10 C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y RECORD May 22, 2002

Career Education is About More than Getting a Job After Graduation, Career Counselors Say

Melanie Huff has a busy job. Ifshe’s not on the phone with a news-paper editor, she’s persuading ajournalism alum to come and talkwith current students about theirprofession. Or she’s planning aworkshop on career tips forreporters, counseling students toconsider their long-term goals, orcompiling her weekly email of jobopenings from her office on the sev-enth floor of the Journalism build-ing.

Because Huff has worked as thecareer services coordinator for theGraduate School of Journalismsince 1989, she knows what studentjournalists need to do to secureemployment when they graduate. Inaddition to making the most of their10-month, hands-on program, shebelieves J-school students should beproactive when looking for workand not just react to the announce-ments on web-sites or classified adswhen job searching. In other words,Huff says that the field of journal-ism is always changing due to bud-gets and personnel, and so editorsare more likely to hire people theyalready know than wade throughthe countless resumes they’llreceive when a position opens up.

“In this economy, going in coldor waiting for a job posting is not agood way to job hunt,” Huff advis-es. “Instead, it’s important to targetplaces that you’re qualified for andinterested in, establish relationshipsthere and then be available whensomething comes up.”

Huff’s advice reflects a growingtrend in career education, one thatencourages prospective employeesto think differently about theircareers and take more non-tradi-tional steps toward pursuing theirgoals. Rather than merely emailingoff a resume and crossing their fin-gers, graduates should consider avariety of factors when exploring

their futures. And considering theclass of 2002 is facing one of theworst economies and most difficultjob markets in years, career coun-selors like Huff say that aggressiveplanning and thorough research willbe the keys to vocational success.

Huff, along with directors fromalmost a dozen other career centersin various schools across campus,offers students, graduates and alum-ni individualized and ongoing sup-port for career preparation, jobsearch and employment. They workwith faculty advisors and alumni inguiding students through what canoften be an intimidating maze of jobhunting. Consequently, they pro-vide substantial advice and helpfulworkshops throughout the year forthe Columbia community.

Several graduate schools on cam-pus—like the J-school—also offerparticular career services to equipgraduate students in their field. TheSchool of International and PublicAffairs (SIPA), for instance,requires a one credit professionaldevelopment course as well as threeto six credits of related internships.SIPA also offers a mentoring pro-gram with over 1400 SIPA alumniwho provide career information andguidance, according to Meg Heene-han, SIPA’s director of career ser-vices. The School of Social Workprovides daily information on job

announcements in the non-profit,social and community servicesfields. And the Business Schoolregularly hosts company recruitersto meet with graduating businessstudents.

The Center for Career Education(CCE) (www.columbia. edu/cu/ccs/) at Morningside Driveand West 116th Street serves under-graduate and graduate students inColumbia College (CC), the FuFoundation School of Engineeringand Applied Sciences, the School ofGeneral Studies, the GraduateSchool of Arts and Sciences, Grad-uate School of Architecture, Plan-ning and Preservation, and theGraduate School of the Arts, andcollaborates with the career educa-tion centers established in otherschools.

"Though probably about 25 per-cent of this [undergraduate] classwill go directly on to graduate andprofessional school full time, andanother 25 percent will findemployment, the rest will eitherdelay their job search or try to divein and become discouraged by itbecause they don’t know what theywant," says Christopher Pratt, deanof Career Education and the Centerfor Career Education. "That meansthey need to do some self assess-ment to know where their passionslie, who they are, what they wantand what they have to offer."

Pratt suggests that self-awarenessis perhaps the most important stepin career planning. In fact, having astrong sense of one’s own values,beliefs, attitudes and interests canhelp any professional map out hispath more clearly. That is one rea-son CCE publishes a career plannerworkbook for students so they canbetter process each step of their pro-fessional development. The Centeralso provides numerous workshopsthroughout the year on subjectssuch as self-assessment, resumewriting, vocational testing, inter-viewing skills, researching specific

fields and networking.Beginning in their first year,

Columbia students are encouragedto register with CCE to begin theircareer development process andtake advantage of the various ser-vices. Of the 4,012 CC students in2002, 3,304 registered with CCS.Of that number, 1,244 sought careercounseling and 337 attended work-shops to improve their career skills.

Pratt—who this spring shifted thefocus of career services to careereducation as a way of emphasizingthe integrative process of life expe-riences—believes the statisticsreflect a variety of issues facingcontemporary college students.Specifically, he believes that today’s

college graduates will have severaldifferent careers throughout theirlifetimes and suggests that suchcareer mobility will require theyfind the connections between theirvalues, interests, skills and sense ofresponsibility to the rest of theworld that bring fulfillment to them.

"Young people today are delay-ing decision-making more andgoing to college not necessarily forthe purpose of getting a specificjob," says Pratt. "Students are think-ing about lifestyles and a lot of dif-ferent options at a time when untilrecently there had been an explo-

sion of opportunities, types of workand places to work around theworld. They are changing theirmajors more often and lookingmore before they pick. They haven’tbeen aggressively looking for jobsand yet they expect them to be therewhen they graduate. Put all that injuxtaposition to the economy’sdown turn and you have one of theleast prepared classes to enter thejob market in years."

In other words, the class of 2002entered college and watched stu-dents ahead of it enjoy a strongeconomy and ample employmentopportunities. As a result, theyexpected the same situation whenthey graduated as well.

The problem is not unique toColumbia students, Pratt says, but isa result of a variety of global issues.Companies throughout the worldare downsizing, affecting the inter-national economy and limiting thejob market for all prospectiveemployees. Yet, business growth intechnology and the Internet—whichcreated much of the boom in somany professions that never existeda decade ago—has slowed down.

Because of these factors, Prattsays graduates must take more risksin their career search and becomemore flexible in issues like geo-graphic location and employeroptions, which is why Pratt hopes tooffer more international opportuni-ties for paid internships and full timejobs in the future.

Given the realistic prognosis2002 graduates currently face, Prattis hopeful for next year’s graduat-ing class. The economy will likelyget better, younger students willwatch how this year’s graduatesstruggled to get a job, and the com-bination will likely send moreColumbia students to the variouscareer education centers acrosscampus to begin planning theirfutures. And that means the workfor directors like Huff will only getbusier.

Melanie Huff

BY JO KADLECEK

Dean Christopher Pratt

Allen Ginsberg: The Early YearsThe Rare Book and Manuscript Library is hosting an

exhibit entitled: “The Lion for Real.” The event will show-case materials composed by Allen Ginsberg from his enroll-ment at Columbia in 1943 to the publication of “Kaddish” in1961, emphasizing Ginsberg’s poetic development in thecontext of his interactions with mentors, family, friends, andcritics during that period.

Highlights include early poetic manuscripts in lettersfrom Ginsberg to Lionel Trilling, a typescript of “Howl” thatGinsberg sent to Lucien Carr, and a copy of the mimeo-graphed first edition of “Howl” that he sent to Mark VanDoren.

The Rare Book and Manuscript Library is located in ButlerLibrary, 6th fl East, and is open Monday 12:00-4:45 P.M.; Tues-day - Friday, 9:00 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Please call 854-4048 for moredetails.

HEALTHSCIENCES

Unless otherwise noted, all list-ings are at Columbia Universi-ty’s Health Sciences campus inWashington Heights. Call spon-sors for details.

23RD, THURS.4:00 P.M. “RNA PolymeraseStructure/Function and theMechanism of TranscriptionalPausing.” Robert Landrich, Uof Wisconsin-Madison. Bio-chemistry & Molecular Bio-physics. 305-3885. 301 HHSC.

24TH, FRI.12:00 P.M. “Small-Talk: Cell-to-Cell Communication in Bac-teria.” Bonnie Bassler, Prince-ton. Biochemistry & MolecularBiophysics. 305-3885. 523 BB.

Black BuildingCenter for the Study of Religion and ScienceHammer Health Sciences

BuildingInternational Affairs

BuildingCollege of Physicians

& SurgeonsRare Book & Manuscript

LibraryTeacher’s College

BBCSSR

HHSC

IAB

P & S

RBML

TC

ABBREVIATIONS

Columbia’s 15th Annual Employee Wellness Day will takeplace in the Roone Arledge Auditorium at Lerner Hall on Thurs-day June 6th from 9am to 5pm. The event will feature varioushealth tests, screenings and consultations. Please call 854-4553 formore details.

SPECIAL25TH, SAT.9:00 A.M. (All Day.) Sympo-sium: “The Hispanic Presencein the United States.” Lectures,round tables and exhibits byscholars and students. 678-8101.179 Grace Dodge Hall, TC.

JUNE

3RD, MON.7:30 A.M. (All Day.) AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers 15thAnnual Mechanics Conference.

Researchers from academia andindustry present their researchfindings on technical areas ofengineering mechanics. Regis-tration required: 854-3369 orwww.civil.columbia.edu/em2002.Lerner Hall.

MAY 16 – JUNE 21“Painterly Images in Watercol-or Monotype.” Leslee Fetner,870-2200. Lobby Gallery,Interchurch Ctr.

EXHIBITS

EVENTS AT COLUMBIA — MAY 22RD - JUNE 3RDCALENDAR

RECORD PHOTOS BY JO KADLECEK