By Isla Jade Seitz and Lann Nguyen, Nov.7, 2023
Cal Poly Pomona’s Career Center debuted its virtual, all-in-one website Oct. 12. The Career Center refocused the online center to meet students’ needs and consolidated resources in one place.
The center’s revamped website is easier and more straightforward for users which will benefit students and alumni as they navigate the site and explore all the tabs.
Alexis Lopez, the career services specialist at CPP’s Career Center, has been responsible for a large part of curating the new website. She said this has been in progress for about two years and the center has been working closely with uConnect, an online program that helps power many colleges’ virtual career centers across the United States, and now CPP.
“uConnect showed us the different tools that students have asked us about in the past, but we’ve never really had a centralized place for them,” said Lopez. “Now using uConnect, we have resources, like being able to look at jobs without having to be redirected back to a homepage full of information, making things more streamlined and cohesive.”
The site’s goal is to be more user-friendly and create tools to personalize students and alumni, faculty and staff’s virtual community. Lopez explained that those who use the Career Center through uConnect can narrow down their email notifications, meaning they only receive emails that suit their needs and interests.
The website has a new filtering system that utilizes the job trends tool to make it easier for students and alumni to find more specific job information.
“The job trends tool is useful to look at because there is information about different jobs and then you can narrow it down by selecting if it’s nationwide or by a state, then you’ll get all the information about that type of industry, what positions are available within it and then salary ranges and other details,” said Lopez.
Students and alumni can also obtain resume and cover letter feedback. The center currently allows an option on the website for students to submit a resume and recieve feedback within three to five business days.
Cherrie Peters, lead career coach, said one of the biggest challenges of being able to help students and alumni is sometimes the difficulty of finding time or getting to the center.
“Students are unable to utilize services because they’re in class or working, parking can be challenging, and a lot of students just don’t have the time,” said Peters. “By moving a lot of our items or expanding our services via the web, we think that’s going to help students be better prepared when they look for jobs or when they think about the career path that they want to go down.”
Peters said students should use the service now and not wait until after they graduate because it takes time to find a career pathway, research job trends and search for positions and to prepare for the world of work.
“If you wait until you graduate, you have all those many months in front of you in order to work through all of that, if you can dedicate an hour a semester while you are still a student, you will be career-ready before you leave the institution and hopefully be gainfully employed then you won’t need us after you graduate,” said Peters.
The Career Center staff is consistently working on the site and there are more improvements coming in the near future. Peters said the center hopes to add pre-recorded workshops that are specialized for alumni, podcasts, and implementing artificial intelligence to help with interviewing to receive feedback.
“I briefly heard about the new virtual career center,” said Mariam Yousef, psychology student. “I’m excited to use this new resource. Having a virtual version will make it much easier for me to access whenever I need to.”
The hours on the website are currently up to date and drop-in hours are Monday through Thursday. Tuesday and Wednesday are available for virtual drop-ins through CPP Connect starting at 1 p.m. For students seeking in-person, its office is located in Building 97 in Room 128.
Learn more about the virtual career center on the website.
Feature Image Courtesy of CPP Career Center