{"id":24011,"date":"2010-11-03T14:11:08","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T18:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=24011"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:42:27","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:42:27","slug":"the-path-to-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/11\/the-path-to-employment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Path to Employment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Career<\/a>
Career Counselor Dennis M. Rouelle talks over a resume with Steve Miske, a senior history and political science major, at the Department of Career Services. Photo by Jessica Tommaselli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two long-time counselors in the Department of Career Services<\/a> sat down with UConn Today<\/em> last month <\/em>to discuss how students are faring in today\u2019s troubled economy.<\/p>\n

Larry Druckenbrod, assistant director of counseling services, has been at UConn for nearly 18 years. He has a master\u2019s degree in counseling.<\/p>\n

Laura Evangelista Newbury, an assistant director and manager of employer relations, has been at UConn for 11 years. She holds bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in psychology and, prior to her UConn experience, worked in industry in human resource management.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 How\u2019s the job market?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 There are still plenty of opportunities for students. I think what has changed in this economy, though, is the length of time it takes for students to procure employment. The process has also changed. Where traditionally students had used technology like HuskyCareerLink<\/a>, our online job posting system, or Monster.com to find opportunities, now they have to use different tactics like networking and interviewing people. Really using social media to make those connections. In the past, when things were a little bit more affluent, when the market was better, they didn\u2019t have to go that far into their tool bag to find opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Laura<\/a>
Laura Evangelista Newbury, assistant director and manager of employer relations. Photo provided by the Department of Career Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 Have we had other down cycles this steep?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> <\/strong>\u2013 There was one in the early 1990s. The economy wasn\u2019t great, but it wasn\u2019t as depressed as it is now.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 What about the recession in the early 2000s?<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 There has been nothing like this. This particular period just doesn\u2019t compare to anything we\u2019ve experienced. I can only benchmark this experience. I feel it, I see it. I just don\u2019t recall the others as being much of a blip. This one we\u2019ll remember, absolutely.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 Has it been picking up at all lately?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 We still have companies coming to campus. The career fair on Oct. 16 was at full capacity with a short waiting list. We have on-campus interviewing opportunities this fall that are fairly steady. We are seeing things slowly turn.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 What are the best majors right now to get a job?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 We don\u2019t generally do forecasting because it\u2019s too simple a perspective. Four years ago everybody said health care professions were great. Everybody wanted to become a nurse. Now we\u2019re finding that nursing jobs aren\u2019t as easy to get. There are so many seasoned nurses who aren\u2019t retiring but are working per diem, so students are struggling to find employment in that field.<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 Five years ago health care was booming. Baby boomers were nearing retirement. It looked like a solid choice at that time.<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 Before that it was engineering. There were plenty of opportunities in engineering, especially in computer science technology. Our philosophy in this office is to focus on education. We want to assist students who are figuring out a course of study that will be fulfilling and then link that to the world of work so they have the education, the self knowledge, and the experiential education to be well informed consumers when they finish their degree, so they will make good decisions in the job search.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Larry<\/a>
Larry Druckenbrod, assistant director of counseling services. Photo provided by the Department of Career Services<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 We initiated a career development program, EXPLORE, in the spring of 2000 that specifically targets sophomores going into their junior year. It helps them with some of those initial questions and, toward the end, prepares them for the job search.<\/p>\n

Recognizing that we have such a large population with career development needs as opposed to placement, we revamped the EXPLORE program and are rolling out a new version next spring. We\u2019re going to market this version to second semester freshmen. We\u2019re going to target students who are undecided on their major or unclear about a career, so by the end of their third semester we will have taken them through, perhaps, 24 hours of discovery programs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be doing workshops focused on their interests or values or skills. They\u2019ll be able to write a r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and understand the importance of that document. We really push r\u00e9sum\u00e9 writing because it\u2019s playing out what their college experience is going to look like. We\u2019re trying to focus more on students looking at career development kinds of issues. If we can get at those issues and resolve some of those things, they can make the most of their college experience.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 As the economy has fallen, have you been seeing more students?<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 That\u2019s a really complicated question. I would say \u2013 and this is anecdotal \u2013 that I think the numbers actually have gone down some, especially for the juniors and seniors. And I think one of the reasons for that is because students who are juniors and seniors have been experiencing\u00a0this economy for three years. They\u2019re coming in with the idea that there are no jobs, so they don\u2019t have to worry about career services. They say they\u2019re just going to enroll in graduate school, or they\u2019re just taking a year off to travel, or they\u2019re going to do community service.<\/p>\n

A lot of them are talking that way now. They\u2019re going to join the Peace Corps<\/a>, they\u2019re joining Americorps<\/a>, and they\u2019re going to give back. So we\u2019re seeing freshmen and sophomores as a result of our First Year Experience<\/a> interventions. We see more freshmen and sophomores than juniors and seniors, which is the opposite of what we saw five, six years ago.<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 This is occurring nationwide, and some counselors think it\u2019s because many students have parents and family members who had worked in their professions for many many years and have now been downsized. And if their mother or father who has \u201cX\u201d amount of years of professional experience can\u2019t get a job, what is the entry level college student going to do? There\u2019s a lot of despondency. I\u2019ve seen a rise in anxiety. We partner very closely with counseling services, because we\u2019ve seen a lot of students with high anxiety that we haven\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 Do you know how many students are getting jobs or internships?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 We do a survey for internship placement. That\u2019s interesting because when we see a shift away from the job search, we see an increase in other services such as graduate school guidance, transitional year guidance. So I think the traffic has remained steady. It\u2019s just the topic that has changed.<\/p>\n

Internships are absolutely valuable. We have two staff dedicated to driving home the importance of that. They offer workshops. We have an internship clearing house. HuskyCareerLink<\/a> posts available internships. The internship clearing house focuses on those bigger, larger programs that wouldn\u2019t necessarily post on individual schools\u2019 job posting websites, places like The Smithsonian, Walt Disney.<\/p>\n

We also really want to push experiential education, because it helps students develop skills. Even opportunities where they decide \u2018this isn\u2019t for me\u2019 are still a learning experience that gets them closer to what is the right place. Students will tell us \u2018I thought I liked this but it isn\u2019t for me and I wasted my time.\u2019 We disagree, and talk about what they didn\u2019t like, because that\u2019s going to give them some clarity. And once they have that epiphany, it\u2019s a really powerful moment.<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 Candidates with internship experience are considerably more likely to receive job offers than those who don\u2019t, and graduates with internships will receive a significantly larger starting salary \u2013 $7,000 more \u2013 than those without one. It\u2019s well documented. We have 300 internships listed on our website just in HuskyCareerLink. Then on internship.uconn.edu<\/a> there are thousands more.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 What about ‘green’ jobs?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 I think that many students come here and they want to have the \u2018make a difference\u2019 career \u2013 affecting the world in a positive way. So it\u2019s Peace Corps, it\u2019s Teach for America<\/a>, the green jobs, saving the environment. We have a lot of students very much into environmental issues on campus and they want to carry that over into their professional vocation.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 Is it better for students to take any job rather than stay unemployed waiting for that dream job?<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 Absolutely. A new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers<\/a> (NACE) just came out and there\u2019s a stat that says 40 percent of seniors who took a job offer said it was not the job they were looking for. But they understand, and we tell them as well, that it\u2019s easier to find a job if you already have a job. It\u2019s easier to tell an employer you\u2019ve been developing skills, you\u2019ve been developing business acumen. It\u2019s OK to say \u2018I\u2019ve been traveling in Tibet for a year,\u2019 but you’d better be able to say what you\u2019ve learned from that and you’d better have been doing something during that time, because even in a bad economy employers want to see somebody who has been motivated.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 You hear so much about English majors or archaeology majors, and where can they ever get a job?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 The answer is everywhere and anyplace. In liberal arts there is no linear path. Some jobs are traditionally associated with each of those majors but there is such a wealth of transferable skills a student gets as a liberal arts major, they can apply that education and those skills to virtually any occupation, and that\u2019s scary to students. They want to know \u2018if I go to school and major in this, I will be that.\u2019 I try to encourage them, liberal arts is wonderful because it\u2019s an adventure. You\u2019re not limiting yourself. The world really is your oyster. And you can change your plan anywhere along your career. You may have to go back for training or a graduate degree, but it\u2019s such a strong foundation.<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 College is more than four years of attending class. It\u2019s being involved, joining groups, and getting an internship. If you have that package you can talk more lucidly about contributions you can make, what skills you can draw on, how you have taken hold of the opportunities presented to you. Involvement is really important.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 How much time do you spend with the students?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 It varies. We have 15 minute walk-ins daily. Come in and see any of us. Through that we triage. What does the student need? Is it a quick question \u2013 r\u00e9sum\u00e9 or guidance? \u2013 or is it something in more depth, such as choosing a major and figuring out how that fits into the world of work. That may be an hour. And it could take a series of one hour meetings. As long as it takes.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 What can parents do to help?<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 The first thing that comes up is to support their child\u2019s choices. I think parents can simply support what their child\u2019s interests are and let them make their own decisions. That\u2019s the number one thing I\u2019d say to them. To put pressure where you think there\u2019s going to be a job when you graduate because it happens to be at the top of the latest list … it\u2019s just not the way to go through college.<\/p>\n

Q<\/strong> \u2013 How about alumni? Can you help them?<\/p>\n

Newbury<\/strong> \u2013 We do. Right now, graduates three years out and under can receive all of our services.<\/p>\n

Druckenbrod<\/strong> \u2013 For the most part we deal with an 18 to 22 year-old population. We help them pick a major, learn about careers. So [for alumni] we try to gather resources that focus on adults in transition. Those resources are on our website and we make that information available.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll meet with them and we\u2019ll let them know what we can do for them, what resources are available. Any alum can use our online job system. Alumni can go to our events, go to our career fairs. If it\u2019s long-term counseling, that\u2019s an area where we just cannot provide service. But information we have. And many times that\u2019s all they need. They say \u2018Can I apply for jobs on your website?\u2019 Yes, they can.<\/p>\n

Laura<\/strong> \u2013 The Husky Alumni Network<\/a> is invaluable. About 500 alumni have self-selected to support outreach to undergrads and fellow alumni. So we also tell undergraduates and graduates to look at Husky Alumni Network, to see if somebody in a different geographic area or profession has anything available. Also, we have many active alumni chapters. So if somebody is relocating to California or Michigan or wherever, they may find some help. When people ask how they can break into the job market, the first thing we say is check Husky Alumni Network, check HuskyCareerLink, and check for an alumni chapter. They would love to have you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a tough economy, Career Services provides innovative ways to tap the job market.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[37],"class_list":["post-24011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-20 06:21:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24011"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37454,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24011\/revisions\/37454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24011"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=24011"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=24011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}