How to Get the Most out of Your Career Counseling Center
As a recent grad, I know a thing or two about how college career counseling centers work or don’t. Many don’t. But you’re paying them a lot of money and you should demand that they help you.
This is the usual situation: If you’re a junior or senior, you might be going there because you want help with your resume or because your mom has been nagging you for months to do it! Either one works.
If you’re a freshman or sophomore going to the career center, you’re an overachiever and I’m pretty sure I can’t relate to that, so yeah, you’re good on your own!
When I went to my career counseling services I walked in and walked out in 7 minutes.
Yeah, that’s right, seven minutes!
Not the good “Seven Minutes in Heaven” kind of experence, but the “Rejected by My Career Center in Seven Minutes” kind of experience.
So I’m here to help you not have that experience at your career center.
While I’m sure some of you wouldn’t mind such a brief visit to the career center, I’m hoping that most of you want to have a better experience than I did.
First: Go prepared.
Don’t plan on having them write your resume and cover letters for you because, trust me, they won’t. Have a rough template of your resume and cover letters. That way they have something to work on and change.
Second: Have questions.
The whole point of going is to learn how to properly make a resume, write cover letters and discover alumni in your field. If you go into it without any questions, you can’t learn.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that’s corny or whatever, but it’s true.
Ask them about what type of additional courses you should put on your resume, if they can recommend graduates who have become players in your field, or how you should change your resume after you graduate, etc.
Thirdly, GO BACK!
Please do what I did and settle for the bum rush after just seven minutes. They are there to serve you. Insist on it.
If you feel as though your time was cut short there, GO BACK. It’s as simple as that, and, yes, it might require getting out of bed a little early, or staying on campus a little longer.
I know that’s a bummer, but trust me, it’s worth it.
The career center is there to help you; it’s their job. If you get the feeling that they are annoyed by your constant questions, tough.
Think of it this way, you’re paying A LOT of money to go to that college, so they can give you an extra 53 minutes of their time. Don’t accept seven minutes.
Have any of you had a memorable experience at Career Services, good or bad? Got any more tips for us? Share them! Send me an email at and we can add it to our Degrees2Dreams website!
jessicaflavin
Latest posts by jessicaflavin (see all)
- How to Get the Most out of Your Career Counseling Center - October 2, 2012
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