The Campus Centers That Support Your Job Search (Pssst! It’s Not Just Career Services)

Ever since I attended the New York Times Higher Ed Leaders Forum a few years ago where I listened to a fascinating panel on career services, I’ve appreciated the benefits of students visiting their career services office all four years of their college days—not the final semester of their senior year.

As in so many things, it pays to start early.

But here’s an excerpt from an article that discusses the need to support your career search by making good use of the other centers on your campus, such as the wellness center, financial aid or money education center, even your campus gym or recreation center.

How do all those centers support your job search? Read and find out.

First, a word to any current graduate students reading this: visit your campus career center and sit down to chat with your career adviser. Do not wait until the month before you graduate. Do not wait until your résumé is “ready” or “good enough” for another human being to see. Do not wait until you know exactly what you want to do with your life. Go now.

Good. Now that that’s out of the way, I’d like to promote other campus services and resources you should use to enhance your career search. The career center promotes other offices on campus? Yes! Because believe it or not, visiting those other offices before or in tandem with your visit to career services can enhance your career exploration experience and make your job search more productive.

In addition to your career center, you should also develop a relationship with—

Counseling center. I work with many students at the career center who bring in their résumés or seek advice for the job search process, and it becomes apparent very quickly that their résumé or interview skills are not the roadblock. After delving a bit deeper, I may suspect that a student may be sabotaging their interviews because they’re scared of graduating and leaving the security of their program and identity as a graduate student. Or perhaps they are worried that they will choose the “wrong” career path and be unhappy, so they waffle around and delay making any kinds of career decisions at all. My ability to assist all these students is limited, so I refer them to the outstanding counselors at our student counseling services.

I recommend that all students, at every stage of their career exploration and job search, visit the counseling center on their campus. Building a relationship with a counselor can assist you in managing stress and expectations as well as tackling any unexplored issues that may be stalling or sabotaging your search.