BY BARBARA JEAN GRAVLEE

Yikes! Graduation is here already and you need to find a job. What seemed like a minor hiccup on your march to success a semester ago, now looms like a mountain range on the horizon. Where do you start?

You need a strategy––i.e. a marketing plan. Yes, finding a job is selling yourself but in a good way. You need to convince an employer that you are the solution to his or her hiring need. Your résumé is your primary sales document.

A national recruiter speaking to students on campus said he reads 500 résumés a month, spending 10 seconds on each one. What four items does he look at in those 10 seconds? First, he looks to see if the applicant’s objective ties to his company’s need. Next, he looks at experience and education for the applicant’s qualifications. Then, he looks at “employability” skills––like leadership, teamwork and interpersonal skills. Finally, he looks at GPA and technical qualifications.

Rick Sayers, associate director at the Career Resource Center and a former recruiter, sums up the recruiter’s first goal as “finding a reason to throw your résumé away.” That first look is critical.

To streamline your résumé, Sayers recommends attending one of CRC’s résumé preparation workshops or leaving your résumé at CRC’s student service counter to be critiqued and ready for you to pick up in two working days.

If you haven’t guessed by now, CRC should be your home away from home during your search for the perfect job. The center is located on the first floor of the J. Wayne Reitz Union, opposite the colonnade entrance. Check out their web site at http://www.crc.ufl.edu/ for a clue to the resources available to you. Or stop by the center and pick up a current copy of the Gator Career Guide, which explains the center’s offerings in greater detail. While you’re there, visit the CRC library and pick up a handful of career information handouts as you check out the rows of career and company directories.

Even though most of the center’s resources are designed to be self-directed, individual career counseling and advising is available by appointment. In addition, professional staff members are on call at various times during the week to see students who have immediate needs.

Sayers, one of CRC’s on-call counselors, says engineering students have the easiest time interviewing because their qualifications and the employers’ needs are clearly defined. Liberal arts and sciences students have a bigger challenge interviewing because their degree could apply to many different positions. While 3,000 of the 9,000 students in the engineering and business colleges are registered with CRC, only 600 of the 20,000 liberal arts and sciences students are in the CRC system.

“The group that has the hardest time selling itself uses the center the least,” Sayers says.

Sign up for Gator Recruitment Activities Database at the center’s computer lab. A one-time fee of $35 puts your résumé and background information into the database for on-campus interviewing and résumé referral to interested employers. You can also use one of the web terminals in the CRC library to get into JOBTRAK, an online employment agency used by more than 300,000 employers nationwide.

CRC’s Career Connections Program may be one of its most valuable but least well-known resources. Providing instant networking, this program puts you in touch with University of Florida alumni in your career area who have agreed to take calls from students and to give them whatever advice or information they can. Isn’t it great to be a Gator?

CRC hosts nine career days during the academic year, including the career expos held in September and January each year. On-campus interviews are scheduled throughout each semester beginning immediately after Career Expo. Last fall, CRC added a Virtual Career Fair for computer science majors, making use of the center’s two videoconference systems.

CRC can also help with choosing a major or career and finding an internship or co-op experience. So, no matter where you are in the process, you won’t come away empty-handed from CRC.

JOB SKILLS WORKSHOPS:
Cover Letters and Other Correspondence
Résumé Preparation
Interview Techniques
Dress for Success
The Ultimate Job Search
Job Search for International Students
Preparing for Career Expo
Internet Job Search
 

SPRING CAREER DAYS:
Spring Co-op & Intern Fair: Jan. 28, 1998
Spring 1998 Career Expo: Jan. 29, 1998
Agriculture and Natural Resources Day: Feb. 12, 1998
Nursing & Health-Related Career Day: Feb. 26, 1998
Education Recruitment Day: April 16, 1998

SITE-SEEING TIPS:

JOBTRAK http://www.jobtrak.com
CareerPath http://www.careerpath.com
Monster Board http://www.monster.com
CareerMosaic http://www.cweb.com
Job Information Center http://www.wwww.tvpress.com/vpjic.html
America's Job Bank http://www.ajb.dnl.us
Online Career Center http://www.occ.com
JobWeb http://www.jobweb.com 
JobBankUSA http://www.jobbankusa.com