Maddy Gillette ‘19
Staff Writer
The O’Brien Center for Student Success launched a new campaign this year, Get Hired Up. The goal of the campaign is to get as many students as possible to get internships and understand the importance of taking the help that is available for them with their career advisors. The O’Brien Center will help students find internships and jobs, but it is up to the student to go to them for help.
The O’Brien Center just changed their main website from Advantage to Handshake, which has a wider variety of companies for students to potentially apply to. O’Brien helps students with using their website to look for jobs as well. They also help students build their resumes, cover letters and assist with interview preparation. Even if a student is not going in for a meeting, they are able to submit their resume to the O’Brien Center through Handshake for review and they will approve it or tell the student what they need to fix.
Kylee Smith, a senior at Merrimack, had an internship this summer at New England Development, working closely with their marketing team. She says she enjoyed her summer internship and she is glad she got the good experience.
“I found this on my own. I have never really gone to the career center. My major doesn’t require me to go for anything so I don’t really know much about it,” Smith said. Now that Smith knows about the O’Brien Center she says she will consider seeking help from her career advisor for her next internship or her job after college.
Merrimack senior Katlyn Durgin found her internship through the O’Brien Center. She said that the O’Brien center helped her a great deal with finding her a job that was good for her.
Durgin is a health science major, and she currently interns at AFC Urgent Care in North Andover. “The career center provided me with a wide variety of internship opportunities that fit with my major. Working with the career center to coordinate a internship that fit with my current school schedule made it less stressful.” She also mentioned that even though her major did not require her to meet with the O’Brien Center, she met with them anyway because she did not have a clear idea on how to approach finding an internship. Durgin says that when she talks to other students about finding a job or an internship, she recommends them to do it through the O’Brien Center.
The O’Brien Center recently relocated to the Arcidi Center. They take appointments scheduled through Handshake, or students can stop by and talk to them about any questions they have regarding finding internships or jobs.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article referred to the O’Brien Center by it’s previous name, the O’Brien Center for Career Development.
