The most important service offered by the Career Center is the one-to-one relationship with a career counselor. This is the only person on the face of the year (other than yourself) who considers your success job search to be activity #1. Take note that to have a career counselor resource like this in the "real world" it would cost you $50+/hour (or you could get the package deal for $500-$1000+).

Even if you are already into your final year of college and ready to begin your job search, it is never too late to build your Career Center counselor relationship. Note that many of the best positions are already being interviewed on-campus and filled early in the academic year. But if that time has already passed, do not put off your initial visit any further. It will take time to effectively build a relationship and develop a personal program for meeting your specific needs.

Seek a professional yet personal relationship with your career counselor. You will likely be given a set of tasks and activities to accomplish which are specific to your stage of career planning and job search. Complete these activities on time and you will earn the respect of your career counselor, who will see that you are committed to succeeding in your job search.

Keep in close touch, but not too close. Most career counselors are overworked and underpaid, so do not expect them to conduct your job search for you. They are simply the front-end contact to help you get started and guide you along the path. You need to take personal responsibility for the eventual success of your job search. You will need to put forth the personal effort to make it happen.

As your job search progresses, provide the courtesy of communicating all second interviews and eventual offers to your career counselor. The career counselor can likely provide you with some historical salary information, both for the specific employer as well as your major and field. By providing information back to your career counselor, you will not only gain a competitive edge in your job search, you will also be providing information for the next generation of graduates.

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