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Thursday, Nov 7, 2024

CSO the gateway to your dream job?

Author: Denizhan Duran

Ah, the dream job. With a bit of luck, it will bring you the "new car, caviar, four star day dream," or so Roger Waters of Pink Floyd claims in their hit song, "Money". But as countless seniors have discovered after graduation, dream jobs don't just fall from the sky.

It is that time of year again - as seniors are starting their job searches in earnest, the light at the end of the four-year tunnel seems to grow brighter every day. Naturally, Adirondack House, home to the Career Services Office, is swarming with activity. The CSO's 10-person staff caters to the needs of these seniors while at the same time organizing career exploration events for underclassmen. On a visit one day last week, it was not hard to notice the hectic air inside, as juniors and seniors frequented the building.

Senior Associate Director Don Kjelleren, explained the CSO's role. The CSO, he said, is "a lifetime experience." Students can start going to the CSO as a first-year, and there are different activities targeted for every class level. It does not place students in a career, but rather gives them the chance to explore a range of careers and lets them decide which one to pursue.

The CSO encompasses many different aspects of career search under the "Senior Program", like Resumania, Get the Job You Want Workshop, and on- and off-campus recruiting events. The office also organizes a week of events that focus on a specific career field, bringing recruiters like Teach For America and Google to campus and setting up alumni advice panels to help applicants with their job hunts.

In addition, alumni are a great help to students in the job search outside of the career weeks. CSO maintains a database of alumni contact information on its Web site, which help job seekers get in touch with alums who work for companies that they are interested in.

"Around 50 to 100 alumni come back every semester to talk with students," Kjelleren said. "We're not trying to overwhelm students by availing this many activities, but trying to present something for everyone."

The CSO staff includes six career counselors who are available to talk to students on a one-on-one basis, but many seniors prefer to use online resources.

Rachel Lincoln '08 said that she logs in to MOJO, CSO's flagship online job search resource, almost every day.

"I did go in during senior week to have them go over my resume, and that was pretty helpful," Lincoln said, "but other than that, I mostly just use MOJO."

Why is it so hard to decide between careers? The answer lies in the education students receive at Middlebury. A liberal arts education bestows many transferable skills, but not many content skills. A Middlebury graduate is able to write, research, think critically and communicate effectively due to his education, and thus there are many opportunities, but it is very hard to choose which one will be the most suitable. Most content skills are easy to gain with an education from an employer, which is why many Middlebury graduates choose a career path which is unrelated with their major, and basic transferable skills can be used to succeed in many careers.

"Approximately one-third of our seniors get jobs before they graduate," said Kjelleren, "but keep in mind that not all of them are actively looking for jobs in their senior year."

Nearly half of Middlebury students are actively looking for jobs in their senior year, and 75 percent of graduates go to graduate school in the five years after their graduation, according to CSO data. Many international students take sponsorships, and a majority of them have a job in the fall of their senior year. The most popular career choice is not in the finance industry, but communications and media. Education follows, and finance and banking are also in the top 10 of fields graduates enter into.

The process of searching a career seems hard, but Kjelleren gave four aspects of what he called the informed decision making process - personality, interest, skills and values. If students focus on these four areas, Kjelleren explained, the process can be much easier.

Additional reporting by Thomas Brant.


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