Does Your College Career Center Make the Grade?

If you’re a senior or recent grad eager to find a job, you may have noticed that your college career center is a little overworked and understaffed. It’s an unfortunate fact in this down economy that most universities are spending less on their career centers.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the budget for the average college career office fell nearly 16 percent in 2012. Job-hunting workshops and internship placements have also been cut. In fact, the average college career counselor serves 1,645 students. Worse yet, big enrollment schools—those with more than 20,000 students—have a student-counselor-ratio of 5,876 to one.

“It’s a huge under-investment,” says Beth Throne, associate vice president for student and postgraduate development at Franklin & Marshall College, to USA Today. “If you look at how much colleges spend on admissions and advancement, they usually have deans over both and huge teams of people and resources.”

The good news is that some of today’s forward thinking colleges offer stepped–up and updated career services to help graduates find jobs. At NYU, career center staff tweet job postings, train students to properly conduct interviews using Skype, match candidates with the right recruiters, and even show students how to “brand” themselves on social media. "The world has changed, and if you’re not changing with it, you’re doing the students a disservice," says Trudy Steinfeld, assistant VP and executive director of New York University’s Wasserman Center for Career Development, in an HR Magazine article.

Preparing seniors and recent grads to present themselves professionally has become a key part of the job search process. College career centers can no longer be content to just post ads on bulletin boards or edit resumes and cover letters. "The best career services centers have shifted from being a moderator or go-between [for] students and companies into career development preparation around their students," observed Adam Ward, university recruiting manager at Facebook, in the HR Magazine article.

Some colleges are bowing to pressure from parents who want colleges to do more than just hand out sheepskins and tell their grads, good luck. These colleges are now adding workshops, webinars, and extending office hours. They're also inviting a broader selection of employers to campus and contacting more alumni to networking events to get students internships and entry-level jobs. Some schools are even offering career management as a class, which is a required credit in certain M.B.A. programs.

Drexel University's LeBow College of Business's M.B.A. Career Services offers an online interactive simulation program that lets you sharpen your interviewing skills by answering interview questions via your home computer and webcam. You can select standard interview questions or customize your interview by choosing from a list of 1,000 varied questions.

Does your college career center make the grade? If they do, take advantage of everything they offer to get the job you want.

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