Van Harting
I'm a sophomore double majoring in Robotics Engineering and Mechanical Engineering from Plymouth, MA. As a Peer Advisor for the Career Development Center, I'm excited to use my experiences to help others throughout the major selection/career search processes. On campus I'm also involved in Engineers Without Borders, Crimson Key, and Running Club. Outside of school, I enjoy playing guitar, hiking, and following baseball.
Van Harting's Latest Posts
How to get stuff done while having fun in the sun
Today marks one week until the last day of classes and the end of the 2017-2018 school year. I’ve learned a lot about professional development, advising, and most importantly blogging, and hope everyone has something fun, functional, or both lined up for the summer. To wrap things up, here’s some advice on how to keep […]
Avatar (The James Cameron one not the airbending one) but for Job Searching
What’s the most stressful part of the career fair? Is it scrambling to find a nice outfit and dress up? Is it trying to navigate the loud, crowded rec center? Perhaps getting over the nerves of having to remember and deliver an elevator pitch to sell your skills and experiences? If you want all of […]
Fair Thee Well
Don’t look now, but the career fair is tomorrow! Just kidding. It isn’t till Thursday. That’s still awfully close though! Life at WPI moves so fast that events like the fair that seem far off can sneak up in a hurry. If you’ve taken the weekend to prepare, hopefully you’ll be heading into this week […]
Grit
If you’re not already aware, there are tons of career resources in Handshake with all sorts of tips, tools, and articles. Recently, I read an article from Vault about grit and why employers look for it that I wanted to share some advice from. Grit isn’t just something held by sandpaper, John Wayne and NFL […]
Keeping Up With Handshake
At the end of the term, after taking a few days to recover from final exams and project submissions, I always set aside some time to sit down and make sure my resume, Handshake, and LinkedIn reflect the most recent work I’ve done. I know it can be a hassle to make sure everything is […]
Failure!
I was thrilled when I opened up Handshake the week after the Career Fair to find out I had been selected for an on campus interview. As a peer advisor, I’ve spent a lot of time helping my friends prepare for interviews, so it was especially exciting to be going through the process myself. I […]
You mean I’ll have to pick a major?
Like a lot of students, I applied to WPI as “engineering undecided.” In high school I enjoyed math and science classes and was pretty sure I wanted to major in a STEM field, but didn’t know much at all about the different disciplines of engineering. In my junior year I had done well in calculus […]
It’s Not Too Late! Career Fair Crash Course
Life at WPI moves fast. By the time my sister started classes for her first year at UMass Amherst earlier in the month, I was already preparing for my first two major tests. While I know many thrive with the busy pace, commitments that seem far away can sneak up in a heartbeat. All this […]
Introduction from a new Peer Advisor
Hi everyone! My name is Van Harting and I’m another one of the new PAs at the CDC. I’m a rising sophomore majoring in Aerospace Engineering on the Astronautical track (I might pick up a minor or two—remains to be seen). I’m from Plymouth MA (yes, the one with the Pilgrims), and both of my parents are […]