WGU CAREER & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Frequently Asked Questions
Use the following Frequently Asked Questions to find answers to selected, common career-related topics—all in one place! This resource can make life easier and save you time.
Resumes and Cover Letters
While we are not able to write your application materials for you, we have created resources to help you gain a firm understanding of resume and cover letter best practices. Visit our Resume page to learn about our live resume workshops, view resume templates, and access our resume course. Once you complete the course, you can request a resume review for personalized feedback.
We have many resume templates available to view and download. You can find templates by industry here. For students in the School of Education, we offer templates for both Field Experience and Student Teaching.
Yes. We have a dedicated Cover Letter page to offer guidelines, two samples and even a short, 6-minute video on best practices. You can even submit your Cover Letter for a professional review by our team.
Career Planning
This is a great question, and one that we hear often! That first position in a new industry is often the hardest to secure. We have curated ideas on ways to gain experience to help you meet those minimum qualifications in no time!
The earlier the better! Even if you are not in an active job search, we can support the establishment of a strong career plan to help you reach your goals. Explore all of our services, or contact us to book an appointment with a Career Advisor today!
Our Service Offerings
While we try to accommodate your preferences, and understand the importance of the coaching relationship, we cannot always guarantee that person will be available. Our advisors may be booked out, for example. Be assured that all of our advisors will offer quality service.
Due to capacity, and to ensure we are able to best serve our current students and graduates, we are not able to offer personalized services to family members. They may find our extensive resources on the Career & Professional Development site to be helpful during their job search.
No. If you have a quick question or need immediate guidance, you can call our Drop-In Advisor phone line to leave a voicemail and receive a same-day call back. Our office is open Monday through Friday, 8am to 6pm MST. We also offer Q&A sessions with our Advisors. Check out our Events page for upcoming drop-in Q&A sessions and workshops.
Currently, WGU graduates have lifetime access to Career & Professional Development services.
Our mission is to help with every student’s need for career success! Our advisors are professionals and ready to assist you with unbiased fairness. Just contact us for an appointment.
CPD is not involved with hiring at WGU. You can find current WGU openings HERE. If you have questions regarding your application, please contact recruiting@wgu.edu.
As a WGU student or graduate, you have access to many professional development resources for FREE. It never hurts to keep yourself informed, educated, and up-to-date in your professional realm!
Any of our advisors can assist our veterans with career transitions. We also have a robust set of resources from MOS skills translators to interview preparation to Federal resume tips. You can also book an appointment with a Career Advisor to receive personalized support for your unique job search needs.
We support students and alumni with program application and scholarship letter content to help ensure they align with career-related goals and/or follow any potential prompts. However, we do refer current students to the Writing Center for education and best practices related to grammar and writing mechanics.
Job Search
We have developed some resources and ideas to help WGU students and graduates explore the career paths commonly associated with their respective degrees.
No. Due to federal and accreditation regulations, we are not able to make any claims regarding job placement (or offer job placement programs). We do offer comprehensive career support and resources for both students and graduates to help you reach your career goals. As a student or graduate, you also have access to Handshake, our career management platform, where employers post positions/internships that may be of interest. Additionally, you can work with a Career Advisor for personalized guidance to help support your unique career management and job search needs. Feel free to book an appointment at any time!
We are here to help! As a student or graduate, you have access to WGU Handshake to help connect you with employers. Additionally, we have developed job search resources and personalized career coaching to help you land that dream job!
We have a wonderful service to help with your interview preparation, to help answer those illusive questions, and how to follow up after your interview. There is even a feature to do a mock interview. Big Interview has it all!
More and more individuals are looking for remote work opportunities. We have developed these 6 Tips to Consider in Finding Work-From-Home Opportunities to help you land that ideal position.
A career fair, whether in-person or virtual, is a great way to learn about potential employers and job opportunities, while also building your professional network. Explore our webinar library and listing of upcoming events to access career fair preparation topics to help ensure that you maximize your success.
Handshake
Handshake is a nationally used powerful recruiting platform, enabling employers to connect with talented students and alumni from WGU. WGU Handshake can help you:
- Get Hired – you can explore and discover jobs and internships curated just for you.
- Get Discovered – get messaged by employers that want to hire you. Employers are actively searching students and alumni with over 25K searches per month.
- Get Connected – leverage an engaged community of peers, alumni, and employers to get the career information you are looking for.
Setting up your profile to 100% is the fuel for Handshake’s engine. We have developed a set of steps to help optimize your profile, and help you receive alerts for the most relevant positions.
We have a robust set of job boards for each college, broken down into various areas of study. Handshake is our “go to” platform where employers can post jobs and internships for you to search and even research to help with your career decision making.
Yes, we have a couple of documents to help with your profile and tips to maximize your job/internship searching through Handshake. We even have some awesome videos.
Grads/Alumni
Career management for graduate students is very similar as for current undergrads. Our advisors can help with every aspect of your master’s level career development. We also have tips and next steps for those considering Graduate School.
We have developed a page to help with ordering your transcript, how to explain the grading process if asked about GPA, where other WGU alum have gone for graduate school, and other helpful graduate school resources.
Unlike students at more traditional universities, the majority of WGU students are working when they enroll, making some job placement statistics irrelevant. We do survey our graduates to learn about job placement in their fields, career advancement, salary increases, and overall well-being. You can access current success metrics of our students and alumni in the WGU Annual Report.
LinkedIn Alumni Tool: This section of the WGU page in LinkedIn allows you to search for WGU alumni by major, location, employer, skills, connection level, industry, or any combination of those areas. You can also search by keyword if you have something specific you are looking for.
Networking
We seek out employers that align with our student’s career paths and areas of study. Employers seek us out to post relevant jobs and internships. This relationship lives on our Handshake platform ready for you to explore.
