Many people attend college to enhance their career opportunities. So, it is no surprise that
colleges and universities offer career services. Career service centers offer a wealth of resources that college students of all years should take advantage of.
What College Career Services Offer
Handout/Online Resources and Advice
My university offers what it calls “Career Resources”: a selection of premade templates for resumes, CVs, and more. These templates are in the form of online documents you can download and plug your name, experience, etc. into.
Additionally, college career services know their stuff when it comes to understanding how to properly edit resumes or make your information sound and look good. To share a personal example, my career service office helped me understand the importance of
making resumes simple enough to pass by AI readers — a piece of advice that many popular resume websites were not letting me in on!
Events
Career service centers typically offer events for students. These events can include organized practice interviews, professional headshots, career readiness information, free thrifted clothing spaces (yes, free clothes!), and networking opportunities.
Keep track of your career service office’s semester-long calendar and the events that may be relevant to you!
Interviews
Additionally, career centers can provide mock interviews and point you to resources that help you prepare for the real thing, such as methods like
the STAR method or
interview cheat sheets. If your career center is especially current and on top of things, they will know best practices for interviews in your particular career path. They can also answer your questions, like
how to dress and how to create an elevator pitch.
Handshake
Handshake, a career-building service, connects numerous students to available jobs and recruiters/employers. In fact,
over 1,500 colleges (including community and technical colleges) partner with this job-finding site.
Handshake has a specially curated system for colleges, offering them calendars, premade templates, and other features for their students to use. But why is Handshake particularly helpful?
Seattle University writes that many employers on Handshake are “specifically looking to hire college students.” Take advantage of your college career office’s connection with Handshake, if they have that connection.
Networking
Networking plays a key role in landing jobs. According to a
Forbes article by Jeffrey Ton, “Many experts suggest at least 80% of all jobs, are filled through a professional network connection.”
Thankfully, your career service office can help with the
networking process. A
post from one university notes that “Career Services staff can assist with best practices for building your professional network.”
Career service offices host career fairs where they invite prospective employers to campus, giving students the opportunity to meet people and tap into job opportunities. They can also help you set up a LinkedIn account, which, unlike Handshake, is a service that goes beyond the applying/hiring process to further uncover and build professional connections.
When To Connect with Your College Career Center
Ideally, this article already answered what tools career service centers offer. But one question remains: when should you take advantage of them?
The answer to that question depends on your specific needs and your college’s offerings. But generally, you should take advantage of career services in all your college years, especially your junior and senior years.
Since
experience is valuable to have when you graduate, you can begin
piling up that experience early with help from the career service office. Career service offices can help you start building your network (such as with LinkedIn and Handshake) in your freshman and sophomore years to prepare you for
finding internships later, typically after sophomore year.
Or these offices can help you prepare resumes, resumes that will set you up for part- or full-time jobs to pay for college tuition. Also, the earlier you familiarize yourself with your college’s career service office, the more experience you will have with it when you really need to use it: your junior and senior years.
Use Your College’s Career Service Office
You can see the heading! Go take advantage of your college’s career service office! Not only are you paying for these services, but they can help you establish your future career.
