Harvard's Office of Career Services finally opens up to the Extension School

The Harvard Extension School's Career and Academic Resource Center (CARC) has scored a few wins for HES students, judging by the contents of an email that was sent out a few days ago:

Office of Career Services at Harvard (OCS)

OCS is now offering a variety of career services to all Harvard Extension School degree and certificate candidates and alumni, such as access to the reading room, University Career Action Network (a database of internship listings), Crimson Compass (a database of Harvard alumni who have volunteered to talk about their career experiences with students and other alumni), and CareerBeam (a comprehensive online career research and resource tool). Visit the OCS website, for more information about the career services, http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/dce-students.htm. ...

In addition, candidates and alumni can meet with Assistant Director Linda Spencer on a referral basis. Individual career counseling services can include Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (a personality assessment tool), resume/cover letter critiques, and mock video interviews. To schedule an appointment, download the OCS Information and Referral form, under CARC forms (available online at http://www.extension.harvard.edu/2007-08/forms/) and fax it to the Undergraduate Degree Office.

I highlight this news about the OCS, because until relatively recently this important FAS office only serviced students from Harvard College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Even though the Extension School also falls under the FAS umbrella, its students were not welcome to take advantages of the many services available there. I sent the OCS an email asking about this policy a few years ago and never even received a reply.

However, I must note that the OCS has not completely opened up to the Extension School community; besides the limited access to Linda Spencer, the CARC email notes "Due to specific funding regulations, OCS is NOT able to offer DCE students on-campus recruiting services."

Still, it's a start.

Incidentally, the CARC email has a lot of information about other HES/DCE workshops and activities that fall outside of the OCS services. You can learn about them on the CARC website.