Diamond Key Career Prep

The Diamond Key Program is a professional development program sponsored by the CSUMB College of Business. Diamond Key helps to prepare students for their careers by offering: 1) internships; 2) developmental workshops and presentations, and 3) small group and one-on-one support.

We provide about 100 internships per year for students through partnerships with local companies and ongoing recruiting and relationship building. These internships not only give our students professional experience and insight into jobs and companies, but they also often result in job offers upon graduation. We recently succeeded in bringing Handshake to campus, as well. It is a program used by Fortune 500 companies and many more to specifically recruit college students, and we are actively working to expose students to it and help them take advantage of its many opportunities.

Additionally, we run workshops and presentations that are led by faculty and business professionals, many of whom are local business leaders and employers of our students. We hold regular workshops to help students with resumes, internships, Handshake, and LinkedIn profiles. We also offer workshops to address important professional topics like networking, finding your passion (or a job you would enjoy), personal finances, etiquette, graduate school, and taxes. Panel presentations provide students with insight into functions, companies, and industries. These are complemented by biweekly online sessions where students can talk to faculty and guests in breakout rooms, getting support in small groups and one-on-one on resumes, internships, and other career topics that vary by the guest. This casual and flexible format, which we call the Virtual Otter Raft, was started during COVID and has been very popular with students.

Diamond Key events are held in-person or online over Zoom. All events are free and open to the whole campus and community.