2 answers
2
Asked 716 views

As a recruiter what do you think about career services?

There has been a growing trend for career services. Universities and Colleges have plenty of career services like recruitment talks and career counselling which I have participated in. Apart from Universities, I have participated in external career workshops. They mostly teach about resume writing, interview skills and building your professional profile on LinkedIn. I personally feel they have not been helpful.

I feel the career workshops place too much emphasis on building my profile and don't tell me the hard skills I should work on. Moreover they make networking sound easy but when it is not. As a recruiter what do you think about these services, do they really increase the chance of employment?

I hope you could shed some light on this matter, thank you.

#career-services #career-workshops

career-services career-workshops
Answer This

+25 Karma if successful
From: You
To: Friend
Subject: Career question for you
2

2 answers

0
Updated
Share a link to this answer
Share a link to this answer

Gary’s Answer

I have worked in career services/CS and I do value the role that CS plays for people. I think you get from it, what you put into it just like anything else in life. CS are typically driven by your needs and the general needs of their audience which is people looking for a job. If you go in there asking for resume assistance, that is usually what you get. The "hard skills" you speak of are more for you to gain in classes, training, with your experience and are more individualized...
Thank you comment icon Thank you for your answer. I agree with you that hard skills are gained through training and experience. But the hard skills I meant was the fundamental things we are expected to know before starting a career. For instance, being knowledgeable in PowerPoint and Excel is important for all graduate jobs. However if I want to start a career in tech sales, being familiar with CRM tools are essential but hardly taught in colleges. I even saw a job position claiming no experience required but required to have strong knowledge in SFDC. I understand that I should do my own research to find out those hard skills. But I am not sure which skills are more relevant. Arshad
Thank you comment icon Hi, I understand completely. I think MS-Office is a very basic and required skill for any job these days. Also, having been in sales myself for 10+ years at a large high tech company...I know that knowing a CRM like SFDC is a must skill. I am still not sure that career services has much to do with this...knowing which skills are necessary depends a lot on the job and doing as much research as you can into your chosen career can help. There are some pretty good and inexpensive, sometimes even free, courses online that we can take to learn specific and specialized programs...for example, I am taking an online course in SFDC Administration right now and only paid $20 for it. Good luck! :) Gary Petito (Veteran)
Thank you comment icon Thanks. I will look into some online courses. Arshad
0
0
Updated
Share a link to this answer
Share a link to this answer

Alexandra’s Answer

When I started interviewing for my first jobs out of college and then graduate school, the most helpful people in my life were my professors and other students who had already graduated and were working. Attending 2-3 workshops at school career services may be helpful but you are on your own after that in terms of getting practical advice and help. Make sure you stay connected with people from your school who have graduated.
0