The SF State Career Center held “Get Hired,” a series of career-preparation workshops aimed at increasing students’ awareness in their career preparation, last Thursday, at the Cesar Chavez Student Center.

The workshops were divided into five specific areas and repeated twice a day in the morning and the afternoon. According to Janelle Metz, a Career Center counselor who coordinated the workshops, 42 students attended.

Each session included advice in such areas as writing a good resume, maximizing job search strategies, developing good interview skills and making job fairs work for you.

The most popular sessions were “Rev up Your Resume” and “Employer Resume Critiques,” according to Jack Brewer, director of the Career Center.

“We decided to do all the workshops in one day. It’s like one-stop shopping,” Brewer said. “In the past, we tried different times and locations but the attendance was low, so we’re trying to see what would work for the most number of student schedules.”

He added that the workshop is on an experimental basis to gauge student attendance.

“This is the third semester we’ve done these workshops,” Metz said. “The popularity of the event and students’ awareness of it are definitely growing and we’ve been getting a good response from some of the students today.”

Metz added that the most powerful way to get the students’ attention isn’t posting advertisements on campus, but by word of mouth, from student to student.

“It’s very challenging to get students’ attention, even for a short time,” she said. “Students are very busy with life, work and family.”

According to students who attended the workshops, the presentations were effective in helping them get an idea of how to start job hunting and reducing their anxiety.

“I think it was great, because they presented what information I should put on my resume and how to put it on my resume with different types of styles,” said Yang

Yang, a senior majoring in international business, who attended the “Rev up Your Resume” workshop. She is planning to return to China after graduation to seek a career.

“After I go back to China, I plan to apply to an American company,” Yang said. “The resume writing style that I learned today will be very helpful. I think it was a very constructive workshop.”

Some students, like Mark Rogers, attended the fair to ease concerns about career preparation and finding a job after graduation.

“Overall, it was helpful,” said Rogers, a senior geography major. “It made me feel more comfortable, and helped me get over the anxiety of trying to get a job

Rogers attended the “Maximize Your Job-Search Strategies” workshop and said afterwards that he learned building networks is the most important thing when searching for a job.

“Most students don’t realize how important of a process building networks is,” said Laura Carter, a Career Center counselor and the presenter of the workshop. She emphasized the importance of building experiences in entry-level jobs and internships, in addition to building personal contacts with employers and alumni.

According to Carter, most students depend on the Internet for their job search, but about 80 percent of job discovery comes from personal contacts.

“Students need to know the industry by joining professional associations, going to career fairs, and building networks, as well as getting experience in entry-level positions and internships,” she said. “The job market is better but still very competitive.

“Students can’t be passive. They have to be well-prepared.”

Several Career Center counselors said that the majority of students place their focus on getting out of school, not starting their job search while they are in school.
In addition to current students, alumni also attended the job search workshop.

“It was a pretty informational and helpful workshop, since there are no classes that teach you to how to get prepared for a job search,” said Benjamin Huang, 23, who graduated last semester with a degree in biology.

Huang said he didn’t have time to attend workshops while he was in school and he thought there wasn’t much publicity for it. However, after graduation, he visited the Career Center for assistance in finding employment. Students can use the Career Center’s services for up to six months after graduation, according to James Wong, a Career Center counselor.

Employers like Enterprise Rent-a-Car, KOIT Radio, SRI International, On Assignment and Coca-Cola were on hand at the resume critiquing session.

Jim Lactoen, a regional manager for Coca-Cola, shared his thoughts about what students need to include when preparing their resumes.

“Students need to be able to articulate their experiences in school, as well as their off-campus activities,” he said. “They need to understand what their skills are and connect those to their desired position in the company.”

The Career Center will repeat the workshops on April 26.