Angie Blair

State Hornet

It is all about who you know. That is what most people say aboutlanding a great job right out of college. Being a student atSacramento State, you could have more connections than you think.In fact there is an entire office on campus dedicated to giving youthe skills and resources you need to be placed in a great career.That office is none other than the CSUS Career Center.

The Career Center is such a good resource that it has recentlybeen awarded the California Career Development Association Awardfor Excellence for 2003-04. Sac State competed against other StateUniversities, Universities of California as well as privateuniversities.

Marilyn Albert, who has been Career Center Director for overfour years, says that there is an abundance of resources to helpyou with every aspect of the job hunt.

“It is a one-stop shop for anyone who is concerned abouttheir career, major or job search,” Albert said.

The center offers a wide variety of services, like counseling tochoose the right major/minor, career decision-making, resumedevelopment, interview skills and techniques and portfolioassistance.

They use a compilation of job banks and statistic databases toaid students in their career research. These databases holdinformation on average pay for jobs in California, nation-wide joblistings, as well as regional job listings.

One thing that is exclusive to the Career Center is the JobBoard database. You can only access it through the Career Centerand it holds job listings for Sacramento and the surrounding areasexclusively for Sac State students. Nobody else is able to competefor these jobs.

One of the most successful programs that the Career Center hostsis the on-campus interview days. This is when employers who havepositions available come to Sac State and conduct interviews withhopeful seniors. The first round of interviews usually occursduring the months of October and November, and the first week ofDecember. The second round goes through March and April, and thefirst week of May.

The Career Center encourages students to participate in theseinterviews during their senior year as opposed to after theygraduate.

“Employers are far more interested in you before yougraduate than after. It shows that you know how to balance school,and maybe a part-time job in addition to extra-curricularactivities,” Albert said.

There are no exact statistics that reflect how many students areactually placed in jobs through the Career Center programs &-it is a very hard thing to track because employers can take monthsafter an interview to make an offer.

“When students participate in the programs the odds are intheir favor that they will get a job,” Albert said.

In addition to on-campus interviews the Career Center also hostsResumania, Sept. 21 -22, 2004. This is an opportunity for you tobring your resume for critique by employers.

Mock Interviews will also be conducted Sept. 29 – 30, 2004.Students will come dressed in interview attire, with a resumeand/or portfolio. Interview skills will be polished and critiqued.Pre-registration is required at the Career Center.

And the better-known event, The Fall Career Fair, will be heldOct. 6, 2004 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the University Ballroom.

All of the services provided by the Career Center are completelyfree of charge for students who are currently enrolled at SacState. Operation of the Career Center is completely funded byemployers, who pay to attend the Career Fair. The money is nottaken out of the student’s pocket in any way.

Because the office has to run on a tight budget, alumni arecharged a small fee to use the services but are still encouraged totake advantage of the help that the Career Center provides.

“We are not cutting back on programming due to budgetcuts,” Albert added.

There is no appointment necessary; all you do is go to theCareer Center, which is located on the second floor of Lassen Hall2000, Monday-Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

For more information call 278-6231 or log on towww.csus.edu/careercenter.