Career Courses

Have you considered taking a career course? These courses will help you achieve your professional goals by allowing you to explore options you are interested in and teaching you essential career skills for navigating today's internships and job market. You’ll be better prepared for the world of work after you graduate!

Fall 2026 Career Courses

Check SPIRE for specific course requirements and details.

HM&FNART 498S - Senior Bridges

  • Th 10 to 11:15 am | 1 credit | Instructor: Genevra Gallo-Bayiates

This course is designed to help you as you begin planning or searching for your first job after graduation. It will cover essential career skills like writing resumes and cover letters, finding jobs and internships, preparing for interviews, and networking. You'll receive support and guidance from both your instructor and peers throughout your job or internship search. The course will also feature guest speakers, including alumni, who will share their career experiences and offer practical advice.Open to all HFA Seniors. 

From Schedule Builder, select subject "Humanities and Fine Arts," then select course "498S P-Senior Bridges"

HM&FNART 292M - From Here to Career for Humanities and Fine Arts Majors

  • Section 1: MW 12:20 to 1:10 pm | 2 credits | Instructor: Jessica Keene
  • Section 2: MW 9:05 to 9:55 am | 2 credits | Instructor: Jessica Keene

This career development course is designed to help HFA students prepare for internship and job opportunities through the acquisition of professional competencies needed to succeed in today's evolving job market. Students will be encouraged to explore career pathways that align with their personal values, preferences, and skill sets. The class encourages students to develop a variety of professionalization skills, such as internship and job search strategies, resume and cover letter customization, networking, and interviewing techniques. Students will evaluate and appreciate the unique qualities HFA majors bring to the job market. Attendance at HFA career events outside of class is required.

From Schedule Builder, select subject "Humanities and Fine Arts," then select course "292M S-From Here to Career HFA"

ART 401 Professional Practices

  • Tu 4:00 to 6:45 pm | Instructor: Jules Gimbrone

Open to Senior and Junior ART, BFA-ART, BFA-ART ED, and BFA-DESIGN majors only.

ARTS-EXT 500 Introduction to Arts Management

  • 01-LEC (18920) Online | Instructor: Nicole Young
  • 01-LEC (10664) TuTh 4:20 to 5:35 pm | Instructor: Dee Boyle-Clapp

Introduces the "business of the arts," and provides an overview of the careers in arts management. Designed for those new to the field, considering an arts management career, or who are interested in starting one's own nonprofit. Open to all UMass Amherst students.

Arch 480 - Career and Graduate School Prep

  • 01-STS (10495) | M 4 to 5:15 pm | Instructor: Erika Zekos

    This course will focus on preparing Architecture students who are nearing graduation for what comes after the BS in Architecture degree. Students will learn about various career and graduate school pathways.

ENGLISH 389 - The Major and Beyond: Career Exploration for English Majors

  • Tu 5:30 to 6:45 pm | Instructor: Jennifer Minnen

This course helps English majors find their way to the post-graduate life they want. Students practice important job search skills, learn to articulate the worth of their major, and leave the course with a better sense of their vocational direction. In addition to receiving individualized guidance in creating cover letters and resumes of immediate use, students work on multiple other assignments: attendance at career events, interviews with professionals from fields of interest, a professional presentation, a short paper researching professions, and participation in a mock interview. The course gives students a chance to build community with other English majors, make useful contacts in the department, college, and university, and practice networking with alumni, employers, and others.

HIST391PM - Public History and Museums

  • MW 4 to 5:15 pm | 3 Credits | Instructor: Emma John

This hands-on course examines the ways that history is communicated outside the classroom through museums, historic sites, monuments, civic celebrations, archives, historic preservation, and community oral history projects. It provides an opportunity for students to explore career interests with field trips as well as readings and discussions.

HIST396 - Navigating Washington

  • Fri 12 to 2 pm | 3 Credits | Instructor: Robert LaRussa

This course is designed to give students a preliminary understanding of how history, politics, economics, and the legislative and administrative processes in Washington shape US public policy, and the impact this has on US international relations. Students will examine potential career paths and consider Washington’s role in current events.

TH493 - Your Move: Career Preparation for Theatre

  • MW 1:25 to 2:40 pm | Instructor: Elisa Gonzales

Open to students majoring or minoring in Theater, as well as students from all disciplines with a serious interest in professional work in the arts. Prerequisites: 1 each of 300-level dramaturgy, design, and performance courses.

Don't meet the prerequisite requirements but still interested? Reach out directly to esgonzales [at] umass [dot] edu (Professor Gonzales) to discuss enrolling.