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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1985)
10- odern drama for a mass of graduates By PATTI FLINT StaffWriter The time: Altogether too near graduation and a rude awakening into reality. The place: Rudder Tower, 10th floor, Texas A&>M Place ment Center, early in the week. The setting: Chaos among sardine-packed students, some about to be interviewed, some who have just been inter viewed, others conducting mis cellaneous business. On a hot day, sweat prevails. The sentiment: “It actually smells like a high school locker room” — Dillard Stone, grad uate student in business ad ministration and a prospective May graduate. “As far as I’m concerned, the basic purpose of the Placement Center is to allow me to inter view with a large number of firms before I graduate,” says Stone, who is goipg through the Placement Center for the second semester. Is it helping him? “I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t have a job yet.” Stone chalks a big part of his bad luck up to the presidential election in November and also to companies that interviewed May and December graduates, intending only to hire the lat ter. “I think evervbodv was wait ing for the election to see if the economy was going into a re cession,” Stone says. But he asks companies, “Why the hell did you say on your schedule that you were going to see May graduates when you knew damn good and well that you were only hiring December graduates?” Stone seems to think that the biggest problem with the placement center is a lack of space which is obvious on the busy days. John Speed, who will grad uate in May with a degree in civil engineering, also believes space is one of the placement center’s big problems. But not the only one. “If you really want to get a job you don’t go through the Placement Center,” Speed says, “tbe best way is to go through individual companies.” Last semester, Speed had seven interviews through the placement center, but he says only one of them panned out. He has been much more suc cessful on his own. “I’ve gotten probably 50 per cent of the people interested in me that I’ve talked to on my own,” he says. “Companies like go-getters.” He still interviews through the placement center when it’s more practical, as with compa nies that are “too far away to even think about going to see.” He does think the placement center does one thing well. “The placement libraiy is really excellent,” Speed says. “A lot of time I use the placement libraiy to find out about com panies I want to use on my own.” But he complains that they need to provide more schedule books because it can take up to 20 minutes to look through one. Speed says the best way for the placement center to serve students is by having a bigger desk with more workers, so questions can be answered more quickly. “A good thing about the peo ple that work there is once you get to the counter, they bend over backwards for you,” he says. For Liz Carr, an accounting major graduating in May, the placement center has been a positive experience. i“It’s been a good experience as far as interviewing,” Carr says. “It kind of forces you to get your thoughts together; it forces you to get yourself toge ther.” Carr believes the placement center is successful. “I don’t see how they could not be successful,” she says. “It’s not up to them if you get the job or not. It’s your qualifi cations.” She says bidding for inter views makes dealing with the placment center a game. “It just takes a while to get to know where everything is and understand everything,” Carr says. “It’s just like everything else at A6=M: It really takes time to learn the system.” Carr’s only suggestion for the placement center is for them to make individual help more easily attainable. “Even with the orientation that they give you, it’s still not enough,” she says. “They need a little more individual help.” Tracie Holub, who grad uated last December with a de gree in journalism, also com plains that the placement center is understaffed. But as a graduate in liberal arts, Holub also complains that the place ment center didn’t have much to offer her. “Liberal arts interviews are few and far between,” she says. She says the placement cen ter more adequately serves stu dents in more technical ma jors, those who are looking for jobs with oil companies, banks and such. “If you’re interested in those types of jobs, that’s where they are the most helpful,” she says. “That’s where they do the most good.” She suggested that the place ment center make the libraiy more efficient for the liberal arts major and others who aren’t engineering or business. Although Holub got her job as an assistant area manager for Palais Royal through the placement center, she says that liberal arts majors, especially those looking for jobs outside of their majors, are going to have to go out and do some footwork. “You’ve got to go out there and prove yourself,” she says. “You can’t rely on the place ment center to do everything for you. And that’s even for business people. “I don’t think your career search should begin and end with the placement center. It can’t.” ^ By SHAWN BEHLEN '' ..y • • Co-Editor ' ‘ t men? center. Or inplarn English, tell you how the place works. I must ask that : you bear with me, because to be honest, this should set a new standard for the phrase, “the blind leading the blind.” But hey, I know that with patience and tea- mworki^e can cb it. ij ' Mt&t, you have to rergsfer. Go to the mate tell one of those people ? who look like they haven’t sat down for a week what your major is and when you hope to graduate. They will give you a packet chock full of papers to be filled out, ' v&fejiaE:jpust. : |efiirn to the same place,. These papers include a yellow Placement Center Registration Card. On this one goes such stuff as name, phone numbers, addresses, major and the times during each day that you are free to expose your psyche. There’s also a Consent To Release Form that’s pretty easy to fill out. It lets the staff show your stuff to prospective employers — that is what we're here for,you know'. Then you have to fill out a Resume Form/Synopsis Resume — type it, please. This one gets down to business and requires putting four years of college into exactly 73 blanks. Oh, and they want 25 copies. m the majors which they’ll accept, the dates tl description. If you find someone who needs your sendees like College Station needs a place to party, then fill out an Interview Sign-Up Card and drop it in the drop slots (aptlv named, I must say). Use a No. 2 pencil and justify right, filling in preced ing zeros. Not too hard'to do since we’ve all taken thousands of scantron tests, but the big test here is to turn it in before the deadline, which is always the Also, on this card, you have to bid points to increase your chances of getting the interviews you really want. And there is a limit on the number of points you have to work with. Now' this can get a little confusing, so 111 just quote awhile. “For the spring semester, May/August 1885 graduates will have 200 points. De- ; 10l- have 150 points for the spring semester and 250 points during the fall semester. All students receive 400 points during their grad uating rear and no points are carried over from one semester to the next.” What i, you. are nearly emerar The next day, | Placement Center Identification Number — now, you’re official The next Monday, interview schedules will be posted in the lobby. If your It’s time for Placement Center Identification Number is there, then you’re in. Bring out the Dress for Success suit, shine the shoes and dazzle ’em. At Ease washes you luck.'fe