Opportunity knocks

As of June 30, the Career Development office officially closed its doors due to budget cuts. For many years, the staff at Career Development helped guide students to their chosen careers and helped them land jobs on and off campus.

What does this mean for new students? Luckily, the reallocation of Career Development’s resources has been a year-long process, and during that time, the university has been making changes to ensure that students will still have access to advice and help for their career goals. One of the biggest changes for career advising is that, for the most part, students will now seek advising at their respective colleges, says Carla Turner, Career Navigator administrator. Also, much of the advice is online for students to access anytime.

All students should know this: www.unr.edu/cn. This is the website for Career Navigator, which is home to the university’s job board for on and off campus jobs. It’s also the place to find information about upcoming career fairs, nation-wide employee searches, volunteering and internships. She says that on any given day, there are roughly 20 to 50 positions posted that are for university eyes only.

To register on the Career Navigator, students should choose the email they will check most often, says Turner. Lastly, when it comes to resumés, your resumé should not be one-size-fits-all.

“The employer wants to see that they’ve actually seen the position, took time to emphasize their skills and, of course, relay [those skills] to the job position.” She notes that from now on, Human Resources will handle the resumé writing workshops, so help will still be available.

Brandis Bernard, academic advisor and coordinator of major and career exploration, likes to emphasize the two E’s and the two W’s: Education and Experience and Who you are and Who you know.

“What I always try to educate people about is that you have to think beyond the college degree,” says Bernard. “The college degree is critically important, but don’t place all of your weight on that. You also need to get experience, and that experience can be volunteering, working, getting involved in clubs and organizations or getting involved in the community.”

As far as who you know, Bernard says students should always ask professors for help and tell others they are interested in a particular field. The more people you know, the more chances you have of getting the job you want. Students could also do “informational interviews” with businesses around town. An informational interview lets students ask businesses questions, or even shadow people, just so they can get an idea if this is the career for them. Sometimes these interviews can lead to internships and maybe jobs.

If you’re still looking for advice, Bernard, who previously worked in Career Development and now works in the Advising Center, says students who are undecided, changing their majors or are general studies majors can still seek advising. (If you’ve decided on a major, seek advising with your college.) The Academic Advising Center and the IGT-Knowledge Center are replete with helpful career print resources.

Above all, regardless if you are unsure or sure about your career, there are certain attributes that will always get certain students noticed, says Bernard. “They come to college, they work hard, they apply themselves and develop behaviors that are going to make them successful in life.”