Senior countdown to graduation

03/06/2007

By Beth Feine, Assistant Director of Career Services

It might be hard to believe, but CSB and SJU seniors are now counting down the eight weeks until graduation. It’s always interesting to see where our students will take their newly minted bachelors’ degrees. From any given class about 20 percent of graduates choose to continue their educations in graduate or professional schools. Approximately 10 percent of students decide to work with organizations as a full-time volunteer (i.e. Peace Corps, Americorps, teaching English abroad). The largest group of graduating seniors, about 70 percent, enter the workforce.

March is the time when most application deadlines have passed for graduate and volunteer programs. In fact, the majority of students will hear in the next few weeks whether or not they have been accepted to the graduate school or volunteer organization of their choice. For seniors who plan to work after graduation, however, there are not many clear cut timelines for when to begin the job search.

What Career Counselors on both campuses have noticed this year is a significant group of seniors who have already accepted full time positions for after graduation. There is also a large group who are currently fielding job offers and are in the process of making acceptance decisions. Employers have definitely been more visible to students this year, with a record number of organizations coming to campus to recruit and conduct interviews. Students have also been taking advantage of the numerous job and career fairs made available to them throughout the year. Two weeks ago the Minnesota Private College Job Fair was attended by 250 CSB and SJU seniors, where they had to opportunity to connect with 196 employers from the public, private, non-profit, and government sectors. Other fairs this year have included the Science and Environmental Career Fair, Nursing Fair, Education Fair, Government Fair, and Non-Profit/Public Service Fair.

If your student is just beginning his or her job search, emphasize the importance of meeting with a Career Counselor in the next week or two. With only two months remaining until graduation, seniors can benefit greatly from working with a Career Counselor to design a personalized job search strategy. Career Services provides a plethora of job search resources to students. Some of these resources are beneficial to all students regardless of the field they intend to enter (resume and correspondence writing, interviewing skills, professional appearance, etc.) while others are meant for students with specific interests and goals (i.e. locating positions in Minnesota non-profits, or curatorial position in Seattle). Remind your student that Career Services is here to help conduct an informed, efficient, and effective job search.