Career Advice

Free Advice! Early planning with a career counselor will make sure you have the right skills to be the top candidate and increase your chances of getting internships and jobs. Our counselors may help you with:

• Choosing a major/career

• Determining career options within your major

• Suggestions on electives

• What career field fits your personality

• Resumes and cover letter critiques

• Interview preparation

• Job search strategies

• Internship resources

• Graduate/professional school assistance

• Employer research

• And MORE!

Please stop by 1301 Human Services Center or call our office at 217-581-2412 to schedule an appointment with one of our career counselors or, even better, schedule an appointment with a career counselor online via HANDSHAKE! Find a time they are available and book it with a snap! Please note our lateness & no show-policies below.

Login to HANDSHAKE

Log in with your EIU username and password. From your homepage, click on "Career Center", then "Appointments" from the options. Click the blue "Schedule An Appointment" button.  

• Choose an appointment type that best fits your reason for a visit.   

• Select a date from the calendar and appointment times available will appear. 

• Select a counselor (based on appointment type and/or major).  

• Select appointment medium.  

• Add in additional details in comment box that will help us assist you. 

• Click Request. Be sure to check your EIU email account for updates!  

An e-mail reminder will be sent to your EIU email address 24 hours and 1 hour prior to your appointment. Please note our lateness & no show-policies below. Need to cancel or reschedule? You can easily change your appointment via your HANDSHAKE account or call us at 217-581-2412.    

Lateness & No-Show Policies for Individual Advising Appointments: 

When a student fails to show up for a scheduled appointment, it negatively impacts their fellow students' access to appointments with EIU Career Services staff. We have a finite number of appointments available each week and would like to serve as many students as possible. 

It is important to cancel or reschedule your appointment as soon as possible in order to give another student an option for that time. If you are sick, we appreciate your staying home and taking care of yourself. 

Due to the professional nature of EIU Career Services appointments, the following policies will be enforced when you fail to show up for a scheduled appointment.   

No-Shows

A no-show is considered any appointment in which a student fails to attend without calling to cancel prior to the appointment start time, or when the student is more than 10 minutes late without notification. 

Second No-Show

If you no-show for a scheduled appointment with a career counselor asecond time, your ability to schedule appointments will be rescinded until you speak with the Director of Career Services to get your access re-instated.  

No-shows will be reset/cleared at the start of each academic term and will not carry over from year to year.  

Lateness

If a student must be late, he/she must notify Career Services via phone within the 10 minute grace period. If notification has NOT been received within the 10 minute grace period, the appointment will be cancelled and the student must reschedule.

To minimize disruption for other students, if you arrive less than 10 minutes late, your appointment will be reduced by the number of minutes you arrive late.  Appointments cannot be extended and will end at the originally scheduled time.

We understand that as busy students your schedule may change unexpectedly. However, in the case of illness or an emergency, when you schedule a career advising appointment, we expect you to attend.