SIPA: School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University

Career Advising and Coaching

SIPA’s Office of Career Services (OCS) offers numerous ways to assist students with their job search and professional networking, some of which are in the form of personalized appointments tailored to your specific career questions.  Students can set up one-on-one appointments with either an OCS Career Adviser or a SIPA Career Coach. The following are brief descriptions of both positions to help you figure out with whom you should meet at this point in time:

OCS career advisers provide students with career advice, job search strategy help, resume and cover letter reviews, and general career information.  OCS career advisers also conduct MBTI assessments and mock interviews for students as well as encourage professional communication and personality skills.

To make an appointment with an OCS career adviser, please click here.

SIPA career coaches offer guidance to current students who are contemplating various career choices or seeking information about particular fields of interest. The SIPA career coaches are not recruiters; thus, students should not ask them for jobs.  However, they may ask for industry-specific information, current trends in the field, advice about entry into a particular field, and other guidance questions related to their job search. Thus, the SIPA Career Coaching (SIPACC) program was created to serve as a supplement to OCS services. The SIPA Career Coaching (SIPACC) program is a pilot program that will be launched in September 2011. It will only be available to current students for an experimental six-month period.