Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Optimizing Your Winter Break

This blog post was written by Peer Career Ambassador, Alex Rabell ’21.

While finals and final presentations may be our main focus right now, winter break is quickly approaching. Here at Babson, we get a long winter break of about 5 weeks off. I am sure most of you have already made plans for the break; however, there are some things that you can do alongside your plan to best utilize your winter break for career advancement!

Explore other subjects

Winter break is a great time to develop some of the skills you have or dive further into a specific subject. During the year we are so busy with courses and our activities that we rarely find time to learn about things outside of class. During the five-week break, you have time to dig further into your interests by exploring certifications in the field. For example, if you want to go into a finance career, you may want to consider obtaining your Bloomberg Certification. The skills you learn do not necessarily have to be business-focused, you can take advantage of the break to take classes in subjects such as Photoshop, Adobe Premier or whatever skills you want to learn. It is also a great time to read a book you truly enjoy, whether it is a book about history, finance or simply a fiction novel!

Network

During the semester we are all so busy with courses that we rarely spend time developing our professional network. Networking can play a big factor in getting a job and winter break is the perfect time to work on it. Simply log on to LinkedIn and reach out to people of which you would like to learn more. LinkedIn is a great tool as you can filter by college, companies, location, and others; that way you can find Babson alumni who are working in your ideal company in the city you will be in during the break. Send them a brief message to set up a time to talk whether it is over the phone or at a cafe. In general, most alumni are excited to talk to students but make sure you reach out to multiple people as the odds of having them respond are much higher. Remember to be professional and respectful at all times, as well as flexible to their schedules!

Summer Internships

If you would like to work or intern over summer break, winter break is the ideal time to research and apply to opportunities. Start by reviewing your resume and cover letter so they are up to date, make sure you utilize the different resources available on the Student Portal such as Vmock and Career Beam. Be sure to visit Handshake and look for opportunities that match your interests. Also, look directly on the website of the companies you would like to apply for as many companies offer different summer programs for different years. You should also look into other platforms such as Glassdoor, Google, Indeed, etc. Apply to as many opportunities as possible to increase your chances and be sure to present your best self with the ample time you have throughout winter break. Use the break to also begin to prepare for your interviews, you can do research on Handshake to find the most commonly asked questions for your industry.