Career development begins as early as your first days on campus, and a critical step in this journey is understanding your interests, values and strengths. 

This will help you make decisions around topics like potential concentrations, co-curricular activities, summer experiences and career possibilities, ensuring you make the most of your Princeton experience.  

It's an ongoing process, and is different for every student. We are here to support you every step of the way. 

Wherever you are right now, you are not behind. Everyone has a unique path and timeline. It's also normal for your interests and goals to change and evolve over time as you learn and grow. 

The top three things you can do to get started are: 

1. Undergraduates can take the CareerExplorer assessment and graduate students can review the myIDP (for sciences and engineering) or ImaginePhD (for humanities and social sciences) to get a better understanding of your interests and options.
    
2. Meet with a career adviser to help you reflect on your interests. You can make an appointment to just talk through your interests and possible options, you do not need to have anything prepared to meet with an adviser. 
    
3. Browse different career fields in Career Compass to start to learn about different career paths and read advice from undergraduate and graduate alumni.  

We offer in person and virtual one-on-one advising to help students reflect on their values and strengths, pursue opportunities that match their unique interests and design personalized plans to achieve their goals. You can schedule an appointment using Handshake. 

Advising sessions are casual conversations. Whether you have a topic in mind or if you’re not sure where to start, meeting with an adviser is a good next step.

You do not have to have anything figured out before an advising appointment. Advisers can help you talk through your questions, figure out what interests you and how to start putting together a personalized plan. 

Common topics include:

• Career exploration
• Networking (how to talk with alumni about their careers, how to prepare for a career fair, etc.)
• Internship, job and fellowship search strategies
• Interview preparation
• Resume, cover letter, CV, and personal statement reviews
• Planning for graduate school and preparing applications

Students of all class years are encouraged to meet with a career adviser. Learn about our team of advisers. 

Building experience helps you develop skills, and also to clarify what your interests are and what you may want to try next. 

Common ways to build experience during the academic years and summer include: 

• Classwork 
• Co-curriculars (including student groups and leadership opportunities) 
• Internship
• Summer jobs
• Research 
• Teaching 
• Volunteerism
• Independent study 

As you gain experience, you may notice your interests changing. You won't enjoy all experiences, and it's normal to find that something you once wanted to do is no longer a path you want to pursue.

You can meet with a career adviser to reflect on your interests and start to put a personalized plan together.  

Connecting with others is one of the best ways to learn what the day-to-day looks like in different career paths. This is often called "networking." 

Networking has many benefits, and we encourage you to start connecting with others as early as possible during your time at Princeton. 

Your Princeton experience offers frequent opportunities to naturally engage in networking — sometimes without even realizing it — including: 

• Professors’ office hours
• Events on campus
• Career fairs, employer events and professional conferences
• Summer internships or volunteer opportunities with your manager and coworkers
• Student organizations and volunteer opportunities 
• City Treks and Princeternships 

We have guides with tips and resources to help you every step of the way. 

Recruiting is when an employer seeks out prospective hires for open positions with their organization. This process involves sourcing, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding of strong candidates.

We offer a Campus Recruiting Program, and many other ways to meet employers interested in recruiting Princeton students for jobs and internships. 

Recruiting is just one of the many options for students. The Center for Career Development also helps students pursue internships and jobs in other ways. You can meet with a career adviser to learn more about these options. 

One of the ways some employers demonstrate their commitment to diversity is by developing programs to cultivate diverse applicants.

They take many forms, and range from structured internships to workshops and programs intended to prepare students for internships and career options in their organizations.

Employers with these programs typically feature them – including how to get involved – on their hiring pages, and you can find employer information sessions and related internships/jobs related to these programs in Handshake. 

Fit is an important part of finding work that is aligned with your interests and values. As you gain more work experience, the aspects you value about work will become clearer.  

Here are a few tips and things to consider as you think about applying, interviewing and making decisions about roles: 

• What type of relationship do you want with a supervisor and team members? 
   
• Try out different internships and work environments and note what you like and what you do not.  
   
• What are your preferences around remote, in-person or hybrid work environments?
   
• What kind of work-life balance are you seeking? Different organizations and industries offer different levels of this (for example, startups vs. large organizations). 
   
• What attributes are important to you in finding a sense of belonging at the organization? Is it knowing others with similar identities work there? Knowing whether there are affinity groups available? Seeing what the employer posts about on social media?
   
• Before accepting a job or internship, if possible, visit the workplace to see how employees work with each other to understand more about what it’s like.

Keep in mind that not every work environment and role will be a 100% match and there might be pieces you need to compromise on but still worth trying out and learning from.

You can meet with a career adviser to talk through these and other questions as you make determinations about where to apply and accept employment.