Opportunities at WMU help students prepare for the job market

Dan Gimmler
Staff Reporter

Sales and business marketing major Adrian Ottens talks with Sherwin-Williams, Inc.

Over 430 employers representing 172 companies came to the Bernhard Center for the largest career fair that executive director of Career and Student Employment Services Lynn Kelly-Albertson said she has ever seen in her 27 years of employment at Western Michigan University.
“I think it’s a really good sign for college graduates,” she said.

The career fair had to expand to a second ballroom in order to accommodate the turnout of employers and a few companies were put on a waiting list because there wasn’t enough room to fit them.

This is encouraging news for job seekers, but students must nevertheless place themselves in the job market, and this isn’t always easy.

In 2010, 76 percent of WMU alumni were either employed or going to grad school six months after their graduation, Kelly-Albertson said referencing a survey. A clear majority of graduates, in other words, have been successful in starting their careers or furthering their education.

Besides helping students find a job after graduation, Career and Student Employment Services has two other goals: to help students learn more about themselves and to help students get experience before they graduate, Kelly-Albertson said.

Kelly-Albertson expressed the importance of the latter multiple times and indicated that it is one of the most important things a student must do if they wish to find a job after graduation.

“You need to start somewhere and it needs to be before you graduate,” she said. “Don’t graduate without some work experience in your field.”

This is necessary for a variety of reasons, not least because employers are looking for applicants who can articulate their skills, she said.

“You want your employers to know why you chose your major,” she said.

In order to gain this knowledge, students must test their skills in a professional setting. Internships help students learn what it would be like to go to work in a certain field, and learn if they have the qualifications, desire or skills to do that work.

“If you haven’t done an internship, you are only guessing,” said Kelly-Albertson. “An employer isn’t going to pay you to test your job skills.”

Internships and job skills are the most important qualities a student seeking employment must have.

“The focus has to be on skills,” Kelly-Albertson said. “Those who can think and who can articulate what their skills are, who can explain to employers why they chose their major, will be most successful in starting a career in their field. If you can articulate your skills, that’s what employers are looking for.”

Students are not left alone to figure all of this out. WMU’s Career and Student Employment Services is there to help them prepare for employment as much as possible, she said. They offer more support and aid than many WMU students are aware. Thursday’s career fair, for example, while the largest of the year, is only one career event of many.

“There’s about a dozen a year,” said Kelly-Albertson. “A lot of them are little and very targeted.”

A small career fair targeted at nursing students takes place in August. Three more career fairs are coming up before the end of April. On March 23, a nonprofit fair is being held for students to find volunteer and internship opportunities, especially those interested in service learning.

The Battle Creek campus will be hosting Aviation Outlook Day on Apr. 6, which will be an opportunity for aviation students to network and to talk to employers about job positions for pilots, mechanics and maintenance, she said. Finally, a career fair for teacher education will take place on Apr. 18.

Juniors and lowerclassmen can attend to look for internships, or just to see what kinds of skills employers are looking for.

Furthermore, the nonprofit fair is a great opportunity for students to start getting experience, she said. All nonprofits are looking for help, and especially for students following less linear career tracks (i.e. majors that don’t train towards work in a specific field). They should by no means, in other words, be overlooked.

For those looking for experience closer to home, student organizations are an easy resource to prepare for the job market. The Public Relations Organization (PRO) is an organization targeted at Public Relations majors, but it’s open to everyone. PRO’s President, Sydney Kearns said they are all about networking. They hire a speaker once a month, who is usually a representative of a PR firm from the Kalamazoo and Midwest area, who gives advice and helps students meet employers.
“We take two annual trips, one to Detroit and one to Chicago,” said Kearns.

These trips are a chance for members to see first hand a work day in the PR business. PRO’s last trip to Detroit had members meet Team Detroit and Marx Layne, two PR firms based in Detroit. In this way, students not only learn the names of PR companies out there, but also get a chance to connect with them, to meet them, and to network with them.

PRO also has a goldbook, in which senior resumes are collected, bound, and sent out to employers.

Students can join organizations at any time, though to get the most out of them it is advisable to join as early as possible, Kelly-Albertson said.

“Ideally we’d love students to see us once a year,” she said. “We work with people once they’ve graduated, too.”

Students who take advantage of their services early can start finding their interests and planning ahead. Career advisors help students find their Values, Interests, Skills and Personality (VISP). Focus, a free online test that can be found on the career services website, is a way for students to assess their VISP on their own.
For a fuller assessment, students can turn to University Counseling Services at Sindecuse to take the Career Guidance Inventory (CGI). For $15, students can take a test, which includes aptitude.

The job market may be looking up, but students must still take the initiative to make themselves marketable. Resources such as Career and Student Employment Services, found on the first floor of Elthsworth Hall, are there to help. Student organizations such as PRO, which includes a membership fee of $40 a year to help pay for trips and speakers, are also resources for students to get experience and learn about the job market.

Students can find out about future events and available services at wmich.edu/career, and information on Western’s student organizations can be found at rso.wmich.edu.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=29645

Posted by njstrehl on Feb 19 2012. Filed under Breaking, Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Nora Strehl