What is an Initial Client Contact Officer (ICCO)?

ueacareersmarketing

Nov 30

I'm Lucy, and I have been in my role as an Initial Client Contact Officer (ICCO) since 2013. There are a team of us ICCOs – me, Lydia, Jenny, Alice and Tasha and our role is a blend of front facing work, where we're communicating with students, and lots of behind-the-scenes administrative duties.

When you contact CareerCentral, odds are that you will first speak to one of us friendly ICCOs. We are available to speak to in person at the CareerCentral Welcome Desk on the ground floor of the library; we also look after the busy main CareerCentral email inbox, and we are available on the live chat service on the MyCareerCentral website.

Although a large chunk of our role revolves around arranging meetings with our Careers Advisers for students and graduates, we are much more than just appointment bookers! The customer service aspect of our role is very diagnostic, and through conversations with our service visitors we figure out just what type of support they would most benefit from. Everyone's career journey is different, and we offer guidance to everyone, no matter what stage they are at. From those who have no idea what they want to do, to individuals who are at the last stages of interviews or already in a career they are thinking of changing, we are here to help students and graduates navigate their options and understand the routes and destinations that are right for them.

There are lots of aspects of the Careers service and ICCOs will refer visitors to our different teams or colleagues depending on what they need. We also offer a huge range of guidance and support through the abundance of resources we have on our website, MyCareerCentral. We love demonstrating the MyCareerCentral website to students and opening their eyes to the wealth of wonderful information there. For example, did you know that you can access a range of psychometric tests for free via the UEA Graduates First page?: University of East Anglia - Graduates First. Or that we have an interview simulator to help you prepare for the real thing?

In all the years I have been in the role I have seen CareerCentral go through many changes. When I first started, our signature colour was orange and careers resources mainly came in paper leaflet form. We've also moved buildings a few times and we've adopted increasingly more advanced appointment booking systems and resource platforms. We have evolved our services and adapted greatly over the pandemic, offering online appointments and introducing the live chat function on our homepage. Through all this, though, the heart of what we do as ICCOs, and as a service in general, has remained constant; supporting you to make progress with your career journey, no matter where you are with it!

You can book appointments here to get help from CareerCentral no matter what stage you're at in your career journey.

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