Your Simple Guide to College Career Services

By Elana Goodwin on December 14, 2015

Taking advantage of the services and resources your university career center has to offer is something many students fail to do while at school — and not checking out the college career services on your campus is a big mistake because they really can help you, both as an undergraduate and even as an alumni.

Here’s a guide to what college career services does, why it’s important, and why you should visit your center ASAP.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Jefferyrauschert

College career centers offer a variety of services — from resume workshops and one-on-one resume critiques to mock job interviews and interview etiquette info to helping you figure out your plan for the future.

Besides the counselors and advisers who work for your college career services, you can also be paired with a peer or alumni mentor, who will probably be a good resource for you as you figure out your post-graduation plans and navigate your undergrad years.

Peer mentors may also help you learn about your campus, develop study skills, give you advice, guide you towards specific clubs or groups you should be a part of, and in general be a good asset to have as you complete your undergraduate degree.

Being paired with an alumni mentor and communicating via email can also be helpful as you may learn more about a particular field you’re thinking of going into, what the “real world” is like after graduation, and build a solid networking contact that may come in handy when you’re looking for jobs or internships.

Worried about figuring out what you want to do with your life? Not sure what to major in? Besides talking to advisers within different departments, your college’s career center can help with that too. Many career centers offer career aptitude tests that can help you figure out what sort of career would be a good fit for your personality, strengths, and interests.

There may also be career planning workshops offered by your college’s career services, so you’ll want to be sure to sign up to their mailing list or get updates on what services and resources they’re offering each month.

Additionally, the college career services at your school will provide you with information about career fairs, such as what potential employers are coming to campus, when and where career fairs will be held, and who’s hiring. Career centers can also help you get ready to apply to jobs and internships as they’ll assist you in creating your resume and cover letter and give you interview advice.

There are tons of resources available at your career services center and on their website. Many centers have some sort of aggregated job and internship list as well as plenty of information about all sorts of different kinds of careers you may choose to pursue.

If you’re looking for an on-campus or close-to-campus job, college career services can help you with that as well, as they may have leads as to who’s currently hiring on campus, or who in the past has employed college students and can help put you in touch with campus employers or steer you towards resources that will help you find a part-time job.

Visiting your college career services is something you should do more than once; the more you visit and get to know those who work there, the more the staff will know you and be better able to help you. If you only stop in once while at school, chances are the advisers and counselors at the career center won’t remember you. Stopping in more frequently will ensure the career services staff have a better sense of who you are, what you’re hoping they can do to help you, and make it more likely they’ll refer you to an employer looking to hire.

Even if you’ve graduated, your alma mater’s career center may still have resources you can take advantage of, such as a great network you can tap into to help you out in the real world, as well as exclusive job postings or networking events.

Many college career services also have alumni career fairs that may be able to help you land a job and some career centers also provide numerous online videos, resources, and webinars that are helpful to alumni, and completely free.

Besides all these great reasons you should check out your college career services, another reason is that it’s free — you’re already paying for it in your tuition dollars which means you might as well stop in, see what they have to offer you and learn how they can help you.

So if you haven’t already visited your college career center, you should definitely check it out ASAP — they may just be able to make your life easier and help you figure out the right path for you.

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