Career Center prepares students for real world
By ERIN PIROUTEK
Assistant News Editor
As graduation approaches, the seniors hear, "What are you going to do next year?" with increasing frequency.
Notre Dame's Career Center assists seniors and underclassmen with career searches and internships while helping students figure out exactly what life beyond the Dome has to offer them.
The centerpiece of the career center is the new, internet-based, Go IRISH system. Students are able to search Go IRISH for available job listings, then electronically submit résumés and cover letters to prospective employers.
The numbers are impressive. The system has scheduled 10,000 on-campus interviews, said Lee Svete, director of the Career Center. One thousand employers and nearly 500 internships are at students' fingertips 24 hours a day.
"The Go IRISH system helped a lot," said finance major Sandy Jenkins.
The new technology is far from perfect, however.
"Both the employers and students are trying to work the bugs out of the system," said senior Corey Weidner, noting that some students had received interview notifications of both acceptance and rejection from the same company.
Jenkins suggested that classes explaining the system would be beneficial.
"It took me a month to figure it out. I missed a month full of interviews, but once you figure it out, it's pretty easy," said Jenkins.
Svete noted that the center wants to go beyond placing students in jobs to helping students learn which careers best suit them. The name change from Career and Placement to the Career Center last August emphasizes this difference.
"The philosophy is students come first," said Svete. Students can receive assistance without an appointment at the Career Center from 1:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. every weekday.
Svete noted that Flanner Hall is not convenient for many students. Career counselors are now available in LaFortune and O'Shaughnessy for several hours on Mondays.
Other services include mock interviews and résumé workshops and critique.
Notre Dame's quest for leadership extends to the Career Center.
"We want to create a standard so maybe schools can model after us," said career assistant Tim Lau.
Already other institutions are taking notice. Purdue and Florida State will visit this spring.
Despite the Center's efforts, a common perception on campus is that the Career Center caters to business students rather than their arts and letters peers.
Svete acknowledged that the center has a strong reputation for business and engineering careers.
He stressed, however, that the center has been working to increase opportunities for arts and letters students. The centerpiece of their efforts is the March 24 arts and letters career fair. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice, ESPN, John Wiley Publishing, ABC Nightline and Brown and Wood, LLP, are among the companies slated to attend.
"We are intentionally cultivating new contacts for students who might not have thought to use our services," said Svete.
Career counseling for arts and letters majors presents a special challenge, said Lau.
In majors, such as business and engineering, curriculums teach specific skills that prepare students for specific careers. arts and letters majors have a wide variety of options.
"[Arts and letters majors] need to sit down to think and assess what they want," Lau said, listing possibilities such as consulting, communications, human resources, translating and foreign relations.
The Career Center, however, needs the student to make the first effort.
"They must come in to talk to us," said Lau. "We will welcome them and advise them to the best of our ability."
Yet, students have concerns about the quality of advising. Jenkins noted that she had no idea which aspect of finance she should pursue.
"There's really no one to help you narrow down your decision," she said.
For students with clear career goals, though, the system appears to work well.
"I knew exactly what I wanted to do," said Weidner, an accounting major. He explained that he simply submitted his résumé via Go IRISH, was invited for interviews and received several job offers.
Jenkins also had success, although her experience required more individual effort.
"It was definitely a lot of work on my part. The opportunities are there, you just have to know where to find them," she said.
All News Stories for Friday, February 25, 2000
