Faculty & Staff

Here are a few examples of Career Development engagement that faculty can implement in their class:

• Create career-related course assignments. The CCPD staff are available to come alongside faculty to aid in the creation of career-related content and assignments. However, it is necessary for the assignments to be directed, tracked, reviewed, and graded by the faculty member, not by CCPD staff. Some common assignments include:
  • Having students…
    • Activate their Handshake account and enhance their Handshake profile to 100% completion
    • Create a newly enhanced resume aligned to their current career goals and target job
    • Complete the career readiness questionnaires and self-assessments inside the Focus 2 system
    • Join a professional association as a student member
    • Use the “What Can I Do With This Major” tool and write a reflection
    • Watch a recorded career development webinar produced by the CCPD (on YouTube)
    • Create or enhance their LinkedIn profile
    • Attend one career related event (on campus, online, through employer offerings in Handshake, etc.)
    • Use the Quinncia tool to have students record their response to a standard or custom set of interview questions
• Direct students to activate their Handshake account and complete their entire profile. What is Handshake? 
• Arrange to have CCPD attend a faculty meeting to discuss or do training on a specific topic.
• Include one or more of our presentations on various career topics.

Our team of career development experts has presentations available on the topics listed below. The length of the presentation will vary depending on needs.

Presentation Content Areas

Premier Topics:

• Overview of the CCPD services and events
• Instruction on the use and importance of the Handshake career platform
• Understanding the Competencies for a Career Ready Workforce

Helping Students Explore Career and Self:

• Career and Self-Awareness Assessments

Helping Students Gain Experience:

• Internships 101
• Job and Internship Search Strategies

Helping Students Market Their Strengths and Skills

• Resume and Curriculum Vitae (CV) development
• Networking 101 (including LinkedIn)
• Career Fair Success
• Professionalism and Etiquette (including attire)

Helping Students Transition from Mercer to Career:

• Job and Internship Search Strategies
• Employment Application Elements (Cover Letters, References, Short Answer Questions, etc.)
• Preparing for Interviews
• Salary Negotiation
• Job Transition

Delivery of Presentations

As requests for career-development programming continue to grow across the University, the Center for Career and Professional Development has designed a service model to provide faculty and students with consistent, accessible, and sustainable support. For many commonly requested career topics, CCPD will provide high-quality video or audio presentations, along with supporting resources that faculty can incorporate directly into their courses. Our team will be happy to help faculty select the most appropriate materials, prepare to facilitate the topic, and identify follow-up resources for students. 

CCPD will continue to offer a limited number of live classroom presentations, with priority given to requests that require significant customization, serve larger or strategically targeted student populations, or are closely connected to broader University career-readiness priorities. Because our capacity for customized live presentations is limited, we encourage faculty to contact us as early as possible so that we can identify the most effective approach. This model will allow CCPD to extend career education to more students while maintaining strong partnerships with faculty and preserving opportunities for meaningful, high-impact engagement. We remain committed to helping faculty embed career development throughout the Mercer student experience.

Presentation Options:

• Content materials created by CCPD staff and delivered to the faculty member to present on their own schedule
• Presentation prerecorded by CCPD staff and delivered to faculty for on-demand viewing in class
• Presentation delivered live by the CCPD staff via Zoom or MS Teams (limited availability)
• Presentation delivered live by the CCPD staff in-person (limited availability)

Please submit a request for presentation at least 2-3 weeks in advance of the desired date(s).

Presentation/Program Request Form

The Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) provides career engagement and recent graduate career outcome data to Mercer University Faculty and Staff to assist with programmatic planning, curriculum development, research, and accreditation requirements. All data is provided in an aggregate form. To protect our Mercerians and to ensure compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and confidentiality, student and alumni personally identifiable information will not be released with any CCPD provided data.

Please be advised that personalized data requests may take up to two weeks or longer to prepare. Provide as much detail on the form below so that we can assist you with your request. CCPD data requests fall into two categories

• General Career Information and Engagement
  • Attendance at career related events
  • Student engagement and usage of electronic career related resources
  • Employer, jobs, and recruiting trends at Mercer
• Graduate Career Outcomes
  • Post-graduation career outcomes (within 6 months of graduation)
  • Complete data sets are available for the graduating classes since 2018

Data Request Form