My experience with the career center at Whittier College has been very helpful, and it offers a lot of useful resources for students at any level.
I reached out because I needed help revising my outdated resume. I set an appointment through the school’s Handshake portal for a Zoom meeting and spent about 45 minutes with the career counselor going over things I can improve on. Overall, I was able to develop a resume I will be confident on submitting to potential employers.
I learned I need to use better keywords to stand out for the particular fields I will be applying to. This shows the hiring manager I am a good fit for the role. So, I started to look up similar roles and incorporated some of the skills and duties I found into my resume for specific applications. Overall, I am rewording my employment history and skills sections to strengthen my resume and chances of landing an interview.
I also changed the formatting of my resume. For example, I had my latest work experience on the bottom of the page and moved it up to the top. This way, employers can see my recent work at first glance.
Resumes aren't the only thing the career center can help with. They also help you create a career development plan, prep for interviews, apply for internships, as well as many other things.
Students should take advantage of the resources at the career center as soon as they can. I think it can make a big difference in their job search as well as exploring different career options. I waited until my last year to reach out, but I’m glad I finally did because I’m sure I would have made mistakes trying to perfect my resume if I were to do it alone.
