| AUCareerWeb: One-stop shopping for job seekers BY MIKE UNGER Landing a job or internship can be a major challenge for any student regardless of the economic climate. Even the most qualified applicants face stiff opposition for a limited number of positions. But AU students have a secret weapon at their disposal, one officials in the Career Center hope won’t be secret for long: AUCareerWeb. The system provides students and alumni with virtual one-stop shopping in the quest to find the perfect job—or any job at all. Since it debuted last summer, 2,600 AU students have created profiles, which can allow employers to view their résumés and contact them. Users can receive e-mail notifications when jobs they’re interested in become available, and when employers they’d like to work for visit campus. All students and alumni can create a profile for free, and Career Center officials are anxious for all of them to do so. “Students who don’t have a profile are missing out,” said Jennifer Sullivan, acting director of outreach and marketing for the Career Center. “It makes the whole process much more efficient for students and employers.” Companies are able to search student résumés based on whatever criteria they’d like, including major, GPA, and expected graduation date. In turn, students can be notified anytime a job opens with criteria they’re looking for, say, less than two years experience required, for example. “You can filter almost anything you want any way,” said Colin Lambert, systems coordinator for the Career Center. AUCareerWeb allows the university to more aggressively court employers, by offering them more direct access to the specific type of prospective employee they’re looking for. But none of that can happen if students—and alumni— don’t create profiles, a process that entails entering some personal information and posting a résumé. “Before [students] upload a résumé and start applying for jobs, they need to come in and have their résumé critiqued,” Sullivan said. “There’s no room for error in this process.” Although the job market is active year round, it does heat up in the spring as seniors prepare to graduate. The Career Center is holding a job fair March 24, a networking reception featuring School of Communication alumni on Thursday, and another for School of Public Affairs alumni on March 29. All students are invited to each event. AUCareerWeb is a “component” of the job search, Sullivan said. Job seekers also should be visiting Web sites such as USAJobs.com and Monster.com, networking, conducting informational interviews, and developing lists of contacts. “And students should be going to class and doing their homework too,” Sullivan said. It’s a lengthy laundry list, to be sure, but when you consider that a few minutes spent filling out an AUCareerWeb profile could result in the break of a lifetime, it seems a small price to pay. About 23 percent of AU undergraduates and graduate students have profiles in the system, a figure Sullivan would like to see jump to 30 to 40 percent by May. Faculty and staff are encouraged to explore AUCareerWeb. Contact the Career Center and they’ll give you a username and password to navigate through the system. |
