STUDENT ACTIVITIES BUILDING – Halfway through a meeting last week with a campus career counselor, LSA senior Candice Williams came to the startling realization that it might not be the best idea to solicit career advice from someone who could only obtain employment as a career counselor.
According to Williams, she began questioning her decision to come to the Career Center for help as soon as the conversation turned to her counselor’s own senior-year career search.
Williams said, “Yeah, I remember asking for interview advice, and I was wondering if my counselor could tell me about an interview that went really well for her. She just got really pale all of a sudden and completely froze up.
“So I learned not to do that during my job search,” Williams added.
During the course of the conversation, the counselor also revealed that she herself once misspelled her own name on her résumé, is still unsure how to write a cover letter, and even failed to land a position with her mother’s small business.
However, the counselor later explained to reporters that she is well-qualified for the career-advising profession because of her numerous meetings with career advisors during her fruitless senior-year job search. The career advisor explained that she received incredibly helpful counseling from last year’s career advisors, and views it as her duty to pass on that advice to those younger than her.
The sad excuse for a “campus resource” stated, “I remember when I was applying for this career-counseling position, my career advisor told me to incorporate my Spanish minor into my ‘Personal Brand’ as someone who can see beyond the hegemonic aspects of a culture to identify subtle contradictions and solutions. And that I should probably leave my 2.8 concentration GPA off of my resume.
“That’s the kind of stellar advice we can give you here at the Career Center,” the advisor added.
According to Williams, the counseling session ended with her thanking the advisor for the help. Williams explained she does not want to end up working for her father Brandon Williams, the vice president of Belle Tire. Upon hearing this, her counselor excitedly admitted that she was in the process of applying for a job with the corporation and asked Williams if she could “put in a good word” for her.
Sources from within the Career Center, meanwhile, explained with a touch of sadness that they are once again losing their best counselors to real career opportunities but optimistically noted that they have yet another strong class of unhirable seniors coming in to take their place.
Originally published: April 2013
