Students can schedule an individual appointment via our website. We also offer drop-in hours each week for 15-minute consultations. A career counselor can help with:

• identifying marketable skills and areas of interest
• developing a targeted career search strategy
• completing a vocational assessment
• selecting a major
• practicing interview skills.
  

When a student is exploring which major to choose (or to change to), discussing results of one or more career assessments with a career counselor can be helpful. The Career & Co-op Center offers the following assessments free of charge:

SkillScan is a “hands-on” assessment of a student’s strengths and transferable skills, which is helpful in exploring career options. In addition, the assessment helps students describe those strengths as they prepare resumes and cover letters, and in job and internship interviews.

The FOCUS 2 is a self-paced career guidance tool designed to help you select a major, clarify your career goals, and provide you with valuable occupational information.

Professional staff members offer interactive workshops throughout the academic year on a number of career topics, including the following:

• Resume development
• Cover letter writing
• Interview skills
• Job search strategies
• Career fair preparation
• Skill identification
• Networking
• Negotiating

Faculty members often invite Career Advising staff into their classes to present on these topics in the classroom. These presentations provide students with the opportunity to learn about the services offered at the Career & Co-op Center and often include tailored information based on that classroom population’s major, year in school, and needs.

The Career & Co-op Center website provides access to several online career resources to serve our students’ 24/7 information needs. Job search advice and links to many recruiting employers and job search engines are easily found on our site, as are online tools designed to help students fine-tune career goals and research potential occupations. The online resource “What Can I Do With This Major?” can be helpful to those interested in seeing how specific academic majors translate into careers. Additional services are available to students who set up a free UMass Lowell online Handshake account.

The Career & Co-op Center provides several ways for students to connect with employers.

• Career Fairs and Events – Each semester, the Career & Co-op Center hosts job fairs and events to bring students and employers together. Before our Career Fairs, we conduct workshops with students to help them prepare to interact with recruiters and make the most of the experience.
• Job Postings on the Web – Through our online recruiting system, employers make job listings accessible to UMass Lowell students 24 hours a day. Students access these listings through their free online Handshake account.
• Co-ops, Internships and other Career-Related Work Experience – Listings of internship, cooperative education, and pre-professional opportunities for our students are accessible by students through their online Handshake account. Students interested in pursuing internships through The Washington Center (in which they work in any one of dozens of fields in private, public, and non-profit organizations in Washington, DC) can also obtain needed guidance and application materials in the Career & Co-op Center.

UMass Lowell has an online recruiting program, called Handshake, through which employers can post job, internship, and co-op opportunities for viewing specifically by UMass Lowell students. Through this same program, students can apply for posted opportunities by submitting resumes online. The system then allows employers to view submitted resumes and notify those students they’d like to interview. Frequently, these interviews take place on the UMass Lowell campus.

All current students have access to view jobs posted in the Handshake system.