Current Rochester students, is the career service center good? Bad?

Hey everybody,
I just got my acceptance from U of R yesterday and was comparing it to my other colleges I was accepted at and found that someone had said that the Career Service center wasn’t great. Is this true?
Thanks

I don’t have a direct answer but I have a few comments. First, finding a job after you graduate is a process that begins with your major and the professors you know and the things you do, from research or projects at school to internships. I’ve known a bunch of UR graduates and they all found jobs through this process. Second, lots of places talk about their advising, but IMHO that’s mostly to appeal to anxious parents and kids because the reality is they help those they help and don’t help those they don’t help. In other words, it can be great but it may not work for you and that is probably true at every school, whether they market their advising services or not, and there’s no way to know if you’re one of those they help or not until that happens. (And I mistrust places that market advising as a big deal because, truth is, it’s you who gets the job with your resume and your skills.) UR prepares you well.

As examples, my kid got her job because of research she did at UR - one paper is already published in a top journal with her listed as an author and another is coming. Another interned for 3 straight years at a top tech company. I can’t speak for all majors, but the tech and science people have all found good jobs in good companies.

And finally, 4 years is a long time. You shouldn’t worry about career services yet.

Four years ago a Career services person told D her degree made her unemployable (math!!!). First and last time she went there. And, miraculously, without their lack of help she found employment!!!

Math? Really? That’s about the most employable thing in the world right now. I know a math major from UR who immediately got a job in a big data firm.

EXACTLY, Lergnom, it took her a nanosecond to decide this “career counselor” knew nothing and was useless.

@MADad that’s a very disconcerting story. My daughter has been accepted as a math major. And while we all really like the school, I don’t have a positive impression of career services. I went to undergrad and grad schools with exceptional career services. I know what a difference that can make. I don’t understand why a school like Rochester wouldn’t value that.

VMT, that was one counselor, who was an elderly gentlemen, but certainly a poor reflection on the entire office. Leaving career services in tears because you’ve been made to feel you wasted your college years in beyond unacceptable! Luckily she didn’t believe him and is doing very well right now!

For career assistance, my guy is only a junior, so too young to know and on top of that he’s heading toward med school, so it should never be an issue.

For undergrad deals, he’s been quite pleased with the guidance he’s received on creating/revising his resume and applying for internships.

I’m not sure if that helps the OP with their thoughts, but it’s what I can pass on.

@MADad‌ Did your daughter eventually get help or was she more or less on her own in her job search?

VMT–

She ended up going to graduate school, then entered the work force. Did all the legwork herself. May have gotten a little bit of resume help from career services, but that was pretty much it.

I’d say the reality is you’re on your own anywhere. As I noted above, some schools like to play up their advising but it’s just advising, not doing. They’ll help with resumes and letters and the like. They’ll help with “skills” for interviews and all that. But they can’t get you a job and I think it’s highly misleading for schools to hype their advising with the implication that gets kids jobs.

Actually, having been a student at two other schools with excellent career services (one a large state school and one a small engineering school), and also having been a recruiter at one of these schools, I would have to respectfully disagree with you Lergmom. I got my first job because of the many opportunities I had to submit my resume and interview with several large corporations when they visited campus. Years later as a grad student, I was aware of opportunities at smaller start-ups, and landed a job with one of those, too. So, in these two cases anyway, I would absolute attribute the ease with which I found great positions to the outstanding career centers. Yes, I had to write the resume, I had to do the work as a student, I had to interview. But, the availability of opportunities was a big part of my success. So, my question above is through this lens.

I apologize. I don’t mean companies visiting schools, nor job fairs. I don’t connect those with advising. Maybe I should but I don’t because the companies that come to places and the availability of employment job fairs varies so much by location and the state of the economy and the particular area in which you are looking for a job. Do companies come to UR? Sure. In fact, my daughter’s UR graduate boyfriend, who works for a tech behemoth, goes to UR to recruit.

Hi @kcirtap35‌ - I am a current junior studying economics and looking for a career in politics/business, and I absolutely love the school. I have friends graduating with jobs at JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, EY, Apple, LinkedIn, Microsoft, GE, etc. or attending grad school at NYU Law, Georgetown Law, Carnegie Melon (CompSci PhD), Cal Tech (Engineering PhD), Stanford (Engineering MA), and much more.

That being said, while our career center is great at getting your resume up to par and helping you with interview prep, the employer connections are a bit lacking. The good news is that the UofR is putting the career center at the TOP PRIORITY for the next decade. They got rid of the previous director, and put A LOT of money into finding a replacement - I’ve heard the new guy they are bringing in is GREAT. I believe wholeheartedly that the career services here are on the way up, so now would be a great time for you to be here and be a part of that change. And it’s already getting better - in my 3 years here, we’ve gotten on the target recruiting list at EY, Morgan Stanley Public Finance, a few branches at JP Morgan, and much more.

Overall, the UofR reputation in the job world is that we are smart, hard working students with a humble attitude. There are some entry-level jobs in the world (top 3 management consulting, IB) where 95% of recruits come out of HYPSM/Elite Lib Arts, and those firm will be hard for a UofR kid to crack into right out of undergrad. Anywhere else, you’ll find a UofR grad there. And you know what - almost everyone I know comes back from their summer internship and says “there was an ivy league kid in my intern class, and my firm liked me more.”

feel free to dm me and I can talk to you about your specific industry and what the outlook is like there

We don’t have another school to compare to but my son did his resume with the Career services and it was very well done and they really helped him. I personally spoke to one of the assist directors about suggestions for my son for summer internships and she was a wealth of information specifically how to use linked in to one’s advantage.

The thing you have to remember, which is no fault of a school, is that the majority of leads for internships and new jobs come from local businesses. So the UR career link has many jobs for places surrounding Rochester. If you want a job in Boston or NYC, there is not going to be so much which is not a fault of the school, any school.

The other thing which I didn’t appreciate when he looked for colleges is the Alumni network. UR is a small school where many graduates go on to do research. The Alumni network has many New Yorkers so getting the help from Alumni to get a job in another city will be less than a school in the city you want to settle in.

The UR career services has many sessions and seminars to help students so it is really up to you to take advantage of them. Take a look http://www.rochester.edu/careercenter/

I know that a tech giant is sending a few people to the hackathon at UR this weekend. In terms of jobs, I know a buch of UR recent grads who are working at a variety of jobs in NYC. I think people worry about this too much. As I’ve noted, if you know you want to live in Idaho, go to school in Idaho or very near there. Otherwise, life doesn’t break down to this school but not that one. Life is up to you and to the larger vagaries of the economy.