Career Services: New name, even wider aim

LMU Career Services recently changed its German name from "Student und Arbeitsmarkt" to "Career Service". Why is that?

Dirk Erfurth, Head of Career Services: A lot has changed in recent years — we have become so much more international and offer numerous education programs that take place in the English language. International global corporations around the world, from Munich to California, contact us in search of qualified students. Our new name is our face to this globalized future of work and underlines our role as a service that is open to the world.

From Alberta to the Zugspitze: the new job board

What are the benefits of the new job board?

Stephan Pflaum, Coordinator of the Career Community: The search function is one advantage. You can search for keywords. We have also optimized the job board for mobile viewing, so you can use it on your phone. It is also more up to date, because job postings now go online within five minutes. Another innovation is that companies can not only upload their job ads but also have their corporate profile stored in the system. So students can immediately see what the companies have to offer.

Dirk Erfurth: We are getting more job vacancies than ever before, up to 30 a day. Since the launch of the new job board in August, over 800 job ads have already been published. A big advantage for students is the filter function. So, you can filter by internships if that’s what you’re looking for. Or by location — and that’s worldwide! From Alberta to the Zugspitze, the job board has something for everyone.

Key skills courses, Career Community and more

What key skills courses are available in the winter semester?

Stephan Pflaum: The new course program focuses on interpersonal skills, but also on the specialist skills you need to gain access to the employment market. For example, there are computer courses for non-computer scientists, business administration courses for non-economists and, of course, practical courses in English for everyone. It is, as always, a bright and varied program!

From advice to events: What is held online and what takes place face to face?

Stephan Pflaum: We’ve continued the long tradition of the course program by taking it online — hopefully one last time this semester! In the future, we want to go back to offering both digital formats and face-to-face courses. Students will then have the choice. One thing that has become established is online advice sessions for students on all aspects of job applications and career planning. The online CV check service is also staying. It’s much faster this way than doing it locally — you normally receive feedback on your CV within just 24 hours.

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Virtual formats we arrange in cooperation with businesses are the Online Career Snippet (short get-to-know-you meetings) and, brand new, the Skill Charger, a one-hour skills seminar. Face-to-face events will likely not return until the end of the winter semester. In February, our plan is to start the Meet & Greet events back up again. And on the Career Trek in March, we will go out and visit companies together. We will hold the next Career Talk with about 12 companies on 29 April 2022. And on 12 June, a new format will be launched, the Career Marathon. More on that to follow! Students can keep up to date with all the events starting in 2022 by creating an account in our Career Community portal.

Dirk Erfurth: The Golf Community will also be back in 2022. As soon as we’re able to hold face-to-face events again, we will organize a retreat where we’ll spend time working on a relevant business topic with students and premium partners — and playing golf. We can’t wait!

Stephan Pflaum: In addition to sports events, cultural events will also be making a comeback: A cooperation with the two theaters Gärtnerplatztheather and the Kammerspiele is already in place. And we are increasingly offering career events at European level too, within the framework of EUGLOH.

Attend seminars in Paris, Lund, Porto or Szeged

What is EUGLOH?

Anna Schwark, International Internships & Business Contacts: The European University Alliance for Global Health (EUGLOH) is a strategic partnership between Université Paris-Saclay, University of Lund, Universidade do Porto, University of Szeged and LMU Munich under the European Higher Education Initiative of the European Commission.

What do the students get out of it?

Anna Schwark: EUGLOH offers numerous opportunities. For example, you can very easily participate in a course at Lund University or the Universidade do Porto — online and/or with scholarship-funded short stays locally. A wide-ranging course program is currently being put together, to which we at the Career Service are also contributing with innovative course formats. For instance, an online course entitled “Future of Work” was recently held and the “Social Entrepreneurship 4 Health Winter School” is taking place in November.

Dirk Erfurth: We are increasingly opening up our events to partner universities and offering each other mutual support to promote the events. Together with our four partner universities, we want to encourage students to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviors in a team setting and to generate business ideas together with representatives of various companies, and be able to present them. The first pan-European event already took place this summer — with LMU as the host university — and was very well received.

All offers at a glance: LMU Career Services