From Tuesday, Jan. 30 to Thursday, Feb. 1, Bellevue College hosted a plethora of speakers as part of the “Exploring Pathways – Career Panels” event. Events like these are periodically offered by the college, and can be an excellent opportunity to connect with professionals in your field and learn more about where your education can take you. A mix of virtual and in-person panels were hosted across three days, ensuring that anyone interested could find a panel that works for their schedule.
The event kicked off on Tuesday with a keynote speech by BC math professor Jen Townsend, offering some words of advice about career paths and education. One of the largest overarching themes of her speech was the concept that a career path is almost never linear. She offered some useful advice through her memorable PowerPoint, encouraging listeners to “seek out hands-on work experience” through internships, part time work, volunteering, jobs or projects on campus, and club organizations before venturing into the job market. She also invited audience members to partake in six challenges: “go to an office hour for one of your classes, do homework in the reading, writing or math lab, attend at least one career panel, do a job search for two different jobs of interest, find one person to follow on LinkedIn” and “reflect on what you need, want and don’t want in a career.”
Many other exciting career panels were also featured, including a STEM professionals panel, a careers in nursing and the medical field panel, a computer science panel, another medical field panel and more. I had the pleasure of attending the virtual humanities panel, which featured three different speakers from different humanities sectors. The panel answered interesting questions selected by the hosts. I found the questions about their career paths and advice they would offer their younger selves most interesting. There was also time at the end for audience members to ask questions. If this panel was any indication of the other ones, I can comfortably assert that a high level of quality and effort was present across the entire event. Events regarding Pathways typically come about around the middle of the quarter, and can be an extremely helpful resource in hearing from other professionals in your intended field or learning more about fields you may have not considered. To learn more about Bellevue College’s student resources for academic and career planning, visit the BC Pathways page. To connect with an academic advisor to create an education plan, make an appointment here.
