It’s somebody’s Birth­day! Career Ser­vices is hav­ing its cen­ten­nial cel­e­bra­tion this year, and you’re invited to the party.

The office, founded as the “Self-Help Bureau” in 1912, has passed through some sig­nif­i­cant changes over the last cen­tury, but one thing has remained the same—its com­mit­ment to stu­dents. Through­out the years the office has served stu­dents and alumni in a feat that has helped land stu­dents in hun­dreds of thou­sands of jobs. Today, Career Ser­vices is a staff of 16 full-time pro­fes­sion­als plus stu­dent work­ers and vol­un­teers. Together they are respon­si­ble for putting on an infor­ma­tional event nearly every day, around five job or intern­ship fairs yearly, meet­ing with around 50 stu­dents a day, reach­ing out to hun­dreds of com­pa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions, orga­niz­ing the hustle-bustle of job and intern­ship inter­views through­out fall and spring, and much, much more.

Today more than ever, Career Ser­vices thrives to have a close rela­tion­ship with the stu­dents it serves. Whether it’s meet­ing with stu­dents for coun­sel­ing ses­sions, hear­ing feed­back on events, engag­ing with stu­dents of all classes, or pub­lish­ing stu­dent reports on Princetern­ships, Career Ser­vices has taken recent strides to incor­po­rate stu­dent voices. In recent years, Career Ser­vices has been bring­ing stu­dents into the office—this time behind the desk. Stu­dent work­ers greet you at the front and make sure the office’s busy sched­ule runs smoothly. Stu­dent interns help take care of com­mu­ni­ca­tions and graphic design for fly­ers and pro­mo­tions. Career Peer Advi­sors help under­class­men with the job search and help plan and run infor­ma­tional events in res­i­den­tial col­leges. Stu­dent vol­un­teers lend a hand at major events as well. And blog­gers (like me) research and report the lat­est buzz in Career News.

“Stu­dent feed­back and input is essen­tial for Career Ser­vices so that we can effec­tively tai­lor our events to meet their career needs,” said Eva Kubu, Man­ager of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Out­reach at Career Services.

On a per­sonal note, work­ing at Career Ser­vices has pro­vided me the unique oppor­tu­nity to com­mu­ni­cate between the office and my peers. I can cer­tainly vouch for the resources that Career Ser­vices offers, but most often I find myself per­suad­ing my friends to go see a career counselor–“So and so is really great with this par­tic­u­lar field–and she’s a great per­son, too!” It’s reward­ing to know that my work is help­ing keep my friends and class­mates informed and up-to-date on the many pro­fes­sional oppor­tu­ni­ties that await them. It’s espe­cially inspir­ing to me as I watch friends come in for inter­views in Career Ser­vices, find their dream intern­ships, head toward ful­fill­ing, mean­ing­ful jobs, or go to a great grad school after grad­u­a­tion. I just think, all their hard work paid off–if they can do it, the rest of us can, too!

Come cel­e­brate Career Ser­vices’ birth­day by tak­ing advan­tage of sev­eral impor­tant com­mem­o­ra­tive events this year.

Alumni Con­nec­tions Stu­dent Net­work­ing Event
6 p.m. March 4, 2013, at Prospect House.
All stu­dents are invited to reg­is­ter for a chance to speak with over 40 alumni across many dif­fer­ent industries.

Sum­mer Intern­ship and Non­profit Career Fairs
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fri­day, Feb. 15, 2013, at Dil­lon Gym
Come learn about the many job and intern­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able to you—and speak directly to employers.

Upcom­ing: A recep­tion is planned for April, in which Career Ser­vices will host alumni par­tic­i­pants in the “Princetern­ship” pro­gram. In addi­tion to hon­or­ing the Class of 2013 as the 100th grad­u­at­ing class that Career Ser­vices has assisted, the office will host an open house for alumni dur­ing reunions.

Still curi­ous about Career Ser­vices his­tory at Prince­ton? Check out this super cool info­graphic as well as the Uni­ver­sity home­page arti­cle to learn some rather sur­pris­ing anec­dotes from your university’s job search his­tory! And most of all—keep that stu­dent feed­back com­ing in! You can e-mail me at .