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Get Ahead with the Career Design Lab

Located in the heart of Times Square, the Career Design Lab (CDL) harnesses the vibrant energy of New York City to provide unparalleled academic, professional, and industry experiences. 

CDL supports students and alumni by offering individualized coaching sessions and career assessment, résumé and cover-letter guidance, agile internship and job-search strategies, personal branding, interview skills, advice on career transitions and salary negotiations, and more. 

Design Thinking for User-Centric Career Paths

The CDL approach isn’t just about finding jobs; it’s about sculpting meaningful careers that resonate with personal purpose and industry demands. To accomplish this, CDL integrates design thinking into every facet of career development. “We believe in crafting careers that are not just successful but deeply fulfilling,” said Kelly Ahn, SPS associate dean of Industry Relations & Career Strategies at CDL. By applying design-thinking principles, CDL empowers students to explore, ideate, and iterate, ensuring their career paths are as unique as they are. 

“Our mission is to use the lens of design thinking to facilitate collaboration among students, alumni, employers, and faculty through holistic and innovative coaching and programming,” said Ahn. “We empower students to design and navigate agile, purpose-driven, and meaningful careers in a global and evolving workplace.” 

“We believe in crafting careers that are not just successful but deeply fulfilling.” —Kelly Ahn, SPS associate dean of Industry Relations & Career Strategies at CDL

Agile Coaching for Dynamic Environments

CDL coaches specialize in the “here and now,” equipping students and alumni with agile strategies to thrive in volatile markets and ever-evolving industries. CDL fosters a mindset of innovation and resilience, preparing SPS students and alumni to lead confidently amid uncertainty.  

Knowing your worth is the first step toward achieving career success. Through targeted workshops and one-on-one sessions, CDL also empowers individuals to identify and articulate their unique value propositions so they may effectively present themselves to the marketplace and stand out to top-tier employers.

Cutting-Edge Tools

CDL offers a variety of tools to improve chances in the internship and job screening process, including: 

Big Interview: Practice virtual and in-person interviews with Big Interview! Big Interview is an artificial-intelligence-based preparation program that has hundreds of behavioral interview questions sorted by industry, job function, and skill competencies. Try the random roulette of interview questions as well as a library of interview training videos.

Candid Career: Candid Career provides access to an online library of thousands of career videos. For the person seeking career guidance, these videos cover virtually any industry and provide relevant job details and advice to help you choose a career and be successful in it.

Interstride: CDL’s new technology platform assists SPS students with finding job opportunities, navigating immigration hurdles, and engaging with the University and broader community.

Jobscan: Searching for jobs and tailoring your applications just got easier! Jobscan is an all-in-one tool that optimizes the job search by creating more customized and targeted résumés for your application process. With Jobscan, you now have access to a suite of features that will help you stand out in a competitive job market.

SPS Talent: The SPS Job Board and event platform, it provides students and alumni job and internship opportunities via the CDL career platform.

Vault: Through Vault, students receive free access to award-winning career guides, interview strategies, job-search tips, and full-length profiles of more than 3,000 companies.

Students and alumni can also access several career subscription sites that CDL has made available at no cost. “In my job search, I kept up-to-date with job opportunities in companies and roles I was interested in,” said Bioethics student Janine Acheson (’23SPS), who works in clinical operations at Johnson & Johnson. “CDL supported me by improving my résumé, tailoring my job search, and preparing me for interviews. CDL guided me through the process, and with their help, I developed resources to further my career.” 

Experiential Learning and Global Engagement

Each year, CDL hosts more than 100 events for students and alumni. Recent forums have included “Preparing for the Tech Interview with Amazon,” and “International Student Series Alumni Panel.” Using its New York City location to its advantage, CDL also organizes industry showcases that serve as recruiting events. It works with top-tier employers including Goldman Sachs, ESPN, Aetna, Disney, UNICEF, Google, Madison Square Garden, SiriusXM, and American Express. 

At CDL, networking extends beyond the city through experientially driven programs like the Greater Good Challenge, which tasks students and alumni from SPS and universities around the world to put forth business ideas aimed at solving specific societal problems under six categories: Sustainability, Technology, Healthcare & Wellness, Supply Chain, Logistics & Coordination, and Social Enterprise. Additionally, the UN ThinkaThon brings SPS students and UN mentors together to propose tech-based solutions to global challenges.

These initiatives immerse students in real-world scenarios, fostering collaboration across diverse cultural and organizational backgrounds. Through these experiences, participants gain practical skills and insights that transcend traditional academic boundaries.

In essence, Career Design Lab is not just a career service—it’s a catalyst for transformation. CDL inspires and equips individuals to embrace uncertainty, innovate with purpose, and carve out careers that make a difference.

About The School of Professional Studies

The Columbia University School of Professional Studies (SPS) was founded in 1995 with a mission to provide innovative—and flexible—programs that help students reach their educational and professional goals. The School offers 18 accredited master’s degrees15 certificate and certification programs, and more than 100 areas of study through its Postbaccalaureate Studies and Visiting Students programs—all available on a part-time basis. Explore Columbia SPS’s part-time offerings, including master’s degrees, certificates, and other non-degree programs

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