Peer career coaches provide resume reviews and intro to CareerEd services

Thalia Revilla recalls feeling overwhelmed by all the different types of assistance available when she arrived for her first year at Stanford.

“There are so many resources that you don’t even know where to start,” said Revilla, a sociology major from the Class of 2024.

These sometimes difficult-to-navigate resources include those offered by Stanford Career Education to help students find internships and jobs. Now students have another way to connect with CareerEd and learn about the offerings: seven trained peer career coaches who can provide brief resume reviews and introductions to all of CareerEd’s services. Revilla is one of them.

The “peer” aspect of the program is important, Revilla said: “We’re going through this process together – at the same time that the student is figuring it out, so are we.”

Going through this together

The Peer Career Coach program is part of the Belonging, Access & Career Equity (BACE) team (formerly called Career Catalysts) within CareerEd. The coaches – three frosh, three juniors, and one graduate student – have been working since fall to familiarize themselves with all that CareerEd has to offer, from the Meaningful Work Kit to job-hunting workshops.

Now the coaches are playing an integral role as student ambassadors for CareerEd by increasing access to career-related information for student communities across campus.

“Students want that peer-to-peer connection,” said Jennifer Roxas, interim associate director of Belonging, Access & Career Equity.

Brief resume reviews are one way the Peer Career Coaches are connecting with students. Offered by appointment or on a drop-in basis, the 15- to 20-minute reviews can help a student who has never created a resume get started, for example, or give a quick edit of an already written resume. Students who want more in-depth help can book an appointment with a CareerEd staff member through Handshake.

Help for everyone

Peer Career Coaches will also give presentations to student groups – in residence halls, or at meetings of student organizations – to introduce CareerEd programs, demystify the Handshake job-search platform, and promote the Stanford Alumni Mentoring network.

The goal is for all students – especially those in underserved communities – to understand how they can use CareerEd to help them plan a career path.

“It can be really intimidating, especially for first-generation, low-income students or students of color to come in not knowing where to start,” Revilla said. “I think the Peer Career Coach program is a way of alleviating some of the nervousness and anxiety that comes with being a first-time college student.”