Career Services and the First Year Advising Center (FYAC) collaborated in hosting “Discover Your Path” on Jan. 11. The event featured drop-in advising at FYAC as well as headshots and resume stations at Career Services, while both offered free prizes for students.

The two resources, which are now next to one another in North Foundation Hall, put on the event to help students with either finding their next career and even beginning their professional journey at Oakland University.

Kate Genord, communication coordinator for FYAC, said the event helps those who may not know where they are or how to handle questions.

“Sometimes it’s hard, if students have a question, to go into an office,” Genord said, “so just being out where students are, they’re more likely to ask the question if they have questions. They can just get a quick answer, and we’re more than happy to help.”

Genord said FYAC wants students to know they can come in whenever they need to, as there is no limit to how often they can visit an adviser. She also encourages students to ask lots of questions and utilize the resources available to them, such as the Gender and Sexuality Center, Center for Multicultural Initiatives and the Academic Success Center.

On the Career Services side, they had the aforementioned headshots and resume stations while also offering general career exploration help and a resume workshop.

Career Ambassador Sama Joseph said Career Services wants students to find the environment relaxing — a place where they start their career path.

“It’s a process, and we start them with, ‘let’s sit down and see what jobs you are interested in, and then we can move on to working on the resume and cover letter and then actually applying for the job,’ and then preparing them for interviews,” Joseph said.

In addition to services already mentioned, Joseph said an underutilized part of Career Services would be the mock interviews. In addition to helping students prepare to ace general career interviews, the team can also gear the prep toward medical school and graduate school interviews.

Joseph recommends students start as early as possible in their career journey — whether that mean seeking resume help or finding possible employers.

“We always encourage freshmen [or sophomores] to start coming as early as possible, because it’s always better to have those opportunities early on and build that connection so that once they graduate, they already have that experience and that knowledge and they know more people in that field to make their lives way easier when applying [for] their jobs and their careers,” she said.

Career Services has multiple events coming up in the next month, two of which are in collaboration with Rocket Companies. All these events can be found on Handshake or on the Career Services website.

The first event coming up is an imposter syndrome panel featuring Rocket Companies as well as OU faculty and staff which will take place in the Habitat on Jan. 25 from 12-1:30 p.m. The other event sponsored by Rocket Companies is a networking mixer discussing inclusive workplaces, and it will be held in the Habitat, as well, on Feb. 15 from 4:30-6 p.m.

The other big event Career Services has planned is the Winter Career Fair, which will be held in the Oakland Center banquet rooms and ballrooms on Feb. 8 from 12-3 p.m. The fair will welcome multiple companies and prefers students don professional dress, as well as bringing along resumes.

“We’re encouraging students to go to the career fair and start talking to those employers in person,” Joseph said. “So they could just go and see what’s out there, start talking to employers and show their interest that they want to apply in the future.”

Directly after the fair, there will be on-site interviews from 3-5 p.m.

For anyone interested in becoming a Career Ambassador at Career Services, applications are due Feb. 22 at 8 a.m. with interviews starting in March.