Jump to:
Hours & Contact Details
In-Person & Virtual Appointments
Workshops & Events
Internship & Job Search Support
Prepare your Documents: Resume & Cover Letters
Retrievers Connect: networking platform just for UMBC students and alumni

Welcome back, SDS Students!

Attention all UMBC student employees!  

What could be better than having an on-campus job?

Having an on-campus job and getting a notation on your transcript that tells employers you made the effort to enhance your professional development!

Interested in gaining a competitive edge in the job market? Sign up for PRAC 102- Building Skills for Career Success this Spring semester. Don’t worry, it’s not a formal class! With the minimal commitment of attending a few workshops and career events, you will be better prepared for the world of work and have the proof on your college transcript to show your employer.

DEADLINE TO REQUEST ENROLLMENT: Friday, February 29

Make your campus experience count! Enroll TODAY! Enrollment is limited to the first 40 student employees. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by!  

Open to all levels and majors. You must be a UMBC student employee working at least eight hours per week on campus. 

How to Register Online

1. Log in to Handshake, then navigate to Career Center > Experiences.

2. Click “Submit an Experience” and select “Career Center – On-Campus Student Employment (PRAC 102- Building Skills for Career Success)” as the Experience Type. Fill in the required fields and submit.

3. Your registration will be reviewed within two business days. The Career Center will enroll you directly upon review along with sending you additional details.

QUESTIONS, please contact Stephanie Taylor (staylor18@umbc.edu) 

BEYA STEM Career Fair (FREE --Both In-Person or Virtual)

Friday, February 16, 2024

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Registration Deadline: Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Open to ALL Students (undergraduate and graduate)

Jobs--full-time, part-time, internships and graduate admissions

This event is sponsored by Career Communications Group (CCG) and is part of their large annual conference, which will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center. Representatives from major corporations and universities will be available to meet with students pursuing careers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields as well as Business, Finance, and Marketing. Why should you participate?

•       FREE Career Fair (in-person & virtual options)
•       Career seminar Options
•       On the spot job offers
•       Networking with recruiters
•       Learn and network with the country's best and brightest STEM minds

Registration is required. Your registration will give you access to the in-person and online Career Fairs. The UMBC Career Center will provide a free shuttle bus to the Career Fair on Friday. If you would like to take the free shuttle bus, you must register with both BEYA and the UMBC Career Center by Tuesday, February 13.

•      To register, please follow the instructions at: https://careers.umbc.edu/beya 

Please be sure to upload your resume at the time of registration.

 Contact Diane Crump-Fogle (crump@umbc.edu) or Chrisi Giannakaris (chrisig@umbc.edu) at the UMBC Career Center for additional information

By Carrington Cline

Positionality Statement:

This post is written by Carrington Cline, a junior and student staff intern at the Women’s Center. This blog post articulates my encounters with the media’s portrayals of Black women, as it relates to the internal and external pressures that pushed me towards an unwavering focus on academic and career success. It also explores the epiphanies that were crucial for feeling more complete in life without relying on external validation. I’m sharing this blog for all the over-achieving women of color, aiming to encourage them to realize that their existence is inherently good enough.

If you grow up believing you’re nothing, you have to prove that you’re everything.

I’ve started to realize there is an aspect of my life that I’ve failed to recognize, something that has grown just as I have throughout college, a need for external validation. Though this need is something I have recently recognized, is it not a foreign feeling. I feel as though this need for validation comes from the fact that women of color aren’t allowed to feel confident about or secure in themselves. There is something to be said about the way perceptions of Black women, and all women of color, impact their confidence in academic or professional spaces. From as young as first grade I vividly remember the representations of Black women and girls in the media fundamentally altering my perception of self-worth. Mainstream media paints a narrow and limited picture of Black women, communicating to Black girls that their options are limited, and that success is reserved for others who don’t look like us. This distorted narrative evolved into my reality and as a result, I became an overachiever. Stretching myself thin by taking every opportunity that came my way, fostering a belief that my value relied solely on my ability to exceed expectations and challenge stereotypes. But I still found myself anxious, self-conscious, and unhappy with the way I viewed myself.

I am valuable, even when inactive.

My turning point was when I started to value myself in other ways. Fashion and music, among other things, became unprecedented avenues of self-love that started to impact my confidence more than my achievements. Above all else though, I realized that my intrinsic worth wasn’t dictated by any external factor. I needed to learn that I am valuable even when I’m not productive, that my pride shouldn’t come from my achievements, but from simply embracing myself as I am. Notions of ‘exceeding expectations’ are man-made concepts used to keep those in subordinate positions working, in the hopes that they may one day rise through the ranks and find themselves in the dominant position. Existing beyond the lens of expectations, whether it be personal or societal, is integral to embracing the human experience. 

Most importantly, enjoying the smaller things in life, the ones that are easy to disregard, helped me exist fully most of all. My identity as a Black woman is fluid and ever-expanding, and the fundamental multifacetedness of the Black experience operates far beyond any confine or limitation.

This blog is dedicated to all the hard workers, all the women of color who feel they need to take on every opportunity that comes their way, as though their existence alone isn’t enough. For those who relate, I implore you to take a step back and look at where you are now from the perspective of your younger self. 

You do not need to be productive to be proud, just existing is more than good enough!

If I am worth anything later, I am worth something now. For wheat is wheat, even if people think it is grass in the beginning.

– Vincent Van Gogh