As Eastern Michigan University Fall 2011 Commencement steadily approaches, the competitive job market weighs on the minds of students, graduates and alumni.

Luckily, Barbara Jones, senior corporate relations manager for the University Advising and Career Development Center, wants students to know there is help, even after a student has graduated.

“We’re like a diamond people haven’t noticed,” Jones said. “Everywhere we go to do presentations, we tell the students to come see us and learn what we offer because a lot of the events we do happen only once a year and if you miss it, you miss it.”

Such events include the College of Business Conference for seniors in the College of Business and the Michigan Collegiate Job Fair held twice a year for graduating seniors and alumni at the Burton Manor in Livonia—an event more than 100 hiring companies attend. Such events bring awareness of what work is available outside of campus.

“My colleagues are recruiting employers, talking and meeting with them about permanent positions and unfinished projects or assignments a student could help with,” UACDC senior career coach Lorraine McKnight said.

“They’re cultivating internships within companies and all the majors while also encouraging them to come to campus and interview students for internships and permanent positions. We’re encouraging these students through emails, workshops, seminars and getting them into our online job posting system, Eagle Careers (http://eaglecareers.experience.com).”

The UACDC formed a year and a half ago when Academic Advising and Career Services were merged. The center has become the go-to place on campus for all things career planning. Since the merger, McKnight said the UACDC has been able to assist students in distinctive ways.

“With that merger, our offices can do something really unique,” McKnight said. “Our academic advising side can help students from selecting their classes to helping them devise a plan of classes to take until they declare their major.

“On the career side, we help those same students figure out what direction they’re going in terms of their majors. If they already have a major, we explain what kind of careers can they have and how much money they can make, as well as helping them with interview skills and resumes. With this competitive market, it’s not just your resume that has to be polished.”

The UACDC also looks to find good personality and career fits for each student. For example, a writer is far more likely to thrive in a career geared toward writing than public speaking.

“Our staff works with students, freshmen through alumni, in terms of career planning and helps them look at career paths they might want to explore based on their natural preferences,” Jones said. “What the career relations manager team also does is work primarily with students toward the end of their career, such as juniors and seniors, by helping them with interview workshops and resume critiques.”

Regardless of which side of the action the staff of the UACDC assists in, they all share a passion for helping students with their professional future. The staff lives this passion every day when they meet with a student one-on-one or presenting to a class.

“The advisers and the professional staff in our office have picked this career because we want to be helping students,” Jones said. “I taught an education class last week and the students are now emailing me their resumes. I got an email from a student who was not on the class list, and in reading her email, she said she had been referred by another student in the class.

“Word does spread, but it’s frustrating for us because we do so much to advertise. We hit every Fast Track session, we’re out in classes giving presentations and we send emails out to students.”

For a student about to graduate or even just starting out, the UACDC is a powerful tool for career planning. In a competitive job market, having these skills could be the difference between never hearing back from a potential employer and being called in for a second interview.

“The job market has grown very competitive and to be ready and focused for that market, you need to meet with an advisor,” McKnight said. “From the beginning, even if they’re not certain about their major or the jobs they can get in that major, those are the things we’ll help them work on. By the time they’re ready to do an internship or find a permanent position, when someone asks them ‘tell me about yourself,’ they’ll know how to effectively answer that question. Those are some of the challenges people don’t make it past. Sometimes they don’t know why but we can definitely help with that.”

The UACDC can be contacted at 734-487-0400, and the website can be accessed at http://www.emich.edu/uacdc/.

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