By Nicholas Cafalone, Contributing Writer
OSWEGO, NY – As graduation approaches, SUNY Oswego is hoping to prepare its seniors to enter a job market that has been becoming steadier but is still unpredictable.
At SUNY Oswego’s Compass they offer a number of different services that students can use to do anything from work on and refine resumes to searching databases for different kinds of work opportunities.
In the Compass students can bring in resumes to be reviewed and critiqued by specially trained students called Navigators.
Navigators not only help revise resumes for their peers but also direct them to the different job search opportunities available.
There are a few different choices to allow students to search for career opportunities and internships.
The college suggests a couple different databases for students to use that allow them to search for job openings.
All of these options are online to increase their availability and effectiveness.
Reference USA and CareerShift are both online research systems that allow job seekers to search job listings from different kinds of employers from anywhere.
Laker Leads is a tool that students can use to search for internships, volunteer opportunities and jobs. This database is also full of companies and employers that have previously worked with SUNY Oswego to help give students an edge.
It can also be used to do expanded job searches that include data gathered from other sites including Google, Indeed and Simply Hired.
In another effort to get students into contact with future employers the school hosts a career fair.
They recently held their Spring Career Fair on the last day of March which hosted 37 different employers.
The booths varied from the Oswego Hospital to national companies like Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Target.
Erik Garb, a senior business student, used the services offered by SUNY Oswego to prepare himself to find a job after he graduates in May.
At the Business Administration Student Advisement Center he was able to get help refining his resume.
He also attended the Spring Career Fair but felt it had too many local employers that did not interest him.
Despite all the different services offered to help students seek employment not every student knows about or uses them.
“The only thing the college has really done for me is provide me with several references,” said Julia DeRosso, a senior zoology student.
Instead of seeking out help from the Compass she just did a Google search for an internship she was interested in.
On her own she was able to secure an internship, which she will start in September after she graduates, with Wolf Park in Battle Creek, Ind.
After graduating from SUNY Oswego in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, Robert Tew became disenfranchised with the job market.
Even though he had graduated, the school would still keep him informed with e-mails about opportunities like job fairs.
He was still unable to find the job he wanted.
Tew has since made the decision to return to school to work on a second major and hopefully make his resume more appealing to potential employers.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the national unemployment rate reached 8.8% in March.
The last time the unemployment rate was lower was in March of 2009 when it was 8.6% and started a climb to 10.1% in October of 2009.
Even though the unemployment rate has been dropping the last four months the state of the economy and the job market have graduating students worried about what the future holds.
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