Career Center Still Providing Support Online

April 07, 2020 Leslie M. Levy, Staff Writer, Sonoma State Star Newspaper

With restaurants and retail outlets closed during the COVID-19 quarantine, many students may be out of a job for a while. Some students are wondering where next month’s rent is going to come from or how they are going to find a job back home for the rest of the semester. 

While graduating seniors might not get to walk the stage this year, they don’t need to be afraid of what comes after they obtain their degree. The Career Center at Sonoma State University is ready and waiting to help. 

The on-site office is closed along with the majority of campus, but the Career Center is still up and running online. Students can attend the Career Center Meeting Room for drop-in services any time Mon.-Thurs. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. via Zoom. 

Students can find help learning to use Zoom at sonomastate.zoom.us. Seawolves can not only access existing meetings for classes and resources like the Career Center Meeting Room, but they can also host meetings through SSU’s Zoom access point with their Seawolf login information. 

For students that would prefer a one-to-one appointment with an advisor, they can schedule one through LoboConnect or by emailing careercenter@sonoma.edu. 

Additionally, the spring job fair is still being held with 40+ employers in attendance. Due to the shelter-in-place mandate, the event has just become Virtual Career Week, and will be held online May 6, 7 and 8. Stay tuned to the STAR for upcoming details!

Drop-in services online, just like in person, are limited to 20 minutes and are allocated on a first-come first-serve basis, while appointments can last up to a full hour. Quick questions about next steps can be easily covered in a drop-in meeting, but students with more complicated questions or who need help formulating a more extensive plan will be best served by scheduling a full appointment. 

Students who have been laid off from their current jobs due to the COVID-19 quarantine can get help finding new income sources through Handshake. Students struggling to find their individual direction can begin with the self assessment services available through Focus2Career. If they complete the assessment, they should bring that information to their advisory meeting.

The best place to access the Career Center’s online services, like Handshake or Focus2Career, is by navigating directly to their homepage at career.sonoma.edu. 

The career advisors have a very different role from academic advisors. The academic advisors on the student success website focus on helping you navigate to graduation, not on what needs to happen after. They are not necessarily helpful for job-hunters or soon-to-be postgraduates looking to get their new career launched after they receive their degree this spring. Students looking for jobs should speak to the people who can tell them things like: when to take the LSAT or other tests needed to get into graduate school, if those tests are currently being offered online, what jobs are still available in their field during the current pandemic, and if they should consider changing majors based upon the current job market trends. Those are questions for career advisors, not academic advisors.

Audra Gray Verrier is the Coordinator of the Career Center, and she specializes in working with graduate students, nontraditional students, and alumni. Verrier especially enjoys working with students that are first-generation college students, low-income students, or older students. 

Verrier said she is drawn to help “...those who feel like they don’t quite fit in a box to create a life and livelihood of meaning and purpose.” She doesn’t just want to see students get a job. “I look forward to helping you not just build a career, but go after your BIG dreams!”

Kelsey Bensky, a specialist in career exploration and the career development process, is most passionate about helping students figure out what they actually want to do. This may have been inspired by her background in working with both nonprofit and corporate sectors. She soon discovered her gift for counseling people undergoing the major life transition of launching a career. 

“Not knowing what you want to do for the rest of your life is more common than you might think, and I am excited to be helping SSU students build the knowledge, tools and resources to help answer that question--or at least begin to,” she said. Kelsey specializes in working with undeclared students, as well as those in science and technology, business and economics, and social sciences.

Eliza Fletes, the Student Lead for the Career Center and Biology major, enjoys working at the Career Center because, as a first-generation Latina college student, she knows support and encouragement during each individual’s journey can help them thrive as they move forward. Fletes said, “I would say that it is never too early--or too late--to begin thinking about what your next step is or about what comes after graduation.”