This paper introduces and critically reflects on the success of a capstone unit, ‘Preparing for Professional Life,’ developed for a new Humanities-based Bachelor of Arts degree at Edith Cowan University. Quantitative and qualitative research funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (2008) has found that students undertaking Arts courses in Australia did not recognize how their program qualified them for professional careers. This paper reflects our efforts to better prepare our students to make the transition between academic study and career with an exit unit that combines extended essay writing with an ePortfolio tool. The goal has been to provide a context to bring together disparate learning into a coherent, overall experience, to help students integrate and synthesize their learning across multiple and diverse topic areas as highly desirable skills in the employment market. Additionally, we have hoped to inspire a confidence and assertiveness, and awareness of where students have come from, what they have learned and how they have grown during their university career. Despite initial reluctance, most produced ambitious essays addressing deep-seated hopes and attitudes from childhood and adolescence, and linking successfully to their degree and hopes post-graduation. The impact of this exercise, and its effect on students of different ages and backgrounds, surpassed expectations and posits the assignment as a pivotal and necessary tool. Our paper addresses this process and incorporates crucial feedback from students undertaking the unit when it ran for the first time in late 2012.