Career Services Office connecting with students

USC Law’s Career Services Office is meeting the new academic year with a revitalized outlook: to continue to respond to students’ career needs while consistently reevaluating its programs and services in order to assist students and graduates as comprehensively as possible.

As part of that effort, the CSO has established for the first time a CSO advisory committee, which will be comprised of CSO administrators and 10 students representing every class. The new committee will meet regularly beginning in October to gauge student needs and concerns and to inform students of the myriad resources available to them through the office.

“Basically we want to facilitate a dialogue between students and our office,” says Dean Melissa Balaban, the director of career services who will also lead the committee. “We want students to tell us about their needs and concerns, while also having a regular forum in which we can inform students about our programs and services.”

For instance, many students have expressed an interest in working at smaller firms, rather than the large law firms typically represented in the annual On-Campus Interviewing (OCI) Program, Balaban says. In response, the CSO is working with other law schools, such as UCLA and Loyola, to reach out to smaller firms and encourage hiring partners to meet with law students.

Additionally, the CSO has revamped its Web site to make it easier to navigate and much more useful for students, graduates and employers. The CSO also has re-energized its schedule of workshops and other career-related events, making them more relevant to students, Balaban says.

“We’re interested in helping students develop the skills to look for jobs — not just while they’re here at USC but in the future as well,” she says. “We want them to leave USC Law with the kinds of skills that they can take with them for life.”