Four Ways to Prepare for a Greene Center Appointment

hands on a laptopGreat news, you have an upcoming appointment with a Greene Center advisor! You’ve taken a smart step in jump starting your career. Perhaps you scheduled an appointment to talk about classes, or you want to plan out your summer or you want to discuss graduate school. Either way, it’s important to be as prepared as you can for your appointment. When you do your homework, the advisors can better assist you, and you can get the most out of your visit. Over the course of the year I have been able to have many appointments with different advisors in the center. Below are my 4 tips when preparing for a Greene center appointment.

1. Show up on time

This is key so that you can maximize the time you have with the advisor. 30 minutes go by so quickly, so every minute counts. In person, I usually like to arrive about 5-7 minutes before my appointment. This also gives you enough time to check in to your appointment, get situated and start on time! Online, I don’t have to check in, but I still like to arrive a few minutes early to make sure my camera, microphone, and Wi-Fi are all good to go.

2. Know what you want to discuss

I can’t stress how important it is to know what it is you want to discuss with the advisor. I usually think about why I even want an appointment before I set it up. Having a purpose will help keep the meeting on track. You don’t need to know exactly what you want to discuss, but even a general idea can help you have a great conversation!

3. Know which career community you want to get advice from

When scheduling an appointment, you’re asked to pick an appointment type. The appointment type narrows down specify community advisors from specific career communities. These advisors have significant experience in advising within this field. For example, if you’re looking to prepare for a consulting interview, you’d want to select  an advisor from the Consulting, Finance, Operations and Sales career community. If you’re just looking around and you’re not sure what you want to do, the Exploratory career community is a great one to get you started. Be sure to check out the different career communities here!

4. Don’t try to do too much in 30 minutes

In addition to appointment type, you’re also asked to pick a category. These help narrow the focus of the appointment. For example, if you want to know more about careers in a certain industry, but also want to explore options for the summer, I would recommend breaking them up into two appointments. That way, you won’t feel rushed to accomplish too much during those 30 minutes, and instead can delve into those topics, and get comprehensive advice from the advisors. You’re always welcome to come back anytime you would like!

By Mawada Elmahgoub
Mawada Elmahgoub