Career Development

Where will you go after graduation?

Pre-health

Prepare for MD, DDS, PharmD programs

Grad school

Explore master's and doctoral programs

Workforce

Dive into industry or academia

Find jobs and internships

Summer enrichment opportunities sent to MCB

Types of career opportunities for MCB graduates Visit Handshake @ Illinois

Handshake is the campus-wide recruiting platform where students can find jobs and internships, upcoming career fairs, on-campus recruiting events, networking opportunities, and a calendar of events.

Resources from the Career Center

Tips on searching for a job or internship

Participate in a mock interview

Pre-health counselors

Resume and Personal Statement Reviews

Tips for writing and formatting your resume

Tips for writing your cover letter

Tips for writing your personal statement

Free professional headshots

3:30-5 p.m. Mondays

9-10:30 a.m. Thursdays

Room 355 Illini Union

A great headshot ensures you’re making the best impression possible. The Career Center and Illini Union are excited to announce the Professional Portrait Lab, free student professional digital headshots that you can use on LinkedIn, Twitter, websites, directories, etc.

Campus career fairs

Career and internship fairs hosted on campus provide the opportunity for students to network and find internships and jobs. Fairs are also a great way to explore careers and different employment sectors.

As a student in the College of LAS, you are welcome at all career and internship fairs on campus. Students are encouraged to attend LAS preparation workshops or Career Center workshops available before some fairs. These workshops help students know what to expect and how to get the most out of the experience.

Upcoming career fairs

TBD	ACES + LAS Career Fair (virtual event)
Sept 26	ACES + LAS Career Fair (in-person event)
March 27	Illinois Career and Internship Fair
Feb 29	Education Professionals' Career Fair
Feb 28	MWACE DE&I Virtual Career Fair
Feb 28	Grainger College of Engineering Career Fair (virtual)
Feb 27	Illinois Green Career Forum
Feb 26	Research Park Career Fair

Past career fairs

Feb 14-15	Gies Employer Showcase
Feb 7	CEE at Illinois Spring Job Fair
Feb 1	Gies Spring Virtual Job Fair
Jan 30 & 31	Gies Employer Showcase
Jan 30, 2024	Illinois Part-Time Job Fair
Oct 18, 2023	Illinois Graduate and Professional School Fair
Sept 27, 2023	Grainger Engineering Fair - virtual
Sept 26, 2023	Illinois ACES + LAS 2023 Virtual Career Fair
Sept 22, 2022	Gies Business Fair - virtual
Sept 20, 2023	Illinois ACES + LAS 2023 In-Person Career Fair
Sept 13 & 14, 2023	Grainger Engineering Fair
Sept 12 & 13, 2023	Gies Business Fair
Aug 30, 2023	Illinois Part-Time Job Fair

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Mentorship and advice from professionals

The School of MCB Career Mentorship Program brings together physicians, dentists, researchers, and other professionals, many of them alumni, and matches them with motivated students.

School of MCB Career Connections is a virtual series featuring clinicians, R&D specialists, and more. In these one-hour sessions professionals share insights with students about their career path and welcome questions from SMCB students.

Career Connections series MCB Career Mentorship Program

Alumni Spotlights

Dr. Jason Robin

(BS, '98, biology)

Christopher Carpenter

(BS, ’87, biology)

Dr. Nicole Williams

(BS, ’97, biology)

Additional resources

MCB Advising

Visit MCB Advising mediaspace channel.

MCB Advising hosts several workshops and career talks throughout the year.

External websites with job listings and resources

BioSpace is a digital hub for news and careers related to life sciences. Their Jobs page is a good single source for positions in the biological sciences.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has lots of valuable data that can be used when investigating careers. The various professional societies pertinent to biologists can be found on the site via a simple search. The following is an incomplete list of the societies.

JobScan Get past resume robots. Ninety percent of large companies use applicant tracking systems to search for qualified candidates from large applicant pools. These systems help employers by analyzing resumes and CVs, surfacing candidates that best match the position and filtering out those who don't. JobScan has researched the top systems used by thousands of companies and built an algorithm based on the common patterns among them.

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has recently updated their Career Readiness Competencies.

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is a free online database that contains hundreds of occupational definitions to help students, job seekers, businesses, and workforce development professionals to understand today's world of work in the United States.