As spring commencement approaches, graduates can enter the job market with confidence. A recent report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers indicates that U.S. employers plan to hire over 19 percent more college graduates in 2011 than they did last year.

According to the document, “The picture painted by this report shows that overall college hiring continues to be encouraging for Class of 2011 graduates.”

But the unemployment rate for Kansas as of March was 6.8 percent compared to the national rate, 8.8 percent, according to statistics from the Bureau of Labor.

The career center on campus conducts an annual survey of students who graduated the previous year. June Coleman-Hull, director of Career Services, said the statistics for the past two years have not yet been processed, but according to the 2008-2009 results, 55 percent of graduates from the school of business were employed and the average salary was $36,000.

Additionally, 50 percent of graduates from the liberal arts and sciences college were employed an earned an average salary of $34,000. Graduates from the teacher’s college also earned $34,000 and 48 percent were employed.

Graduates from the school of library and information management are not included in this article due to insufficient data.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment rate for people aged 20-24 in 2010 was around 60 percent. The unemployment rate for people 25 or over with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 4.7 percent.

“A university has two obligations,” said June Coleman-Hull, director of Career Services. “One is to give students knowledge and training in their field and the second is to help them find employment after they graduate.”

Coleman-Hull said Career Services offers career counseling, opportunities for internships, resume and cover letter development and aids in job search or graduate school application along with preparing students for interviews and salary negotiations. Students and alumni can access the benefits free of charge.

Coleman-Hull said most career centers in the U.S. started sometime around the late 1970s to early 1980s and began as simply placement centers for graduating students.

“Now, fortunately, over the years it’s become a comprehensive full range of services,” Coleman-Hull said. “We figured out a lot of student were getting into student teaching and hated it.”

Coleman-Hull said the goal of ESU’s Career Services has “evolved” to start counseling students for career choices earlier on in their education.

Another advantage the university offers is the tight-knit community among faculty and students, Coleman-Hull said.

“That’s a huge advantage over what KU can provide or another huge university because you just can’t have great letters of reference or great connections with employers,” Coleman-Hull said.

Coleman-Hull said the job market has improved for graduates nationally, and that employers are slowly beginning to post jobs openings again.

“One-third of the Midwestern employers fall into the employer categories with the strongest overall hiring projections,” according to NACE report. “Results suggest that oil/gas extraction, chemical (pharmaceutical) manufacturers, computer/electronics manufacturers, and employers in the finance, insurance, and real estate group are among the best bets for Class of 2011 graduates.

“For the Class of 2012, Fall 2011 recruiting expectation suggests the job market for new college graduates will continue to be stable,” according to the NACE report.

Kenzie Templeton

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The Teacher Career Fair will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday in the Colonial Ballroom of the Memorial Union. There will be 41 schools and 70 recruiters looking for full-time teachers and some administrative positions.

“It has paid off, and it is a good opportunity for students,” said Charlotte Norman, education interview coordinator and administrative specialist of Career Services.

Norman said anybody can come and it is “all walk-in,” no “sign-up” and no fees. Usually students and alumni attend and sometimes there will be five to 10 students from other schools.

Senior psychology major Seung Gufsch said her husband, who had a hard time looking for a job before, succeeded through the career fair program.

“It’s a good chance to go no matter what kind of backgrounds and (students) can see more schools and have better chances to get hired than throwing resumes by themselves,” Gufsch said.

Emily Wilson, art education graduate student, plans to go to the career fair.

“It is my first time to go to this kind of professional interview, I will practice and try to talk to as many people as I can to learn the interview process,” Wilson said.

The Teacher Career Fair is usually held two times a year, once in November for December graduates and once in March for May graduates. According to Norman, the March career fair is usually twice as big as the one in November, since there are more graduates in the summer.

“(The schools) are looking ahead, as well as having openings also,” Norman said. “They are looking to get a head start on finding the best teachers.”

In order to find some of the best students in their field, most the schools that attend hope to visit with the graduates, looking at their resumes and talking to them.

“Students need to do a really good job of presenting themselves, selling themselves, and like marketing themselves to do the interview,” Norman said. “It is face-to-face contact to the recruiters, and the chance to make good first impression on them. Students get to sit down one-on-one and sell themselves to do the interviews.”

With no previous experience of formal career interviews, Wilson is now working on her resume to make it professional and preparing for the answers that she may be asked during the interview.

Based on an evaluation from students last year, Career Services decided to start the interviews earlier this year to make time for more students to be interviewed. The career fair part and the interview set-up will be shortened.

The agenda of the career fair has been sent to students via BuzzIn account.

Career Services suggests all the students who are graduating to access their hire-a-hornet accounts with their E-numbers so recruiters can go log on and look up students’ credentials (letters of reference, copy of transcript, and resume) without any cost.

Dressing up professionally, bringing plenty hardcopies of resumes and portfolios to hand out to recruiters will also help.

Lauren Lau/The Bulletin

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In order to teach students the art of fine dining, Career Services hosted a professional etiquette dinner in the Colonial Ballroom of the Memorial Union on Monday night.

“Our purpose is to train students on how to use fine dining etiquette in an interview and how to have conversation with people,” said June Coleman-Hull, director of Career Services.

The etiquette dinner is held once every year and Career Services does a survey every year after the event.

“The biggest comment is that students felt more confident after participating in the dinner,” Coleman-Hull said. “They felt they know more fine rules and know more about how to interact with people. Fine etiquette is important to student’s career success. There’re often times when there are students, one has professional skills like this, while others don’t. That one who has this skill will be hired.”

Students said that the skills they learned will help them prepare for interviews.

“I came here because it is required for one of my classes. It helps us to prepare for job interviews and entering the music world,” said Molli Chitwood-Roberts, senior music education major. “I’ve been to similar dinner before, but seems like they do a little refresher. It’s pretty good.”

Students in this fine dining experience were trained by Catherin Corey, an etiquette, ethics, manners and basic ballroom teacher. Corey has been teaching these skills for the past 16 years.

During the etiquette dinner, Corey gave a presentation to show students how to sit properly, how to use a folk, a knife and napkins and what gentlemen should do when ladies want to leave the table or want to sit down, among other things.

The staff of Career Services also participated in the dinner.

“It is pretty cool,” said Mair Abbasi, staff member in Career Services. “I’ve learned a little bit.”

Tickets for the etiquette dinner were $15 per person. In addition, business attire was required for attendance.

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This Thursday, Career Services will host the annual ESU Career Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Webb Lecture Hall.

“I hope students use this to get on the job hunt right now,” said June Coleman-Hull, director of Career Services. “Right now the market is very competitive, and they should try to make those job connections early.

There are 51 employers registered, including many accounting firms and businesses from other areas of interest, according to the university Web site. It is the largest Career Fair of the year, with two other career fairs specifically for teachers being held in November and March, Coleman-Hull said.

“It’s a rough job market for everyone,” said Jason Baker, business graduate student and chair of the Career Fair Planning Committee. “I’ve had great success with the Career Fair since the job I’ll be starting here soon was found through the last career fair.”

Some of the employers scheduled for this year’s career fair include the Emporia Police Department, BNSF Railways, The Buckle, Target and Edward Jones.

“This provides face to face connections between employers and students,” Coleman-Hull said. “It also gives employees the chance to learn about quality programs that we have here on campus.”

Career Services advises students in every level of their education to take advantage of the Career Fair.

“Even sophomores and juniors that are not looking for a job right this second should come out,” Baker said. “They can talk to companies about internships, not just jobs.”

Coleman-Hull advises students participating in the career fair to dress professionally, bring extra resumes, not to travel in groups and to send thank you notes after any interviews.

“I encourage students to research the employers before coming to the fair,” Coleman-Hull said. “The better researched you are, the better any interviews will go.”

There will be some companies interviewing the same day as the Career Fair, and students may sign up for interviews the morning of the fair.

“I hope students will take the time to come out and show employers what ESU has to offer,” Baker said. “We are a very educational institution, but if we don’t show the employers that then they will lose interest and just stop coming.”

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UAC hosts hypnotist

Ron Diamond, a comedic hypnotist, will be performing at 7 p.m. on Monday in Albert Taylor Hall. Diamond is featured every year at the Kansas State Fair said Hilary Moe, variety entertainment chair of Union Activities Council

Diamond will try to hypnotize about 30 volunteer members of the audience. The event is free to anyone who wishes to attend both those who wish to be hypnotized should arrive early.

Bonner Leader Program accepting applications

The Bonner Leader Program is accepting applications. Interviews will be conducted today, tomorrow and next week. Students will perform community service hours for scholarship dollars on a graduated scale. $1,000 can be earned for 300 hours of service in a one year term. $1,250 can be earned for 450 hours of service in a one year term. Emporia’s program is one of two in the state.

Bonner Leaders will be allowed to work at a variety of places including the Humane Society, Youth Friends and After School programs. To get an application, email Jen Groves at jgroves@emporia.edu. Application submission deadline is Monday at 5 p.m.

Career Services hosts Career Fair

Career Services will host the Fall Career Fair from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 24 in Webb Lecture Hall. Over 50 employers will be present to meet with any non education majors.

Students should arrive early dressed in business attire, said June Coleman-Hull, director of career services. Students should also bring extra copies of their resume and research any companies that they want to talk to before attending. There will be opportunities for internships and full time positions.

There will also be prep sessions today and Monday from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Roe Cross Room in Cremer Hall.

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For many prospective employers, success is based on more than the applicant’s resume.

Learning to dress professionally is an important process for June Coleman-Hull, director of Career Services, who hoped to reach out to students about their professional wardrobe choices at last Monday’s Dress for Success presentation. To her, a lack of professionalism is a problem among students.

“It’s, many times, where new graduates are deficient and don’t know any of the rules for professionalism,” Coleman-Hull said. “Many people graduate with the same degree and it’s those professional skills that get you the job.”

This presentation, and others like it, is sponsored by Career Services in order to help students begin successful relationships with prospective employers.

“It’s a very good first impression and it establishes your credibility right away with the employer,” Coleman-Hull said. “It sort of is a preface to the content you’re going to give them. Also, if your dress is impressive, they’re going to listen to your message a little bit better.”

Throughout the presentation, Coleman-Hull outlined several examples of positive and negative professional attire.

“It’s definitely changed what I thought, not completely, but slightly, about some cargo pants and button-up shirts and those kind of things,” said Trent Fiedler, freshman psychology major. “I learned a lot.”

The presentation also included the basic elements of the interview process, including how to behave when dining with an employer.

“(I learned) how to call and find out the accommodations, how to politely ask what’s in the food without sounding incredibly rude,” said Catherine Martin, sophomore psychology and elementary education major.

One example of wardrobe professionalism that students may not consider is to wear a watch. Coleman-Hull said that, even though many people tell time by cell phone now, a watch shows that one is concerned with time.  However, the watch should be simple.

“Sometimes it’s other professional skills, like I was talking about,” Coleman-Hull said. “Dining skills, etiquette by e-mail, what’s appropriate in terms of writing ‘thank you’s’ for the employers. So there are certain areas of professionalism that we talk about.”

Coleman-Hull has been hosting presentations like this one for about five years presents employment tips and suggestions approximately five or six times each semester.

“I’d say (it’s held) to help the students get better opportunities in jobs,” Fiedler said. “I think it went pretty well, very educational.”

Career services will also host the Spring Career Fair with a meet and greet from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and interview from 1-3 p.m. March 4 on the second floor of the Memorial Union.

“I wanted to teach some basics about professional interview dress and some basics about dining etiquette and present some visual things to look at, to let them know what’s good and what’s not,” Coleman-Hull said.

Alex Pedersen/The Bulletin

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