Interviews have begun
Placement
office: job hunt aid
The Texas A&M Career Planning and Placement Center schedules interviews with 780 companies looking for graduates.
By TERRY DURAN
Battalion Staff
The search is on.
The Texas A&M Placement
Center already has begun signing
up students for some 17.000 inter
views with potential employers.
Interviews with the 780 com
panies participating began Sept.
14 and will continue through Nov.
25.
Placement Center Director
Lou Van Pelt and Associate Dire
ctor Ron Winn said Tuesday they
are “understandably pround of
the Aggie job-finding service; 25
percent of all job offers in the five-
state southwestern area — Texas,
Oklahoma, Lousiana, New Mex
ico and Arkansas — go to Texas
A&M students.
Van Pelt also pointed out a
steady increase in interviews since
1973 — when the center moved to
its present location on the 10th
floor of Rudder Tower — from
10.290 to an expected 34,000-plus
for the 1981-82 school year.
He said the Placement Center’s
history can be traced back to 1896
and F.E. Giesecke, who served as
director while working the Texas
A&M College Alumni Associa
tion.
Winn said “just about all” of the
major energy, engineering,
accounting, construction, retail
and agricultural firms interview-
through the placement office.
“We have firms that spend 100
man-days a year interviewing
Aggies,” he said.
One company alone finally
hired a total of 162 Texas A&M
graduates with various degrees,
he said, and another hired over 40
Aggie engineers.
Out of 58,742 engineering de
grees awarded nationally in 1979-
80 school year, 994 (1.69 percent)
were from Texas A&M. and most
of those students got jobs through
the Placement Center — “not an
insignificant slice of the pie,” Van
Pelt said.
Winn said about 65 percent of
1981 graduates used the center to
hud post-graduation employ
ment.
Students can begin their inter
view files by going to the Place
ment Center and filling out a stan
dardized information file includ
ing a resume and a form giving
consent to the center to show the
student’s file to potential em
ployers.
“We do insist,” Winn said, “that
the resumes be typed, so the stu
dent can put his or her best foot
forward with the (prospective)
employer.”
Once a student’s file is started,
the placement enter keeps it and
makes it available to companies
making “paper searches” — look
ing for students with the right
credentials for a job. Then, some
times, the employer will contact
the student, rather than the other
way around.
After establishing a file, the stu
dent brings a copy of his resume
with him to each interview.
Winn said students can register
with the Placement Center up to
three semesters before gradua
tion. He said students can also re
gister for summer job interviews,
w'hich sometimes turn into perma
nent employment after gradua
tion.
Winn said students who already
have signed militan contracts are
not excluded form interviewing,
especially those wTio will only be
on active duty a short time before
going on reserve status.
“They (students on reserve con
tract) should definitely go ahead
and interview,” Winn said. “Some
companies figure the experience
will wind up giving them a better
employee.”
The center has a career library,
where students can find out about
potential employers and prepare
for interviews with specific com
panies.
“It’s really a very simple pro
cess” to use the Placement Cen
ter, Winn said. Since the center is
open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon
day through Friday, he said, “just
about anybody can work their
schedule around to get in to see
us.
“One of the key things," he
said, “is to get everybody who’s
graduating to get up here. If they
have a file started, it greatly en
hances opportunities that they
might not have even known were
there.”
Tenneco Oil offers you a multiple choice
At Tenneco Oil Exploration and Production, we offer graduating seniors a choice of careers.
Our growth and success means a variety of job opportunities with a strong, supportive com
pany who offers high visibility and rewards its performers with excellent benefits. We are look
ing for exceptionally competent individuals to compliment our team of professionals.
WE’LL BE ON CAMPUS
OCTOBER 12,13,14,15,16,1981
INTERVIEWING FOR PETROLEUM AND GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING,
SYSTEMS, GEOLOGY, LAND, TAX, AND ACCOUNTING POSITIONS
TEXAS A&M
Check with The Placement Center to schedule an interview with our representative.
We will also be interviewing on October 16 for Accounting positions
for our Summer Internship Program.
Tenneco Oil
Exploration and Production
We are an equal opportunity employer, m/f.
A Tenneco Company