Searching for that first job can be frustrating, unless Uncle Harry is holding open a position for you in his company. Help is available. Start with Winthrop's Center for Career Development and Internships. It has the latest Career Search software and a career library to identify potential employers. It sponsor workshops on how to write résumés and cover letters. It also offers mock interviews to polish your interpersonal skills and individual counseling to handle specific issues. Check the Web site at Center for Career Development and Internships for details.
Talk with your professors, as well. They keep in touch with alumni and might be able to identify contacts in the areas in which you are interested. If nothing else, alumni are often willing to talk with current students about what types of opportunities are available in their fields and how to go about finding them.
Internet sites are also of value. Many sites list available employment opportunities. Do you want to join a firm in telecommunications or transportation or pharmaceuticals? Do a Web search, find an industry trade association that lists the sites of members firms and start browsing. Check out the job listings. What is available? What types of people and skills are the firms seeking? Government agencies, both state and federal, list openings as well. Log onto the Web and search. And don't forget sites that allow students to post their résumés electronically.
Career Services does offer some on-campus interviews, but relatively few of you will be placed through them. Most of you will rely on the old-fashioned approach of sending out résumés and making phone calls.
Above all, be flexible. Graduates who insist on finding a job in a particular location with a particular type of firm are often graduates who sit on the sidelines while their classmates grab the actual openings. Remember you are unlikely to stay in your first job for long. Good performance in a poor job often means the ability to find a much better job in the very near future.
