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February 27, 2007

Don’t Wait Too Long

Career Services has resources for those in need, but students shouldn’t put it off until the very end

Story by: Samantha Nhema

The Shorthorn Staff

The Shorthorn: Lindsey Clark

Counseling and Career Services, located on the second floor of Davis Hall, the first floor of the Business Building and in the University Center, is available to all college students seeking a job, especially students who will graduate within the next two years.

For graduating seniors, the pressure to find a job is especially fierce as school ends and the real world begins.

Enter the Counseling and Career Development Office.

That is the problem on Cheryl Butler’s mind. The office’s associate director said that students too often go through college oblivious to all that the office has to offer. Once graduation looms, or even sometimes after it has come and gone, students find themselves turning to the office for help.

“Many, many students don’t know we’re here,” Butler said. “We are, unfortunately, the best-kept secret on campus, and we don’t want to be.”

Counseling and Career Development has three main offices on campus: on the second floor of Davis Hall, the first floor of the Business Building and in the University Center. Butler said all three locations are equipped with services to help students plan careers and find jobs.

“We hire what we call career ambassadors,” she said. “We have people who can administer assessment inventories to help students decide on majors, and we try and help students find what I like to call best-fit jobs.”

Butler said the office offers tools ranging from informational handouts and books on career placement to an interactive interview exercise allowing students to participate in a simulated interview session with a computer.

The office also offers workshops throughout the semester on résumé writing and interviewing skills, podcasts of various related topics, and on-campus recruiting allowing students to submit résumés and companies to choose students and hold interviews for positions and internships.

Butler said that though it is important for graduating seniors to make use of career services, it is more important to get a head start and begin planning early.

Cliff Garinn, Business Career Services counseling specialist, said students should plan to meet with a career counselor at least one year before their projected graduation date.

“Many companies will tell us, ‘We don’t want people who have just graduated, we want students looking to graduate,’ ” he said. “If you are a junior, I’d say start looking.”

Garinn said many professors have teamed up with the office to urge students to seek help and to make visits with the office a mandatory part of the curriculum.

Marketing junior Kristin Brusco said she visited the office for a résumé critique.

“I heard about it from my professor because it’s part of a project we have to do,” she said. “I think I would have done it eventually, probably closer to graduation.”

The office also offers assistance in finding part-time, nondegreed, off-campus employment for students looking to work while in school.