Are you feeling unsure about your future? As college students, it’s practically second-nature to be clueless about what we’ll do with our precious degrees, and wonder if they even are precious. Every day, I ask myself, “Hey, what the hell am I doing?” As a senior in my last semester here at CSU, I still don’t truly know.
I’ll be honest, my cluelessness is the product of completely neglecting the resources this university has to offer. One of those resources being the Center for Career Design, the most valuable resource for a university-goer, I’d vehemently argue. My forsaking of these resources is not intentional. It’s simple ignorance; a lack of knowing their benefits. And let’s be real, I’m sure many of you share this same experience.
I met with Patrick Keebler, the director of the Center for Career Design, to explore how the center ensures successful futures for CSU students.
Q: What is the primary mission of the Career Center at CSU?
A: We’re cultivating a career readiness ecosystem in which every student, regardless of background, major, or lived experience, will graduate career-ready, employable, and equipped to build a financially secure and meaningful life. That’s what we aspire to do. We’re here because we are dedicated to supporting student success by guiding individuals toward careers that offer economic security and a meaningful life.
Q: What makes CSU’s Career Center different from other career services at other universities?
A: I think the level of experience that the career coaches have is unique. We’ve all had previous careers, done different things. None of us can come from a traditional higher educational background, which I think is beneficial, because we have industry experience. We have military veterans. We have people who have worked in the nonprofit sector, people who have worked in government before. So, just a really very talented group of professional staff members that bring a lot of different experiences and perspectives to the table. That’s something that you won’t find in a lot of career centers. I think the other thing that makes us somewhat unique is just our focus on not waiting for students to come here; we are out in the classrooms. We are doing things that help us to scale our reach so that we can serve every student here at Columbus State University. For example, last semester, we did 67 classroom presentations. That’s a good way for us to use our time, because that connects us to students that we normally wouldn’t get connected to, because we’re going to the student rather than waiting for the student to come to us. What we’re trying to do is make career services essentially unavoidable.
Q: What services do you offer, exactly? Which services do students most often underestimate or don’t realize are available?
A: LinkedIn is really, really important, and I see a lot of students create an account, but then they don’t do much with it, and that’s almost worse, because it’s publicly available. Here are the services we offer: career coaching. We offer a Career Closet for free professional clothing. We have free professional headshots that are available. We offer a number of online resources, including Handshake, which is our career management platform that we use here at Columbus State University. That’s a way for students to find and apply for jobs and internships. They can also manage an online profile there, which will help them get connected to employers. And then they can sign up and attend career-related events like the career fairs. The career fairs are another big piece of our work. We do about 10 of those a year, right? And we’re doing something for every major now. We also offer the virtual career center, which is available 24/7, so everything that we do is accessible through our website. You can also use Job Scan, which is another thing that we pay for, which is a resume optimization tool. And then we also have an alumni mentoring program. That’s called the Cougar Career Connections network.
Q: What role does the Career Center play in helping students transition from college to full-time employment?
A: Career Fairs. A lot of the employers that come to campus for career fairs are alumni. They are there. They’re coming to CSU because they went to school here, and they want to be part of that. So there are a lot of alumni that you’ll meet at the career fairs. There are a lot of alumni on LinkedIn who are willing to connect with you, and it’s just a matter of knowing how to do that. We have the mentoring program now. That’s a great way to connect with alumni. There are multiple opportunities for all students.
Q: How can students make the most of their first visit to the Career Center?
A: I would say, just be curious and ask questions about what we do and how we can help them. “What do you do here?” Be very upfront and direct. Ask what can you offer me that I need, that I might benefit from. But I think the first step is to, you know, take the initiative to come here. When you come to university, any university, you are paying for the Career Services Office, right? You are paying for it, so they might as well take advantage of it. You might as well get something for your dollar spent.
After four years spent at this university, I can admit that I haven’t taken full advantage of the dollars I’ve spent to be a student here. Because of that, it has cost me days and nights riddled with career-related anxiety. The Center for Career Design has helped ease some of these fears by helping me gain a better and steadier footing, prepping me to walk confidently into the career of my choice. It’s okay to be unsure of your future, and it’s also okay if you haven’t visited any of the career coaches located in Schuster yet, but take it from me: you’ll sleep better knowing that they have your back.
To access these services and alleviate your uncertainty about the future, please visit https://careercenter.columbusstate.edu/.
