Career prep at Florida Southern starts in your first semester and builds every year. Your experiences, plus the skills you develop, shape your professional evolution, and we've organized them into nine employability skills grouped under three themes: Cooperation, Innovation, and Exploration.
Use this page as a map, not a checklist. You won't do every item every year, and that's the point.
Employers look for more than just technical knowledge. They want graduates who can communicate, collaborate, and adapt in any situation. That’s why everything you do, inside and outside the classroom, is structured to help you build these nine core skills. Mastering them will set you up for success in any field and help you stand out, no matter where your career takes you.
You’ll develop these skills through your courses, campus involvement, internships, and everyday experiences. Start noticing where you’re already growing, and where you want to focus next.
Leadership. Use others' strengths to achieve common goals. Guide, motivate, organize, and delegate.
Multicultural Respect. Value and understand differences across identities, and engage with people whose experiences differ from yours.
Teamwork. Build collaborative relationships, resolve conflict, and balance team strengths and weaknesses.
Communication. Articulate your ideas in writing and in person, in a way that lands.
Problem Solving. Gather information, think critically, and design solutions.
Maximizing Technology. Use the right tools to work efficiently and solve real problems.
Knowledge of Self. Understand your skills, strengths, values, and goals.
Professional Brand. Build the image and reputation that reflect your work and your values.
Thinking Ahead. Set short and long-term goals, and the steps to reach them.
Your first year is about exploring widely, meeting people, and starting to develop the habits and relationships that will support you for the next three years. Don't worry about having a plan yet. Start building the team that will help you make one.
Build your FSC Team: the professors, staff, alumni, and students who will coach you, advise you, and cheer you on for the next four years and beyond. Your first year is when you find them.
Leadership. Take on leadership roles in group projects. Get involved at Blast-Off and join a student organization that interests you.
Multicultural Respect. Visit the Simmons Center, the Multicultural Student Council, Allies, ASL Club, or another community on campus that's new to you.
Teamwork. Collaborate closely with classmates on group projects to learn your own strengths. Get to know your professors and start building your FSC Team.
How you handle change shapes what you're able to accomplish. The sooner you understand how you adapt, the easier the next three years get.
Communication. Speak up in class. Try a presentation, a FSC Senate meeting, or Toastmasters.
Problem Solving. Find a mentor on campus. Use your Orientation Leader, RA, Center for Student Success advisor, and professors when challenges come up. That's what they're there for.
Maximizing Technology. Set up the tools you'll use for the next four years: your career platform account for appointments and job postings, and whatever your program runs on.
Who am I, and what do I want to do with my life? Nobody answers those in a first semester. But the more you explore now, the more you'll have to work with when the questions get urgent.
Knowledge of Self. Take a career assessment to start mapping interests to careers.
Professional Brand. Build your first college resume. Set up a LinkedIn profile to start tracking your work and accomplishments.
Thinking Ahead. Make a short bucket list for the year. A Discover Florida trip, kayaking on Lake Hollingsworth, a campus job, and a Moc Tail Networking Event.
You have one year of college behind you. Time to use what you've learned to make better choices about your major, your experiences, and where you're headed.
We're limited by our own experience. Widening your FSC Team is how you get past that: people whose paths look nothing like yours will show you options you'd never find alone.
Leadership. Run for a position in a student organization. Take on a campus role: RA, Roux Library assistant, TA, research assistant, or writer for The Southern.
Multicultural Respect. Attend cultural events on campus and in Lakeland: MLK Day, Día de los Muertos, Open Mic Nights, the Hispanic Festival, PRIDE Week, the Black Heritage and Cultural Festival.
Teamwork. Look for new opportunities to work on teams, in class, in clubs, in jobs, and notice which roles you naturally fall into.
One year in, you can look back and see what worked. Name the things that made the difference, good and bad, and you can adjust while there's still plenty of time.
Communication. Visit the Writing Center to tighten your writing. Talk to professors about shadowing and internship opportunities with employers who hire Mocs.
Problem Solving. Use Florida Southern's support network when you hit a wall: the Roux Library, the Academic Success Zone, Internship Coordinators, and the Chaplain's office.
Maximizing Technology. Identify software skills that show up in job postings for your field. Talk to your advisor about courses that would build them.
How do you see yourself, and how do others see you? Two hard questions worth asking in year two, while there's still time to change the answer. Ask your FSC Team for help.
Knowledge of Self. Choose a career path. With your professors and Career Services, build the plan that gets you there.
Professional Brand. Update your resume with everything from your first year. Sharpen your LinkedIn, your career platform profile, and any e-portfolio you're keeping.
Thinking Ahead. Attend the Career and Internship Expo to see what's out there, even if you're not ready to apply yet.
This is the year to test yourself in real environments: internships, research, leadership roles, and real-world projects. The experiences that turn a college resume into a professional one happen now.
Skills you've only used in a classroom aren't skills yet. Put them somewhere real: an internship, a leadership role, a campus job, a volunteer site. Your FSC Team can help you find the opening and tell you honestly how it went.
Leadership. Pursue leadership roles in student organizations, academic departments, or on FSC committees and boards.
Multicultural Respect. Go on a Junior Journey trip. Attend a Safe Zone or similar training through the Office of Accountability, Education, and Compliance.
Teamwork. Reflect on your team experiences from the past two years. You'll need them for interviews soon.
By now, you know how you handle pressure and read a situation. That's worth something concrete: it tells you which environments you thrive in, and which ones to avoid when the offers start coming.
Communication. Practice interviewing at Moc Interview Day, or set up a mock interview with Career Services before the real ones start. Apply different communication styles in your internship: presenting, emailing, and writing reports.
Problem Solving. Anticipate the obstacles you might face after graduation. Build a short list of who you'd call and what you'd do.
Maximizing Technology. Take that course you were considering. Learn the advanced functions of the tools your field actually uses.
By now, you know what comes after graduation, or you've narrowed it to a few options. This is the year to chase the last opportunities that make the transition smoother.
Knowledge of Self. Check your goals against your progress. What have you done? What's left? Are you on track for the path you chose?
Professional Brand. Ask people in your FSC Team, professors, mentors, and supervisors, for honest feedback on your strengths and where you need to grow. Attend Career Services events to meet companies that match your brand.
Thinking Ahead. If you're considering graduate or professional school, attend Graduate School Bootcamp or the Law School Caravan. Choose the specific occupation within your career path that you want to pursue.
This is the year to test yourself in real environments: internships, research, leadership roles, and real-world projects. The experiences that turn a college resume into a professional one happen now.
You're about to start over somewhere new. Use the time you have left to decide which of these relationships you want to carry into the rest of your life, and tell those people so.
Leadership. Prepare how you'll talk about your leadership style in interviews. Help the people behind you transition into the roles you held.
Multicultural Respect. Become a trainer for diversity programs like Safe Zone or Just Ask. Attend Career Services' Diversity in the Workplace Series to see what an inclusive workplace actually looks like.
Teamwork. Lean on your FSC Team as you navigate the transition to life after college.
Four years here have prepared you to make a consequential impact. How you do that is now your call. Florida Southern doesn't stop being yours the day you graduate.
Communication. Connect with Florida Southern alumni in your field. Present your work at Fiat Lux, FSC's annual student research and creative arts symposium.
Problem Solving. Use Career Services to avoid the common job-search pitfalls: long gaps, ghosting, lowball offers, and the wrong first job.
Maximizing Technology. Use LinkedIn, your career platform, and the rest of your professional toolkit actively. Make sure your online presence reflects the professional you want to be.
A plan is only useful if something holds you to it. Build that in. And keep exploring after you leave. College teaches you a lot and nowhere near everything.
Knowledge of Self. Get clear on your values. What matters most to you in a job, a city, a team, a life?
Professional Brand. Finalize your resume, cover letter templates, and graduate school applications.
Thinking Ahead. Notify your recommenders early and give them everything they need. Remember: Career Services is yours for life, even after you graduate.
Career Services doesn't stop when you walk across the stage. Alumni can schedule appointments, post jobs, mentor current students, and use all the resources on this page for as long as they're useful.
Questions about where you are in the plan, or what to do next? That's the conversation to have.
