Career services and counseling at Kansas University don’t stop with a walk down the Hill.

In fact, for a small fee, KU alumni can take advantage of most of the same career services that current students use. But even without paying a fee, there is a lot of advice waiting for graduates who are looking for their next job.

“As students approach graduation, we make it very clear, if you do not have a job we will help you in that process. Our resources extend beyond graduation, we’re happy to help alumni. We want to help,” said Jennifer Jordan, director of career services for the School of Business. “We’re never going to turn away an alum that is seeking our services.”

Nationally, more and more universities are discovering that alumni are interested in help finding jobs. Many have found that offering these services keeps graduates involved with campus. The schools hope that those with a better experience will be more likely to give back to their university, especially by making donations.

Jordan said a few dozen alumni each year take advantage of career fairs, workshops, resume critiques and networking events, and even get advice from counselors in the school’s career center. A smaller group of alumni, maybe five or six a year, pay a fee to register with the school’s online career connections service. The online site lists available jobs and provides other services for those hunting a job.

If these alumni get a job because of their interaction with the school, it is hoped they’ll give back to the school either by letting it know of future job openings at their firms, Jordan said, or in some other way, such as making a financial donation.

“Any time anyone has a positive KU or School of Business experience, it’s a positive experience for the school,” Jordan said. “It’s a win-win, from my point of view.”

Jill Hummels, a spokeswoman for KU’s School of Engineering, said that career advising is more focused on current students and recent grads, but they often are involved informally with alumni seeking jobs or – more often – seeking employees.

“I was contacted in the past six weeks by an alumni who was hoping to try and reach fellow alumni,” Hummels said. “He wanted to let them know there were job offerings at his firm.”

In addition to business and engineering, the School of Journalism has its own in-house career services center. The journalism school maintains a list of jobs that would be appropriate for journalists who have been out of school for some time.

Most of the rest of the university relies on the support of the University Career Center, where director David Gaston said as many as 150 to 200 alumni are registered with the center’s online system, at an annual cost of $40.

“If we get a call from an alum, we try to help them any way we can,” Gaston said. “But there is only so much we can do. The primary reason is we’re here to serve students currently attending KU or who have recently graduated.”

For those alumni who need more services than can be provided by the online system, Gaston said, in-person appointments are available. He said the center typically charges $50 to $75 an hour for those.

“But that’s still a lot less than a private career consultant would charge. That could be anywhere from $500 and up for a consultation,” he said.

Gaston said he’d like to offer more services to alumni, but he’s limited by his primary mission of serving students.

“Based on surveys I’ve seen, alums would love additional career services,” Gaston said. “I’d love to provide more. But it’s a question of using the resources I have.”