Below you will find some of the most common questions we receive from students. If you don't see what you are looking for, feel free to ask your career coach.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions and answers
If you are a current University Division student looking for career exploration guidance and experiential learning opportunities, come see us at the CDC.
If you are not a student in University Division, you may see us during drop-in hours Monday-Friday from 12pm-2pm. Or, you can visit your career coach in your school. The contact information for all other career centers is here.
There isn't a limit to the number of times you can meet with your career coach. They are here to help you with your career exploration efforts until you are certified into your new academic unit and move on to specialized career services.
When you visit the CDC, your career advisor will work with you to:
- Pinpoint your values, interests, skills, and personality with today’s best self-assessment tools, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and the Strong Interest Inventory®
- Select a major that’s right for you
- Explore all of your career options
- Write a powerful resume and cover letter
- Give a memorable interview
- Find marketable experience early in your academic career
- Get a head start on living the life you’ve always wanted
Definitely! Every student is going to handle the transition to college differently; however, research supports student academic success when working a modest number of hours (8-12 hours/week), especially if that job is on campus.
Keep in mind that you will need to practice good time management habits, with your academics as a top priority. Any job can help you develop marketable skills.
We encourage that you:
- Look for jobs that might align with future career goals whenever possible.
- Visit your career coach for help with your part-time job search.
The Career Development Center works with students while they are in University Division, and you will have one assigned career coach during this time. After you are admitted or certify into a school you will work with the career coaches associated with that specialized career services office.
The important thing is to come with an open mind, ready to take the next steps towards your future. If you don’t know where to start we can help you - wherever you are. Here are some things you might consider doing ahead of time to help prepare yourself for our appointment:
Things to think about…
- What are your interests (academic/career or otherwise)?
- What causes do you care about?
- What kinds of experiences have you already had and how did you feel about them?
- What do you do well and like to spend your time doing?
Things to do…
- Explore the CDC’s resources to learn about your values, interests, personality, and skills.
- Narrow down your list of majors using UD’s Explore Tool
- Look at our career communities to research career paths
There are two ways to approach changing your major. If you know exactly what you want your new major to be, simply let your academic advisor know of this change and ask them about the process for certifying into that school/major.
If you are at a crossroads and would like to meet with a career coach in the CDC, please use this form to sign up for the Crossroads Career Coaching Program.
Absolutely! Your career coach can walk you through all the services available in your student Handshake account including: scheduling appointments, applying for part-time jobs, and uploading a resume. You can also stop by drop-in hours at the CDC, to meet with a career peer who can walk you through your account set-up and navigation.
Our drop-in coaching is staffed by undergraduate career peers and appointments are staffed by our professional staff. Drop-in appointments last 15-20 minutes whereas pre-scheduled appointments can be anywhere from 30-60 minutes.
We approach our drop-in coaching as an initial survey, allowing our career peers to assess your most urgent needs and provide a suggested course of action. Pre-scheduled appointments allow for an in-depth review of questions, ways to go about exploring/building experience, and preparing for the future.
This could be happening due to a number of reasons:
- The system will not allow you to schedule an appointment within 24 hours of the requested meeting time.
- Make sure the hours of availability are set within normal business hours, 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday.
- Feel free to check the boxes next to any of the coaches assigned to your account. All these individuals are fully trained to assist with your appointment.
If you still don’t see any open times, email your career coach directly or email iucareer@indiana.edu.
We recommend you begin your search at our Student Employment website. For more comprehensive help, consider scheduling to meet with your career coach.