Getting The Most Out Of Your Campus Career Center

It’s time for our annual tips for college and graduate students who will enter the workforce for the first time in 2022. That’s right – this is for the Class of 2022.

Finding a job is a job. It is not prudent to wait until after your fun graduation trip across Europe to report for your first day. If you want to ease your transition from scholarship to work, you may consider thinking of the first-day-of-your-last-year of school as Day One of your job search, and your first stop should be your school’s career center. 

To get the most out of your college or university’s career center, you should treat it like any other relationship. The more you put in, the more you get out. A long-term relationship (i.e., Day One) is more advantageous than a short-term one (i.e., one week before graduation).

Here are seven great ways to leverage your university’s career center’s services:

1.    Start early. As mentioned, try and develop a long-term relationship with your career center. Over time, you will develop a more personal, in-depth relationship with career center staff than a student who pops in – maybe once – during their senior year. It’s human nature to want to help those with whom you are the most familiar. If staff know more than your name and face, like your major, post-graduation goals, professional preferences, and personality, the aid you receive may be better and more forthright.

2.    Learn which career center serves you. Schools structure academics and student services in different ways, including the career center. For example, your small college may have the same career center for undergraduate and graduate students. Still, a large university may have a career center for each school in its umbrella – law, medical, engineering, computer science, business, etc. Save yourself some time and effort, and make sure you know where to go.

3.    Understand that career centers are not job placement agencies. They’ll help you along the job hunt journey, but the actual work is up to you. Do your homework by learning what resources your career center has, how it helps its students, and what resources you can effectively leverage. If offered, take advantage of resume services, introductions to recruiters and alumni, and events.

4.    Check out their calendar. Your career center should have a monthly calendar announcing events like workshops, resume writing classes, and career assessments. January through March is the height of campus recruitment “season,” so space for some events may be limited, and registrations may have hard deadlines. Respect the career center’s timelines, deadlines, registration dates, and policies. Make life easy for the career center staff, and they will reciprocate.

5.    Put your resume on file. If your career center offers a portal on which to your resume or will keep in “on file,” do it. Private businesses contact colleges and universities and request resumes of upcoming graduates. Yours should be among them. Follow your career center’s rules for resume format. A uniform, standardized resume format allows the career center to put every student on equal footing and post digital copies online.

6.    Play ball! Be nice. Career center staff are professionals. Treat them with respect, and you will earn it back. Students with a sense of entitlement or approach the center with a poor attitude may not end up with the full benefits they could otherwise.

7.    Don’t rely on the career center. The career center is just one resource. Hunt for jobs on your own, scan the job boards, network directly and through LinkedIn, and send your resume to anyone who could potentially be a good contact.

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.