UNL near national average in job placement B\ (I ret then Boehr St.ill Reporter About 50 percent of University of Nebraska-Lincoln seniors do not have jobs right after graduation, said Janel Queen, assistant director of UNL’s Career Planning and Place ment Center. Queen said some seniors wait until after graduation to look for jobs. Other graduates join the Peace Corps, travel or attend graduate school, she said. Larry Routh, director of Career Planning and Placement since Janu ary, said 50 percent of the nation’s college students have jobs by the time they graduate. Routh said the university is close to the national average, but graduates in some majors arc in higher demand than others. Seniors in areas such as actuarial science, engineering, leaching and computer science arc in high demand, he said. “Employers are competing for a limited supply of graduates in these areas,” Routh said. But, he said, any senior who can deal with a variety of people and do a job well will find employment. Queen said more and more organi zations want to recruit UNL stu dents. Corporations like the “Midwest work ethic” they find in UNL gradu ates, she said. Nclvia Agnew, career resource specialist at Career Planning and Placement, said whether seniors gel jobs depends on how well they market themselves. “Looking forajobisa full-time job in itself,” she said. Putting together a sharp resume and researching prospective compa nies arc ways students can get ahead in their job search, she said. Motivation is also a plus, Agnew said. Gail Grossman graduated in De cember 1987 with a degree in adver tising. This April she got a job as a food service sales representative for Land O’Lakcs, Grossman said. Grossman said lack of motivation caused her delay in finding a job. “It was hard to get into looking for something that would last for the rest of my life,” she said. Routh said graduates don’t have problems finding employment, but some graduates have problems find ing the jobs they want in the geo graphic area of their choice. Routh said graduates should be willing to live outside Nebra ska. « Queen said this year 325 organi/.a- j lions came to UNL’s Career Planning , and Placement Center to recruit stu dents. Half of these organizations g were from outside the state, Queen p said. Ej Students should be flexible and |g have more than one job in mind, Queen said. K For example, a psychology gradu- F* ate could work for a human-service Ig organ ization or a large corporation in P| an employee-relations position, she j&j said. Routh said people can find more T than one way to fulfill their career K ambitions. h “There are tens of thousands of job IT titles out there,” he said. Routh said most people find em- g ployment; it just might take awhile to R get the job they want. r “Some people have to work their p way up,” he said. p The Career Planning and Place- ft ment Center in the Nebraska Union K has corporate directories, salary in- W formation and resume critiques avail able to students, Routh said. Job hunting a job in itself tor graduates By David Uczen Staff Reporter Finding a job begins with students looking at themselves and their strengths, and then developing their strengths, abilities and skills, said Larry Routh, director of the Career Planning and Placement Center. The placement center can help all students searching for employment, from freshmen to alumni, from searching for career jobs to finding summer jobs, Routh said. Routh suggests career planning should begin while still a freshman. “Getting a job is a job,” he said. “It takes a fair amount of time, and it’s ■ i nice to be able to spread it over a long period of time.” ‘‘We highly recommend students start looking long before graduation,” Routh said. ‘‘There arc some opportu nities to contact employers and meet employers while you’re still a student that are very hard to duplicate after graduation.” The placement center, Nebraska Union 230, may be an unfamiliar place to many students, said Janet Ehlcrs, an assistant director of the placement center. ‘‘Studentscomehereas seniors and they don’t even know the room ex ists,” Ehlers said. The placement center offers a wide variety of resources to helpstudents in their job search, Ehlers said. Ehlers said if the center lacks the resources, the center can show stu dents where they need to go. Vacancy newsletters, referrals to employers, employer contacts, and on-campus recruiting are some of the resources that students have available to them at the placement center. About 300 to 400 businesses partici pate in on-campus recruiting, Routh said. The placement center offers other ways to help students with their job hunting. “There are many informational kinds of programs that go on all year long, many of them sponsored by this office,” Enlers said. Some of these programs include career days and seminars on inter viewing and job hunting skills. Even though the placement center puts a large number of resources at the reach of students, the students still need to be assertive, intelligent job hunters, Routh said. ‘‘Astudentcan’tjustrelyon vacan cies,” he said. Statistics on graduate placement before and after graduation are not available, said Janel Queen, an assis tant director at the placement center. Queen said the center hopes to have statistics available after this semester. Availability of statistics is a problem with placement centers across the nation, she said. Once students have visited the placement center and used the re sources, they should begin to be con cerned with writing a resume and interviewing. The importance of the resume can depend on the field. But whatever the field, a well organized and thought out resume should be written. Help with resume writing is offered by the placementcenteron Fridays from 2 to 4 p.m. or by appointment. In the teaching field, the resume is See JOB on 3 -”1 I $10 off any purchase of $100 or more! Trash those speakers you’ve had since your thirteenth birthday. Hand down that 1970’s turntable to your younger brother. Don’t pack up your tired, old system. Take home a new one from World Radio. It’s time to update yesterday’s system w e have the latest in electronics at prices that are guaranteed to be the lowest in town. 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