Tools & Resources
CLA has developed innovative tools and resources specifically for liberal arts students — so they can navigate the steps in their career readiness, make a plan to intentionally accelerate the development of their Core Competencies with experiences inside and outside the classroom, and articulate their liberal arts advantage.
RATE™
RATE™ is a digital self-assessment tool that helps students log and describe the value of career readiness experiences within their CLA courses and co-curricular activities as they Reflect on the experience, Articulate how those experiences helped them develop competencies, Translate how those competencies are of value in professional contexts, and Evaluate their level of readiness in those competencies. Watch an explainer video.
MyCareerManagement
MyCareerManagement is our online recommendation tool that suggests next steps students can take for their career preparation. Students simply answer a few questions, and this tool reports their career readiness progress in terms of materials (such as having a résumé), planning, experiences, and practice (such as mock interviews). Then the tool recommends some ideas for what the student should do next (such as attend an internship fair or complete a RATE to reflect on an experience) and can even remind the student to do it by a certain date if desired. Watch an explainer video.
Career Readiness Guide
The CLA Career Readiness Guide serves as a manual (100+ pages), covering in-depth all of the career-related topics a liberal arts student should consider. The guide provides an overview of Career Readiness and supports students in all stages of their career management. It is organized based on the 3E’s of Explore, Experience, Excel. All new students receive a hard copy of the guide, which also includes worksheets that students can use on their own (or with their CLA Advisor or a mentor in their life) to apply the content.
CLA Internship Guide
The CLA Career Readiness Internship Guide: Making the Most of Your Internship focuses on helping students prepare before their internship begins, guides them through ways to succeed during their internship, and coaches them in how to end their internship skillfully. It is available to all students at any CLA Advising office and at the CLA Career Services office. The guide is also used as a textbook in several of the departmental internship courses.
Internship Toolkit for Employers
The Internship Toolkit for Employers is intended as a companion guide for employers to use in designing an internship experience or program that benefits and meets the unique needs of your organization and will resonate with CLA students. This toolkit provides the resources employers need to initiate or strengthen internships at their organization.
University and External Resources
In coordination with the tools and resources above, which were developed by CLA specifically for undergraduate liberal arts students, CLA leverages the University of Minnesota's GoldPASS internship and job search platform and its Maroon and Gold Network platform that connects students to alumni mentoring opportunities. CLA also utilizes the SuperStrong Assessment (a product of The Myers-Briggs Company) as an online interest inventory that provides students with insight about how their interests may align with career choices regardless of what their major is.
We bring our Career Readiness efforts to scale for reaching all CLA students by giving them the online means to discover the opportunities that will pave the way to their career success and to create a record of their experiences so they can explain their competitive edge in any job market.
How We Direct Students to Our Career Readiness Tools
The CLA Career Hub is a student-facing webpage centralizing all of the tools and services for their career preparation, designed to create a cohesive experience using a common language of Career Readiness. These resources are integrated into key moments and touchpoints in a student's interactions with CLA, and all staff units use these resources to mutually reinforce a consistent message to our students about how they become career ready.