In an effort to promote the array of services offered by the Office of Career Services, the Senior Class held a reception in the Black and Gold Room geared to getting the word out to the students.
Senior Class President Dafnee Chatman extended a warm welcome to all the students. “If there is anything you need, I am here to help,” Chatman said, words she couldn’t reiterate enough to the students there.
Johnny Patterson, the director of Career Services, talked to the students about the advantages of being registered with Career Services. Patterson briefly mentioned how some of the faces in the crowd were familiar, how some he hadn’t seen in a long time and if he hadn’t seen students at all that you were “real late”. He warned students that Career Services was not a placement office, which in the past has mislead a lot of people.
“There is no job waiting on you when you get out of school,” Patterson said. The best time to begin looking for employment opportunities is when students first step foot on-campus. Come to the department as a freshman, so the process of getting started on your career at an early phase can begin instead of waiting until your last semester in school.
Career Services is here for the students, but they have to know that the students are out there.
Career Services is located in Jacob T. Stewart on the first floor. You are also able to go online to www.gram.edu, from there it tells you what to do and allows you access to everything you need. Once registered, Career Services e-mails students on career opportunities and various events that help to better prepare for your future, such as graduate information from a variety of universities.
Students are able to submit resumes on- line for different companies to review. It is real beneficial because there are quite a few companies that don’t get a chance to come to the Career Fair but view the resumes on- line. The Web site facilitates interview schedules, interview tips, internships, jobs, and career fairs, just to name a few.
There will be two Career Fairs this year. One strictly geared for teachers as an Education fair. This will be held October 9, 2009 and the second one will be a university- wide one scheduled during the week of Homecoming on the 29th. As of now there are about 27 companies that have registered for the Career Fair, but Patterson believes there will be more vendors there when the actual fair comes around.
“There have been complaints in the past about certain majors not being offered jobs at the fairs,” Patterson said. He responded by saying some jobs just aren’t offered for whatever reasons, but that they work hard to get people there. For the first time Walmart and Chevron will be bringing their Computer programming people out to the fair.
As the reception came to an end a few students shared with the audience their testimonies of how beneficial the programs at Career Services have been.
Favrot Student Union Board President Mekayel Luke spoke about how informative the reception was. He also mentioned how he wasn’t satisfied with the efforts of the Mass Communication Department in their attempts to help its students find internships and how he feels that it is every man for themselves.
Student Government Association Steven Jackson expressed how getting the message over to freshmen and sophomores to get started on their future early was a major priority of his. Jackson also explained how he felt Career Services should be located in the Union, and that the Union should be “flipped” upside down to benefit the needs of the students. “Career Services should be out more than what it is”, Jackson said. “Grambling needs to be on the cutting edge of getting things accomplished, and what we do after our internship is what matters most”, advice he gave to the students there.
The next Senior Class meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Nov. 2 in Favrot Student Union Room 234.