How to Use Your University's Career Center

No matter what year you’re in as a college student, it’s a good idea to start looking at internships and jobs. Your university career resource center is a great resource to help you, no matter where you are in your career search. At the University of Connecticut, students who used the career center earned an average of $4,000 a year more than those who didn’t. But Inside Higher Ed found that 31% of students—including 28% of those in the class of 2024—had never used their university career center resources. Whether you have or haven’t used your university career center, it’s important to consider the services offered by, and the benefits of using your university career center.

Attend Career Fairs Coordinated by the Career Center

Most universities will have career fairs a few times a year where you can speak to potential employers and hear about available internships. At these fairs, you can learn what different companies do, and the types of jobs they offer. This is useful because it’s useful to learn about the kinds of jobs that exist, and are offered to recent graduates.

There is no reason to wait until junior or senior year to attend a career fair—you can get internships as a freshman or sophomore, and attending a career fair earlier in the year can help you build confidence in talking to employers.

Meet with an Advisor at the Career Center

The people at your university career center can provide you with career counseling. Email one of them and ask to set up a meeting to discuss your job search goals. Have some idea of what you want to accomplish with your meeting before going there so you can get the help you need to succeed.

Career centers are also valuable resources for students who’ve had trouble getting internships in the past due to poor resumes and cover letters. If you’ve had difficulty getting interviews, talking to someone from your career center on how to improve your resume should help. You can also do mock interviews with someone from your career center if you’ve struggled with interviews in the past due to a lack of confidence or preparation.

Using a career center may mean that you can find jobs not posted online, such as jobs at your university or certain internships from companies looking for a smaller pool of high quality applicants. A career center may also be able to give you advice on applying for internships early to ensure that you apply early enough to get internships.

Use Online Resources Your Career Center Offers

Your job center website has online resources available to you, such as resume building, cover letter writing and interview advice. It may also have helpful job search advice that you can use when looking for internships, summer jobs, or your first job after college.

Your career center may also give you access to Handshake, a job search platform created entirely for students. This means that it has plenty of internships, and entry level jobs on Handshake are truly entry level. With Handshake, employers can search for experience on resumes relevant to the job they are hiring for, then reach out to potential applicants like you to suggest that you apply for certain jobs.