I’m ashamed to admit that last Wednesday was the first time I ever “dropped-in” at CP&R’s office in Seal Court. I was familiar with many of CP&R’s electronic resources, such as the Career Courier and the Gateway, but I’d never actually met with a career consultant. Finding job postings online or on various bulletin boards around campus usually doesn’t require professional assistance, but sooner or later during our undergrad careers we will need some one-on-one help. My time is now, though I wish I’d realized it sooner. To think I’d been suffering all this time, enduring the vast wasteland that is today’s job market… alone and alone without reason!

I dropped in around 10:00am after a late breakfast. After signing in, I sat down with a career consultant who I was pleased to see was peer (she was actually a lovely student I took Writing 50 with my first year). Phew! It was nice to see a familiar face, as I was actually quite nervous. If you need professional help with anything that means you have a problem… right? You’re in trouble… right?? Well, not exactly. I came to the CP&R office with a “problem” I’d already worked a fair number of kinks out of: my resume. I just needed a little more help (or so I thought).

As a college sophomore I had a resume I’d been updating since I was a high school student. It was an awkward collage that resembled sample resumes I found via a quick Google search. I should have known that my resume was probably not supposed to look like that of Jane Doe, who has been an associate at Big Time Law Firm for eight years. CP&R helped me edit and clean up my resume; it now looks like the resume of Christie Kweon, language and literature enthusiast, tutor and mentor extraordinaire.

I had to reformat my entire resume. Some sections were moved around and others entirely removed because some parts of a resume should be highlighted more than others. For instance, I learned from my career consultant that at this point in my career it’s standard to list “Education” before “Experience”. Some additional edits such as the merging of dates and locations were necessary, and I also rephrased some points to compact my resume. I unfortunately had brought in a two-page resume, which is a bit on the long side.

I could go on about little details I had to add and others I had to take out, but I can hardly remember them all at the top of my head. Most of my career consultant’s comments from our half hour session were recorded in her scribbly cursive on my resume. The whole process of reviewing my resume with Lauren was rather remnant of the peer editing workshops that are oh-so-popular among Scripps classes. I honestly don’t know why I was nervous about coming in during drop-in hours, which are from 10:00am to 4:00pm Monday through Friday.

Be sure to drop-in or set up an appointment with CP&R before important datelines, or if you’re busy studying for midterms now, at least stop by to pick up a copy of the 2013 Career Services Guide (It’s an invaluable, free resource!) and check out the intranet page on resumes and cover letters.

What important deadlines are coming up in October? Is anyone already searching for a summer job or internship?