Julia McCarthy: Career Center needs to improve student outreach

An hour and a half later, my head was spinning.

I had just attended an information-packed orientation for the UCLA Center for American Politics and Public Policy’s Quarter in Washington program. The session, which includes topics ranging from how to craft the perfect cover letter to how to send the awkward follow-up email when you haven’t heard back from a prospective employer, is meant to help students in the program handle the ins and outs of applying for internships during our time in Washington this coming spring.

And though the crash course was valuable, it also led me to realize that I am not prepared when it comes to navigating the world of job and internship applications.

In situations where students feel a little lost in the application process, like I did after the Quarter in Washington orientation, the UCLA Career Center can come in handy. The center boasts a multitude of workshops and events related to career guidance, and a significant chunk of our tuition goes toward maintaining these programs.

But the center doesn’t adequately inform students about the resources it offers, meaning there is a need for amplified advertising efforts. This will allow the largest number of students to take advantage of the extensive programming available.

Currently, the Career Center advertises its services through a variety of outlets, including fliers, social media, emails and BruinView. But almost all of these methods require students to be the ones signing up for the notifications. If students don’t follow the center on Twitter, and aren’t on a Career Center email list, they miss out on hearing about events. Though students share some responsibility in being proactive about finding out about these events, the center should recognize that students simply may be unaware of how to get the information.

BruinView is a website that functions as another service offered by the Career Center, and allows students to sign up for email notifications alerting them of upcoming events. The site allows UCLA students online access to a plethora of job opportunities, event sign-ups and other online career resources.

And while these services can be very beneficial to students, they serve little purpose if students don’t know they exist. If students have never heard of BruinView before, except for briefly during a new student orientation when they’re already being overloaded with information, they can’t receive the email updates from BruinView.

Additional outreach to students throughout the year is necessary for the resources to truly serve students well.

Many student groups at UCLA and programs, such as the Undergraduate Writing Center, advertise their services through brief announcements at the beginning of lectures. The Career Center can adopt this tactic to reach wide audiences and even have students sign up for their email lists, which keep students in the loop about career events.

The center’s lack of outreach can present other barriers to students, such as the center’s mandatory On-Campus Recruitment Orientation. The orientation is an hour-long session educating students about how to apply for jobs and informing students of other career resources. Students must attend the session to be able to sign up for on-campus interviews on BruinView.

Despite the total accessibility of the sessions – they are offered every week of every quarter – the fact that students don’t know they need to attend them is an issue. If students aren’t widely informed about the mandatory event, they can potentially lose out on the opportunity to meet in person with prospective employers at on-campus recruitments.

But there are quick and easy fixes to ensure students don’t miss out on potential job opportunities. Having representatives from the center give brief presentations about upcoming career events throughout the quarter at the beginning of lectures, fraternity and sorority events, club meetings or really any large gathering can go a long way in educating students about available resources.

Additionally, tailoring the presentations to specific classes – going to economics lectures during business economics recruitment season, for example – can help these students prepare for their recruiting seasons. And those looking to recruit aren’t limited to business-oriented fields. Entertainment, engineering and even environmental companies can all use the career fairs as recruitment opportunities to find students.

Improved outreach is a feasible, attainable solution to help inform students of the career resources before it’s too late. This will eliminate the issue of students missing out on a job opportunity or interview simply because they weren’t aware of the mandatory orientation.

We as students should be using services we pay for. But that’s not possible if we don’t know the resources exist in the first place.