Before starting my job as a Career Peer Advisor, I didn’t know much about the Career Center. I had been to the Career Fair and a few information sessions, but that was the extent of my experience with the Career Center. I had absolutely no idea that there was an entire team of people that I could meet with and discuss my future.

As a student, I often forget that I’m in college for a reason; to take the steps necessary to build a career. It’s easy to get bogged down in all of my class work, studying, and extracurriculars, and start to forget that I’m doing all of this to help forge my future. For me, it was very difficult to break out of this habit. I really only ever focused on my school work, and never really thought about what happens after I graduate.

My career was put on the backburner. My future was an overwhelming, looming cloud in the distance that I wasn’t ready to approach, or even acknowledge.  My experience with the staff and services the Career Center offers has changed that perspective. They have made tackling my future easier by breaking down its components.

So what are those components? As much as I’d like it to be, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” is not an easy question to answer. It’s much easier to start at the beginning. What are my interests? What am I good at doing? The Career Center offers a number of different personality assessments to students to help them pinpoint their answers to these questions.

Tratify (previously known as Compass) is a quick and simple personality test that asks you to pick images that speak to you. It can be completed in five minutes and is a good start to understanding what career options may interest you. You can also take the FOCUS and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality assessment. These two tests are more in depth than Traitify and take about 30- 45 minutes  to complete. After taking the FOCUS, you’ll receive immediate feedback on jobs that match your personality, talents, hobbies, and work interests. The Myers- Brigg is a bit more complex, so we require students to make an appointment with a Career Specialist to review and discuss their results.

So what’s next? After finding an area you’re interested in, you can meet with a Career Advisor to help you start your job/internship search. This involves a number of different steps. If you’re not sure where to start looking at all, you can meet with a member of our team that specializes in your major. You can make a half hour or hour long appointment to review your resume, cover letter, or any other professional documents, or you can come into the Career Center during drop-in hours and have a quick, 15- minute review with a staff member. There are here from 2-3:45 PM M-F in Math/Psych 201, or 6-8PM Tu, Th in the Writing Center. We also have extended hours Tuesday, February 14, from 10AM-4PM.

The Career Center also helps prep students on a variety of different topics. You can meet with a Career Specialist to discuss your options for graduate schools. They can help you with anything from finding a graduate program that fits your interests, to helping you craft your personal statement. The Career Center also offers interview prep. There are more casual interview prep appointments where you can discuss what employers look for in an employee and how to answer their questions aptly, and there are also formal mock interviews. These interviews are hour long appointments where you come into the Career Center, dressed in business  attire, and get interviewed by a Career Specialist. They’ll create questions they think are most related to the job or graduate school program you’re applying for, and simulate an interview with you. Afterward, they’ll discuss their feedback with you.