It is never too late for college students to start deciding and designing what career they want to pursue.

The sooner the better.

With help from the Career Development Center and other resources from Wichita State, every student on campus should be prepared to take on the real world after receiving their diploma.

Kim Kufahl, assistant director of marketing and strategic communication at the center, encourages students to come into the office, located in Brennan III at 17th Street and Yale Avenue, when they begin their college careers.

“As freshmen, we want to get them involved with the Career Development Office right from the start,” Kufahl said. “That way, they have a leg up when getting involved with a career.”

Center representatives want students to sign up and attend its fairs, workshops and other informational sessions.

“We’re going to have a majors and minors fair on Oct. 27 and that’s a great place to either look at majors or add a minor,” Kufahl said. “We also have a series of workshops such as co-operative education, internships and résumés, and ‘ace the interview,’ that will help ease you on the right path.”

Sara Muzzy, director of student academic programs and service, stressed the importance of these workshops for first-year students.

“We have 60 [workshops] offered this semester alone,” Muzzy said. “That’s more than ample opportunities for all students to take advantage of some of those workshops.”

The fairs are geared toward all students, but Kufahl emphasized starting and attending early in your college career.

 “We want freshmen to attend the on-campus career fair,” Kufahl said. “Start going now. Start meeting employers now, that way you can make a good impression when you can meet with an employer every year and they can see you growing professionally.”

Once students enter their second year, the center urges them to become more involved with a specific career plan and specifying what their major will be.

“This is when we really want you to dive in and start looking for co-operative education or internship experience,” Kufahl said. “We also have employer symposiums and it’s also good for sophomores to attend those and start learning about the industry.”

In order to be involved with a student internship or a co-operative education program, students need to activate their “handshake” account.

“What they would do is sign up in handshake,” Muzzy said. “They’d activate their profile and they can

sign up for one of our workshops right then when they activate it. And the actual workshop students need to complete to be a part of co-op’s and internships would be the résumé and co-operative internship workshop.”

Starting their junior year, the center works with student to prepare them for interviews and proper business etiquette.

“Junior year, we’d like you to go to what’s called “Dine/Dress/Interview,” Kufahl said. “It’s at the Wichita Country Club and it will be in February. Everybody dresses in business professional, you get served a fancy four-course meal [and] we teach you how to dine like a professional. Last year we had a waiting list so this year we are doing two nights.”

The center hopes to have developed a relationship with every student entering his or her senior year. For students attending graduate school, there is a Graduate School Fair that seniors can attend Oct. 21.

“We’ll be in the RSC and we’ll have graduate school recruiters from all different schools here talking to students about their plans,” Muzzy said.

No matter what year a student arrives at WSU, the center welcomes new students at any point in their college careers to talk about plans for after graduation.

The center also stresses the importance of having a perfect résumé.

“It doesn’t matter what year you are in college, you should have a collegiate-level résumé,” Muzzy said. “You should constantly be building upon the existing résumé that you have. We encourage students to look at their résumé every six months to see if anything needs to be added or changed. Our peer advisors are résumé experts and we are always here to help.”