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Page 3 • Wednesday, November 10, 1999
Job-seekers say
et the hunt begi
^Graduating students have many resources to help them find emplovmem
\ H BY SUZANNE BRAEBECK ine Scholars proerai
help them find employment
l DELI!
The Battalion
Ithough graduation looms near for some seniors
and is around the corner for thousands of other
undergraduates anxious to be former students,
Be prospect of pounding the pavement for a job sounds
less inviting than college life.
I Finding a career is intimidating for some people, but
there are many campus resources available to aid exit-
iijiS students.
Mary Ann Raatz, assistant to the dean in the Dwight E.
Dok College of Engineering and director of the Engineer
gers, Photo Editor
Hynecek, Graphics
i/lcDaniel, Opinion B
Bennett, City Editor
t. Snooks. Campus
Brown. Web Editor
hitacre, Radio Prodi
’ Beato, Bradley Atchison,
ims, Amanda Smiers,
Jisalvo.
Assistant: Mark McPherson;!
luna, Eric Andraos.JP Beato t
rs - Ruben Deluna.EricAm
: Beau Hanson.
S; Kasie Byers, Christina
er, Jamie Morris, Noni SridMi 1
npf.
ssistant: April Young; Jason
ernandez, Whitney Stover,
rer, Noni Sridhara & Amaniii
iistant: Brandon Payton.
KLi Ashley Loaring-Clark,U» ( |
lunoz.
ity in the Division of Student
ihone: 845-3313; Fax: 845-264?;
e Battalion. For campus, local, ard
115 Reed McDonald, and office li#
ick up a single copy of The Battato 1
semester and $17.50 foithesumn*
ill and spring semesters and Monll» ,
irsity. Periodicals Postage Paid at t#?;
lasA&MUniversi^MegeStado^
ROBERT HYNECEK/T nr: Battalion
ing Scholars program, said there are three tips to obtaining
a good job.
“One — make as good of grades as possible; two —
participate in a co-op or internship program; and three
— your resume should show good leadership skills;
such as officer positions in one or two clubs,” she said.
Karen Rupp, a career-services coordinator in the
Lowry-Mays College of Business, said companies now
expect students to have co-op or internship experience.
“[Interning] is a good way to test-drive your career and
obtain work experience,” she said.
Rupp said for some students who approach gradua
tion with a less-than-desirable grade-point ratio, emer
gency tactics may be needed.
Rupp said students should not take
just one approach to their job search.
“Students should use the career ser
vice, which is an excellent resource, but
they should also use their personal and
Aggie networks,” Rupp said. “We also
have directories available that have all
of the companies listed that are regis
tered with the Career Center. ”
Raatz interviewing well is very im
portant, especially for students with
grades on either end of the spectrum.
For those students with low grades, it
can take attention away from a poor
academic record; for students with ex
tremely high grades, it shows they can
work well with people.
“You need to have a very good in
terview,” Raatz said. “You need to
know a lot about the company you are
interviewing with. You should know
the statistics of the company, the num
ber of offices they have and where they
are, how the company is set up and the
hierarchy system the company uses. ”
Raatz said once a student locates a
job, he or she should then research the
company to determine how compatible
employer and employee.
“If you have a lot of job offers,
then do your homework on how the
company treats its employees five to
10 years down the road,” Raatz said. “You should look
at not just your initial salary, but how often and how
much raises are and if you get new assignments or stuck
in a position.”
Nancy Alvarez, a senior sociology major, said while
there are many networking and educational opportuni
ties for students, some seniors find time a critical element
lacking in their schedules.
“The hardest thing about looking for a job is that it is
a very time-consuming process,” Alvarez said. “I don’t
have a large amount of time to conduct a job search.”
Rupp said students should plan on spending 10 hours
a week job-searching, although there will be peak times.
“Students will need to spend extra time before their
interviews to research their prospective companies,”
Rupp said.
Alvarez said balancing academics, social lives and job
searches can prove to be a challenge but are all integral
to having a good senior year.
“I have registered at the Career Center and have
started telling friends back home that I am graduating
soon,” Alvarez said. “It’s expected that you will have a
job when you graduate to prove that your time at A&M
was worth something.”
Students who are low on time can use the comfort of
their home to jump start their search.
Rupp said the Career Center Website (http://aggien-
et.tamu.edu/cctr/) has links to Websites that have job
postings from former students. Club Websites are based
out of cities, such as the Dallas Club or Houston Clubs.
For those students who act late and need to conduct their
own job searches, the Career Center hosts independent job-
search workshops.
“However, registering with the Career Center every se
mester during the first week of classes can be very benefi
cial,” Rupp said. “Last year close to 31,000 interviews were
conducted on campus.”
Rupp said the Career Center also has started a new pro
gram called the Career Service Coordinators, which provides
specific services to students in academic colleges. Each col
lege has its own coordinator with a bachelor’s degree or ex
perience in that particular college’s job market.
Rupp said this gives students more individualized and
firsthand knowledge from people familiar with their fields.
Desktop
B Jgj My Computer
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CD-Rom(D:)
Zip Drive (E)
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Si G Public
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3 G Private
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Network Neighborhood
Recycle Bin
F ree is good. If it’s something
you can actually use. Which
means that XtDrive’s all good.
X:Drive is the first Internet hard
drive on the desktop. Difference is,
you can access X:Drive anywhere,
anytime. (A major breakthrough for schoolwork. And R&R.)
Let’s say you’re doing a group grope. Think how much
easier things’ll go when everyone has access to the same
files, projects and presentations. No matter where they are on
campus. (Or the planet.) It’s perfect for individual projects, too.
Like term papers, essays, and resumes—even if you share a
computer. ‘Cause yourX:Drive files are password-protected.
More good news. X:Drive gives you 25MB of space free.
(That’s about the same as the 17 virus-infected floppies you
won’t have to schlep around anymore.) Which brings us to
another nifty feature. X:Drive lets you grab MP3s, video,
groovy pix from the Web in seconds while you keep surfing.
So, go to www.xdrive.com and lock
and load. X:Drive’s a real bar
gain. In fact, it’s the best
freebie on the Web.
www.xdrjve.com
——-