<p>Can anyone comment on how well the career center at Vanderbilt serves its students? Do they offer programming geared to freshmen and sophomores (i.e., resume writing, internship research help, career planning, etc.) or is it primarily geared to upperclassmen? How effective is the career center overall in helping place students in internships, bringing career fairs to campus, and helping students secure jobs after graduation? Thank you for your insights.</p>
<p>You could call them and ask, I suspect they’ll be happy to answer some of those questions. Overall I’ve heard good things about the career center, but it would be natural for them to focus on the needs of upperclassmen, especially graduating seniors.</p>
<p>Its appropriate for students of all levels. Tons of resources for resume writing and critiques, mock interviews, career search help, etc. </p>
<p>If you follow their facebook (and probably twitter) you will see how they are always having events for resumes, linkedin profiles, mock interviews, etc. My freshman went in to get assistance with finding a summer internship…he felt like they blew him off because he’s only a freshman. He also went to both engineering career fairs which he felt would be helpful once he’s a junior/senior. </p>
<p>Vanderbilt is pretty weak in terms of career services. Brand name companies don’t recruit at Vandy like they do at peer schools. Although people affiliated with Vanderbilt pretend like this is not the case, Vanderbilt is not great in terms of job placement. More alumni and parents should demand better of the school and career services rather than claiming it’s simply a matter of networking.</p>
<p>If you’re looking to work in finance or tech, Vanderbilt does poorly compared to other schools in the top 20 or even 40. The amount of networking you’ll have to do at Vandy to even have a chance to work at a great company is much higher than at peer schools. If the brand name, location, salary, and industry of the company you want to work for doesn’t matter, then Vanderbilt is great.</p>
<p>Anyone who tells you otherwise doesn’t know what they’re talking about or works in the admissions department. Essentially, you can get an OK job, the really good jobs don’t come to Vanderbilt like they do elsewhere which is unfortunate given Vandy’s current talent.</p>