Career Services
Greetings Parents!
The office of career services invites you to peruse the rich variety of resources designed to help students realize their goals as they explore opportunities and discover a career direction while they are here at Reed and after they graduate. Select "Students" to the left to explore the full range of our services and resources.
How parents can help . . .
Those of you who wish to support the office by volunteering your time and expertise in your own field can contact us at career.services@reed.edu or 503/777-7550. 
Another meaningful and effective way parents can help is to let the office know of opportunities that are designed for current students and recent graduates. Your own workplace or your other affiliations, whether professional, volunteer service, or avocational pursuits, may be great sources for summer internship, undergraduate research, or entry point career opportunities. Contact us. There are many things that parents can do with their own daughter or son to promote career awareness and success. The first and most important one is to encourage and honor self-reliance so that your student can explore and take charge of his or her own career development. Here are some other points to consider:
- Explore different majors and careers. Students can try an interest test, research various career and academic fields in our career and graduate school library, take classes that interest them, and try out various options through internships, summer jobs, research, and volunteer opportunities.
- Get involved at Reed. Possible campus and leadership activities include student organizations, undergraduate fellowships and grants for research, and volunteer activities. In addition to broadening their horizons, these activities will help your student to build important qualities and characteristics important to employers such as communication skills – both verbal and written, honesty/integrity, teamwork skills, interpersonal skills, and motivation/initiative.
- Participate in an internship or career-related work experience. An internship can provide a different sort of classroom for expanding students' understanding and learning; it can help them to explore and test hunches about a career field; it can build their marketable skills, enhance their resume and launch their career.
- Take advantage of academic support services to do well academically.
Finally, for a nice brief resource for parents on career planning for their students, check out A Career Planning Course for Parents, by Sally Kearsley, by clicking this link: http://www.jobweb.com/parents.aspx?id=40#
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