So, what are your post-grad plans?
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE USC CAREER CENTER RESOURCES
By Grace Carballo ‘17
If you find yourself trying to evade this question, though it comes up quite often when you’re a senior, know you’re not alone.
It’s not too late to take some steps down the path well-traveled, the career path. The Career Center is chockfull of wonderful resources that can help you wherever you may be in your journey. If I could go back in time I would’ve been a regular in their office starting my freshman year. But hindsight is 20/20, as they say, so all I can do now is soak up all their advice and knowledge and connections before I graduate in May and encourage my brother (class of 2020) to check it out much earlier.
Especially given the new campus-wide approach USC is taking to career counseling (see video linked below), underclassmen really can and should take advantage of this.
According to USC’s Career Center, the following chart (below) provides a general overview of when to apply for your future internship or full-time job.
A relevant personal anecdote- I had never gone to the Career Center until last week when I realized I needed expert assistance on this quest. My experience was far less stressful than I’d anticipated it would be and I’m definitely returning for a follow-up. After making my appointment online, I met with one of the career counselors, Denise. We discussed my wide range of interests and diverse fields of study and she introduced me to some features on LinkedIn that allow you to look for and connect with USC alums in cities you might be interested in working in (I’m looking @ you, Chicago and San Fran).
1) CAREER COUNSELING
Career Counseling is one of the many services offered by the Career Center. They have 30 minute and 50 minute sessions and you can really use that time however you may need. I, for example, used my first meeting as a way to get all my future-plan-related qualms and thoughts out into the open, erring more on the side of “counseling” than “career.”
In a few weeks, I am going to go back, this time after having checked out the career fair (Thursday, September 15 - see #4 on this list), and exploring ConnectSC and LinkedIn more closely.
2) INTERVIEW PRACTICE AND TIPS
Have you ever, in the moment, felt like what you were saying was literally verbal gold but just moments later, realized how foolish you must have sounded? Presenting the best version of yourself in an interview is a skill and first impressions are powerful and lasting.
The Career Center has a lot of tips on their website for how to best prepare for an interview and resources to guide you to putting your best foot forward.
Some highlights of their pointers that I’ll summarize for you:
- Research the specific company you’re interviewing for. Get to know their mission (website), social media presence, and even employees on LinkedIn.
- Practice answering the interview questions on sites like Glassdoor on the Career Center handout. https://careers.usc.edu/docs/handouts/Interview_What_Will_Ask.pdf
- Dress for the job you want (professional attire) and bring resume copies.
- Plan your commute to the interview site with time to spare.
After you’ve done all this, schedule a mock interview appointment with one of the experienced Career Counselors via connectSC. This is probably the closest you’ll find to the real interview experience, until, of course, you are in the actual interview.
3) CONNECTSC
On connectSC, you can look into the impressive quantity of internships (paid and unpaid), full-time jobs, and on-campus recruiting opportunities available to us as USC Trojans. You can apply to a number of the jobs directly through connectSC (go ahead and click it- it’s a link) after you have uploaded your resume and position-specific cover letter.
Pro-tip: Don’t take it too personally when connectSC categorizes you as “Not Qualified” for quite a few of the job offerings; it’s just doing that because your major or highest degree of education aren’t what the business are seeking. Admittedly, it bruised my ego the first few times I saw it, but now that I’m farther away from the situation I do recognize that I may not be fit for a civil engineering position.
4) CAREER FAIR
I’ve never been to the Career Fair intentionally, although I have walked through and around it several times on my way to class. This year I’ll be one of those business-casual-sweaty-souls waiting in daunting lines to shake someone’s hand that three years ago I pitied. I’m kind of excited about it, does this mean I’m growing up?
https://careers.usc.edu/docs/handouts/Career_Fair_Tips.pdf
The Career Center has some tips and for me, the biggest takeaways are 1) knowing about the company before you approach them 2) being prepared to ask specific questions. As the PDF says, “It’s a dialogue, not a monologue.”
Last time I checked my connectSC account (approx. 18 hours prior to writing this post) there were 216 companies attending the fall career fair on Thursday, September 15, from 10:00-2:00. Whenever I have a break between classes I like to scroll through the list and see what’s out there; my Top 10 (a feature for the job fair on ConnectSC) is ever-changing. In the days leading up to the fair, I’m going to narrow that list down to 3-4 companies with missions and positions I am truly interested in and learn everything about them so that when I get my few minutes of face-time with the recruiter I have a lot of talking points (relevant ones).
5) STEER YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (if only to reassure myself), it is okay, especially as an 18-22 year old, to not know exactly what you want to do for the rest of your life. I came to USC as an Undecided major and was lucky enough to find several fields of study that I absolutely love (Global Studies, Spanish, Screenwriting, and Nonprofits, Philanthropy, and Volunteerism). I’ll graduate in May with 2 minors and 2 majors from 3 different schools so if you, too are multi-interested, I not only commend you, I relate to you.
The Career Center can help you out with that, too. Is there nothing they can’t do?
The Assessment Tools they offer (pictured above) can help you make some of the big decisions still facing you (i.e. choosing a major or career) or just help you get to know yourself a little better, which is never a bad thing. Had I been aware of these resources as a youth back in 2013 when I first came to USC, I think my process of choosing a major would have been a whole lot smoother. But sometimes I like a little drama, so I suppose it suited me.
Additionally, the Career Center has a link to a really cool site that lists potential careers and their relation to pretty much any major. Check out the link below and get lost in all the possibilities like I just did.
http://whatcanidowiththismajor.com/major/
6) RESUME AND COVER LETTER ASSISTANCE
The Career Center folks also gave me a handy booklet on how to format and improve my resume and cover letters. The PDF version is in the link below.
https://careers.usc.edu/docs/handouts/Resume_Booklet_Small.pdf
There was a time, not too long ago, when I had “BK7′s Most Unique Sense of Humor Award” on my resume under Achievements so it’s possible I should be open to changing it.
Want more from Trojans 360?
Visit Trojans 360 on Facebook & Twitter to stay up to date with more student content!
You can also Ask A Trojan an anonymous question, and we’ll try to answer it in a future post!
Trojans 360 is USC’s official student-run blog. Content created by students, for students.
