Her Campus at UVA’s Guide to the University Career Center

The spring semester is upon us, and with that means looking ahead to the best, and potentially worst, part of the year: summer. For students, summer can go either two ways- one way is chillaxing at home, binge-watching Netflix shows day and night, and doing absolutely nothing (like we used to back in the good ol’ days of grade school). The other way is busting your rears in part-time jobs or internships to try to build your resume. Most of my summers took the 2nd route, and one of the greatest helping factors to help me out was the University Career Center (UCC), previously known as University Career Services. It strangely occurred to me that a lot of students have still never heard of UCC. Even those who have heard of it have come and asked me what it actually does. If you’re in either of those groups, look no further; this article will give you the rundown on what an awesome resource the career center is.

The University Career Center is located in Bryant Hall, not to be confused with Bryan Hall. If you’ve ever been to a football game in Scott Stadium, you’ve come actually close to Bryant Hall. To get there, you’ll either need to walk up the the straightaway by E-school, pass Rice Hall, and continue straight until you see the entrance on your right. Or, you can access it by taking the Inner and Outer Loop and getting off at the stop after/ before Rice Hall and the parking lot by the Student Activities Building. It’s pretty obscure, but well worth the hunt. You walk in, take an immediate left pass the cool football memorabilia, and it’s on your right. They just renovated it this past summer, it looks AMAZING.

So what can UCC do for you? Where do I even begin?

I can honestly say that without UCC, my college experience would not be what it is today. In the past four years, they’ve helped me with my professional documentation, academic advising, switching career tracks, mock interviews, landing multiple jobs and internships, and finally getting my first full-time post-grad position. They will help you build resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles – any documents you’ll need for graduate school/ job applications.  They offer academic advising and office hours nearly every day, and have recently adopted “communities” in order to better help your specific academic needs (engineering and technology, business, creative arts and media, etc). You’ll be notified of numerous career events such as job fairs, company presentations, graduate school help, interview preparation events, and MUCH MORE. It’s actually amazing and scary how many events they put on for us. You can meet with one or all advisers, and even set up regular meetings with them (that’s how dedicated they are to helping their students succeed). I’ve done one mock interview with them, and it’s fantastically helpful- you give them the job description and they will pull similar interview questions and make it as close to what you can expect in the real interview. They’ll also give you feedback about how you dressed, how your posture is, whether or not you’re giving eye contact…. they’re very thorough.

The list is honestly endless. There are many more resources UCC has that I’ve probably never needed to use, but the are absolutely some of the best, most dedicated, friendliest, and hard-working UVA staff I’ve ever met. I owe my successes at UVA to them, I really do. I strongly urge you to make an appointment with them anytime during the semester if you have any questions or concerns with your academics, or looking for future opportunities. They can help you, only if you take the first step and make the trek on over.

Go to https://career.virginia.edu for more information.