Professional Development Requirement

Spring 2011

A major goal of the MIS program is to ensure that its graduates are well prepared for the job market, both initially and throughout their careers. Some of the ways we do this is by ensuring that our curriculum is in sync with employers’ needs and helping students with their job search by providing a variety of networking opportunities.

We recently began another initiative that we believe will help. All MIS courses now have a professional development requirement. A portion of a student's grade is dependent on meeting the requirements, which include attending company presentations at SMIS, having their resume critiqued, doing a mock interview, going to job fairs, attending a recruiting dinner, going to a career counseling session, attending a presentation on summer internship opportunities, and participating in social/networking events. We believe that these activities will help students be more aware of job and career opportunities, be better prepared for interviews, communicate better, and develop skills and practices that will help them throughout their careers.

This effort is being guided by Hugh Watson and is Student Advisory Board.