<ne of Carleton’s more valuable yet often-underused resources, the Career Center is constantly looking for ways to better serve the student body. Last Friday, all new Career Advisers gathered in Leighton 304 to share their visions of the Career Center’s future, and make suggestions for how the Career Center can improve.
“What inspired me to become a Career Advisor was a personal experience that I had with a Career Advisor last year,” said Harrison Reeder ’16, a new Career Advisor. “One of the Seniors who I was friends with invited me to come talk to him about writing a resume in the Career Center, because I had never been there before and I was a little unsure of what I could learn there.” From there, he said, he was inspired to apply for a job there in order to help other Carleton students.
A central focus of the discussion was how to improve the Career Center for next year. This year, twenty students became new Career Advisers, a record number.
“The Career Center can always be more visible and more accessible for students,” said Duncan Sallstrom ‘15, also a new Career Advisor. “I also think we can do better in finding more opportunities—more externships, more internships, more alumni contacts—for people to use.”
Ultimately, one of the main goals of the Career Center is to help students think about their future careers; Reeder in particular highlighted his desire “to improve the Career Center by [helping] give Carls resources to envision and make possible a fulfilling life after Carleton.”
“I envision the Career Center not merely as an excellent resource for students, but as a integral part of the Carleton experience,” he said.
However, the Career Center is not limited to these goals. “I’d like to see it be more involved with individual students,” said Sallstrom, “It’s the ‘Career’ Center, but we do more than prepare students for their careers. We help them think about their futures beyond Carleton. I think we’d be more approachable if students saw us this way.”
One of the main goals of the Career Center is always visibility, particularly to underclassmen, a topic that was also discussed at the meeting.
“Right now, the career center is under-utilized by freshmen and sophomores,” said Sallstrom, “We’re going to be more involved with incoming students during New Student Week next year. I hope we can use our time with freshmen then to have them be more involved by the end of the year.”
In the end, the Career Center always tries to improve how it helps the campus community. “We never want to leave things as they are, we always want to make things more efficient and more inclusive to the campus community,” said Jessica Mueller, the Director of the Career Center.