Receiving career advice from your boss or colleagues is always nice but sometimes people do not always have that luxury. For those who don’t, a resource that is sometimes forgotten is your college career center. Even for those who have not attended college, career services from a college campus still is usually a wonderful resource to obtain tools (although more limited if not an Alumni) and gain access to career enhancing information.
Depending on how your career services center works, Alumni typically retain access to a majority of the same career enhancing tools available during a student’s academic career. Another great thing about college career centers is that academic environments are grooming students to be launched successfully into the workforce. Therefore it can be expected that one would receive the latest and most effective techniques when visiting career services for some much needed career TLC.
General topics that career centers primarily focus on are: Interview Practice, Resume and Cover Letter Writing, Salary Negotiation, Networking Skills and Information Sessions for visiting employers. In addition, career centers offer the availability of actual career advisors. Walking and talking human beings who can provide you with the sometimes hidden insight on how to approach entering into a new field of work or how to work out a kink in employee relations you may be experiencing.
And if you are on the flip side of seeking employment, employers can also utilize college career centers to seek out talent in order to fill in gaps in their human capital network. Typically college career centers require no fee (but sometimes a small one) to post job openings for their company. It is a win-win situation since applicants are applying to vetted companies verified by career services and companies are receiving the brightest talent out there. So next time you’re wondering where to go for your career enhancing needs, consider your school career center.