Students hope that their study skills will give them the right job skills needed after graduation. But a visit to the Toppel Career Center could make all the difference.
Although the University of Miami had a career placement program before the Toppel Career Center, it wasn’t until its opening in the fall of 1995 that students were able to access more resources for internships, graduate school and job opportunities.
Ranked No. 18 on The Princeton Review’s list of best Career/Job Placement Services the Toppel Career Center is located at the Whitten University Center, just off of Stanford Circle.
The center serves University of Miami undergraduate and graduate students as well as alumni.
Alumni can always receive assistance, but after one year alumni must pay fees for certain services such as one on one advising.
The center also works with The Department of Residence Halls to provide students with two Academic and Career Advisors in residence to help students with career planning and academic guidance.
The doors of the Toppel Career Center are open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The center offers many tools that can help guide students and focus their interests. While there, students can have their resumes critiqued, do mock interviews and prepare for graduate school.
Each year the Toppel Career Center assists students trying to achieve their professional goals. They generally critique about 4,000 resumes, see nearly 2,000 students for individual advising, and conduct more than 100 mock interviews with students annually.
Still, their messages haven’t reached everyone.
“I have no idea [what the Toppel Career Center] is, no clue, I just see it on banners sometimes,” said Clyde Voce, a junior studying musical theater.
Voce says that there’s never been a need for him to visit the center, but Smart says they can help students studying any major.
“For students studying theater, they may be good at auditioning, but might need help with interviewing.that’s what we would be able to help them with,” says Smart.
In addition to assisting UM students and alumni with job preparation they also give them the opportunity to network and interview with different companies.
This month the center has arranged for companies such as Disney, Microsoft and Nestle to come in and recruit prospective employees.
The center also works to connect Toppel’s clients with organizations with its various job fairs. Their most recent career fair had representatives from about 200 companies.
Sophomore, Justin Williams said, “I had to go out to the career fair and it really helped out being prepared for my interview.I probably would’ve been a little bit unsure of what to do without it.”
Allison Worrell may be contacted at a.worrell@umiami.edu.