned by the internship supervisor in the office where you have the internship and hand in all academic components (book reviews and journal) on time to the instructor of record or Internship Advisor.
Please note that you must complete all reading and writing assignments, if applicable, during that semester, communicating regularly with your instructor of record by email. Also, the internship work may not be applied to any other internship program. In other words, you cannot use the internship hours toward another academic program of study.