I had the opportunity to speak with Career Services' Maggie Kubak about options designed to help students prepare for a career while they are still in school.

What exactly is Career Services?
Career Services is a free service provided by the University to students at about a half dozen different career centers. ESPM students are served by the St. Paul Campus Center which is staffed by 4 career counselors, additional support staff and several top-notch peer advisors. We help students explore their interests, values and career options. Regardless of where the student is on the continuum of preparedness, we help prepare them for success related to their career goals while they're in school. Whether a student says "I've never written a resume" or if they've completed 4 internships and they know what graduate program they are going into we can help them take their next step.

How specifically do you accomplish this?
We can help students understand themselves better by taking a variety of assessments. Assessments are online tools designed to help them understand and recognize their strengths. We give students assistance with identifying opportunities that will help them on their way to their career goal, whether that's volunteering, part-time jobs, internships. We teach students ways of developing their self-marketing skills, including, developing a professional resume or strategies for being interviewed by a potential employer. This isn't rocket science but there are resources available that students may just be unaware of. We help students research possible graduate programs. Review and critique personal essays, help their essays stand out amongst very stiff competition. We also offer CFAN 4201: Strategic Career Planning which is a course that encompasses everything that I just talked about.

What do you think is important for students to be thinking about?
Some of the things I think that are really important are: That students are thinking about what their natural talents are, "What am I good at?" I want them to think about what they're passionate about, what drives them. Priorities are important as well. Every student has different priorities and that helps determine whether they are looking for a job mainly to help pay for tuition or if they are able to take a position that doesn't pay quite as much but is a good stepping stone to the next professional opportunity.

What advice can you give students about using Career Services?
Don't wait until senior year. We can help them create a very do-able career plan that will give them so much of what they need before they walk across that stage to accept their diploma. There are so many things that can be done before senior year. My colleagues and I hope to meet every ESPM student by the end of their sophomore year.