Career Courses: Inter-LS 210 & Inter-LS 215

Both of these Career Courses are designed to help you build skills you can use now for job & internship searches. Inter-LS 210 is a one-credit course, while Inter-LS 215 is a three-credit course that also fulfills your Comm B requirement. You’ll develop the skills and confidence you need for a lifetime of success, including how to:

  • Write a great resume and cover letter
  • Connect with L&S alumni who can help you get ahead
  • Explore different fields and careers that match your interests
  • Get the most value from your major and degree
  • Create a supportive network of professors, TAs, alumni and peers
  • Land great internships and jobs

Check out the video below to hear about the courses from a fellow Badger!

INTER-LS 210: CAREER DEVELOPMENT, TAKING INITIATIVE

The goal of this course is to give you the tools you need to be able to seek out knowledge and skills as you make future career and life decisions.

  • 1 Credit
  • Open to all students

Visit the Course Guide on MyUW.

Full Course Description

INTER-LS 215: COMMUNICATING ABOUT CAREERS

This course explores the meaning and value of a liberal arts and sciences education for careers in the global, technological, and multicultural workplace of the 21st century.

  • 3 Credits & fulfills your Comm B requirement!
  • Open to all students

Visit the Course Guide on MyUW.

Full Course Description

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Inter-LS 210

The goal of this course is to give you the tools you need to be able to seek out knowledge and skills as you make future career and life decisions. You will learn, as a liberal arts and sciences student, that your education enables you to develop the skills and capacity to become leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Through critical reflection and dialogue, we will review a number of theories that pertain to personal career development, and learn how to apply them as you proceed through your academic journey. Over the semester, you will produce an ePortfolio in which you will track your personal growth and progress demonstrate your ability to apply these theories, and produce job tools that you can build upon in the future, such as an internship/job application, skills assessment, and interview of a professional.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • Regularly engage in critical reflection on their curricular path, their extra-curricular experiences, and their career goals throughout their experience at UW-Madison.
  • Effectively mobilize conceptual knowledge about the meaning of a “liberal education,” the college labor market, and various theories of career development.
  • Analytically evaluate diverse information sources in exploring competing interests, strengths, and challenges that connect to various opportunities for education and work.
  • Efficiently practice instrumental skills of career research, professional networking, and personal branding, through persuasive oral, written, and online communication.
  • Confidently access and mobilize resources among many high-impact practices, career advising experts, and alumni networking opportunities that UW-Madison has to offer.

91% of students say INTER-LS 210 prepared them for an internship, research or volunteering.

Inter-LS 215

This course explores the meaning and value of a liberal arts and sciences education for careers in the global, technological, and multicultural workplace of the 21st century. Through a series of individual and collaborative research and communication assignments that meet the learning objectives of the Communications B general education requirement, students learn to critically analyze the career and education implications of a diverse and digital workplace, and to critically reflect on their own strengths and values as they prepare to connect their college work with lifelong career success. Students practice academic skills of analyzing scholarly articles, constructing written essays, presenting formal speeches, and crafting digital presentations, as well as career skills of building resumes, writing cover letters, using social networking tools, and interviewing.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • Understand, evaluate, and communicate arguments about the nature of work in contemporary global, digital, and multicultural society, with respect to a specific target career community.
  • Develop and communicate a compelling personal career narrative about your path through a liberal arts and sciences education, with respect to a specific target career community.
  • Acquire and apply conceptual knowledge about the global, technological, and multicultural workplace of the 21st century, and the value of a liberal arts and sciences education for success in such a workplace.
  • Analyze and critique news articles and scholarly texts on the nature of professional work in global,digital, and multicultural society, especially as that work relates to technological automation and workforce diversity.
  • Explore and select among a wide range of university opportunities for majors and career communities, high-impact and extra-curricular educational experiences, and experiential work and service opportunities.
  • Improve instrumental skills of career research, professional networking, and personal branding, through persuasive oral, written, and online communication.
  • Access and use interpersonal resources for career exploration including career advising experts and alumni networking opportunities.
  • Understand the different sources of mobility, opportunity, and power in the contemporary global, digital, and multicultural workplace, especially the current polarization in earnings and wealth related to digital technology.
  • Build a critical awareness of patterns of under-representation, stereotyping, and inequity in various industries and career communities, by understanding the connections between diversity, inclusion, and creativity in the workplace.
  • Engage in critical reflection on your strengths and experiences, your curricular path and extra-curricular explorations, your personal positionality in a world of diverse employees and organizations, and your individual career goals.
  • Evaluate your chosen career community with respect to both debates over digital transformation of work and polarization in the workforce and debates over diversity, inclusivity, and creativity in the workplace.
  • Synthesize your educational, extra-curricular, and workplace accomplishments into a coherent and compelling narrative representing your career path and life goals to date.

More Course Options

Looking for more classes to set you up for success after graduation? We’ve got ’em!

INTER-LS 260: INTERNSHIP COURSE

Got (or getting) an internship? Get credit for it! This course helps you get the most out of your internship by connecting your experience to academics, through critical reading, writing and observation skills. Learn more.

Career Course Faculty & Staff

Greg Downey

Position title: Faculty Director, L&S Career Development Courses

Email: gdowney@wisc.edu

Jonathan Jibson

Position title: Career Education Instructor

Email: jibson@wisc.edu