Found out college career centers actually help alumni too

I hit a wall trying to switch from retail management to HR roles. After 3 months of dead ends, I called my old school's career office in Columbus on a whim. They have a whole alumni network and resume review service I never knew about, completely free. A counselor there pointed out my resume used action words wrong for applicant tracking systems. Has anyone else gone back to their alma mater for help mid-career?

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1 Comment

morgan_lewis186d ago

Honestly I'm a little skeptical that switching to a whole new field comes down to fixing action words on a resume. Like sure, ATS filters are a thing, but three months of dead ends probably means you're competing against people who already have HR experience, not that your verbs were the problem. Career centers love to make it seem like they have some magic key, but at the end of the day they're just giving you the same generic advice you could find on any free blog. I'd be more curious how many alumni actually land jobs through that network versus just getting a pat on the head and a tweaked PDF. Not saying it's worthless, just maybe don't expect your old school to solve a career pivot that's genuinely hard for anyone.