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Alumni Spotlight Success Stories

Damon Stevens

Damon Stevens

How Did the Career Center help you in your path to success?

As a Navy veteran with over 24 years of service, one of my biggest obstacles wasn't adapting to college or transitioning from military to civilian, but instead being able to express my value to a potential employer. The Career Center, specifically Joshua Galea'i, Heather Starr, and Karin Iwasaka were key players in my transition. Joshua was the first Career Counselor I visited. He expertly guided me through my first resume template. We conducted several mock interviews, revealing many areas for improvement. Heather and Karin reviewed and critiqued my resume over 20 times during a 12-month period. Their resume critiques were specifically mentioned during interviews with The Department of Homeland Security, San Diego County Sheriff's Department, Escondido Police Department, ATF, Jewish Family Services, and Enrollment Management Services where I am employed today.

Stephany Gesaman

Stephany Gesaman

How Did the Career Center help you in your path to success?

The Career Center helped me a lot with editing my resume; including formatting, what words to use, and proper headings and titles.  My resume didn’t happen overnight and I’m glad I spent the time taking all the suggestions until there were no more.  Cover letters were pretty foreign to me until Lisa and Mine really explained to me their purpose and helped me to create a winning cover letter.  The Career Center also helped me by hosting job fairs.  I attended every job fair even though they were not all science focused.  It helped me to interact and get more comfortable with recruiters, plus you never know who you could meet.

Tuong Doan

Tuong Doan

How Did the Career Center help you in your path to success?

While putting together my nursing portfolios, I recieved help from the career counselor, Heather Starr.  She gave me thourough advice on how to best write my cover letter and resume, which helped greatly.

Alan Pfleeger

Alan Pfleeger

How Did the Career Center help you in your path to success?

 The CSUSM Career Center played a vital role in my job searching process in Fall 2017. First, they helped me structure my resume to make it more concise, and highlight the most important aspects of my experience. My resume was revised multiple times until it looked the best it could be. Having a structured resume helped a lot when going over it with recruiters. The Career Center also helped me with job interview skills. Career Counselor Heather Starr conducted a mock interview with me with questions regarding the company I was interested in. She provided feedback at the end of the interview which helped me realize what I did well, and what I could improve on. Having the mock interview recorded can help you see your overall performance. Finally, the Career Center helped me take my first professional photos. These photos provided me with a Linkedln profile picture that can help me network with students and other professionals. Overall, the Career Center is an amazing resource to help students improve their job searching opportunities.

Tuong Doan

Meaghan Randig

How Did the Career Center help you in your path to success?

 I have used resources from the Career Center since my freshman year. The Career Center has been most helpful in assisting me with the application process for graduate school, which entails composing a statement of purpose, preparing for the GRE, asking for letters of recommendation and putting together a resume. The Career Center provided many online and print resources in combination with face to face meetings to complete these tasks. Resume workshops were widely encouraged and helpful in getting personalized attention towards my work as well as job fairs, where I could practice interpersonal skills and professionalism.

Ariana Huesias

Ariana Huesias

How Did the Career Center help you in your path to success?

Earlier this year, I met with Heather to go over my personal statement prior to submitting it to San Diego State University. I also had Karin look at my resume a couple of times to make sure it was geared to the program that I was applying to given my experience working in the world of Student Affairs. Overall, the entire Career Center team has significantly helped me with my career pathway whether it was major and career exploration, resume critiques, personal statement reviews, or a genuine greeting as I walked into the office.