Career Development Center hosts leadership seminar

The Career Development Center will be hosting a leadership seminar for student-organization leaders to assist them in building lasting partnerships.

The seminar will be held on Jan. 31, from noon to 1:30 p.m.

            The idea for the workshop came about when a representative from a sponsor company for the career center mentioned her frustration in working with student organization on campus. “Employers often express frustration when dealing with the turnover of student-organization-leadership. Many organizations falter at ‘passing the torch’ to their newly elected leaders.” Said outreach coordinator for the career center, Terri Armstrong.

In an effort to address communication, follow through, reliability, and long-term sustainability between student organization leaders and employers, the proposed event would not only bring together student leaders from an array of clubs and organizations on campus but also allow them to share their best practices with each other.

The event will further the career center’s mission to provide innovative services to students that contribute to their development as well as their success.

Student leaders will have an opportunity to hear from employers about ways to establish and maintain positive partnerships between their organization and employers.  As a result, Students will gain lasting leadership skills and employers will gain insight into the inner-workings of the student organizations here on campus.

            The event is by invitation only and will give organization leaders an opportunity to win prizes for themselves and their organization.

Career Development Center Director talks about progress of department

            “All of my jobs have been a result of networking. Networking has always come naturally to me. In my opinion, it is the most important part of business; if students can master that [networking] they will always be successful.”

Manuel Perez has held his position as the director of the Career Development Center at California State University, Long Beach for 7 and a half years.  He has worked in career services for 24 years at other colleges including University of California, Los Angeles and California Polytechnic State University, Pomona.

Perez feels he has contributed to the Cal State Long Beach career center by helping to create a vision of progress for the department to pursue. “For the first couple of years, I sat down with staff to begin establishing our values and mission,” said Perez, “I made policy and procedural changes—those types of changes, from my perspective, are easier to make and have the biggest impact.  If you ask people whether they like change they will say ‘yes’, but it’s the small things [changes] that make people feel threatened.” Perez says he isn’t the perfect manager and he has made mistakes but tries to learn from them.

Perez confirmed that the number of student workers in the Career Development Center has tripled since last year. He explained the increase in student positions is a result of two grants the department received this year allotting Student Excellence Fee funds to pay the wages of student workers. Students receiving financial aid pay a Student Excellence Fee of $94 per semester to fund programs for students. Perez says the funding helps pay the peer advisers in the career center and the peer advisors help free up time with counselors for students who really need it. The funding for the career center has been cut drastically the past four years, in order to fund the department’s programs, other sources of revenue must be considered.

“The one thing I will never do is charge students for our services, the way some career centers on other campuses do,” said Perez, “We do charge our alumni $135 if they want to continue using our services a year after they have graduated.”

            In the future, Perez hopes to improve the department’s and the students’ understanding of social media. He would like to see every CSULB student equipped with a LinkedIn profile and every faculty member. Perez also hopes to improve the communication and cooperation between the career center and other departments and colleges on the CSULB campus.

The Career Development Center focuses on sophomore success

     The career center at California State University, Long Beach, will begin the 2^nd phase of Project Rise beginning in the spring, a program focused on partnering sophomores with mentors to help them navigate their college decisions.

     The Career Development Center received a grant from the Student Services Division to initiate the program this year. Project Rise recruited nearly 100 sophomores to participate and paired the students with graduated alumni as mentors. The mentors help participants to select a major, explore careers, and seek advice. The group meets twice a month, but the pairs can meet on an individual basis at any time and are encouraged to do so.

     The students give feedback after each session, “Their [the students’] retention is good which seems to be a good indicator of the program’s success.” said internship counselor and the project’s adviser, Erin Booth. Pre-tests and post tests are given to gauge results and if the Student Services Division makes a grant available next year, a 2^nd-year proposal will be given for Project Rise. “If we want to continue the program we will need to find funding, but certain aspects of the project will continue regardless.” said Booth about the future of the project. The grant currently pays the mentors wages and funds outings for the participants.

     This spring semester will focus on preparing the students with internship skills, by teaching them how to network and build a resume. There are site visits planned for the students to visit employers looking for interns, the Port of Long Beach is the first confirmed visit for Project Rise students this spring.

     The students will be putting their new skills in action at an Internship Conference on March 22, from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. in front of the pyramid, which is open for all CSULB students to attend.

Students begin their careers at the source

A communication class gets out at Cal State Long Beach; DaVohn Williams hops on his skateboard and makes his way across campus, he’s on his way to work at the Career Development Center.

To judge Williams’ professionalism based on the thin dreadlocks hanging above his eyes or the torn Vans he traipses around the office in would be a mistake—he is the assistant outreach coordinator at the career center and takes his work very seriously.

(Above: Brotman Hall, home of the Career Development Center in room 250)

Williams gained employment with the Career Development Center this fall, after returning from a summer studying abroad in Hong Kong. “I really enjoy the culture and I wanted to go somewhere that wasn't typical of where most students go to study abroad. I will miss the food the most.” gushed Williams about his travels.

His current position consists of maintaining the web presence of the career center by mediating the interaction between users, updating posts, and creating content. In addition, Williams helps generate traditional marketing campaigns, and organizes events with the department’s sponsors. Upcoming events include a leadership seminar for student organizations, the spring 2013 job fair, and an interactive art project to get students thinking about their future.

Students fill several other positions at the Career Development Center doing office administration and career counseling. “Business can seem like a stuffy subject to the untrained ear, but I enjoy working here and being a part of this network. I figure the best place to start a career is at the source.” said Williams about working at the career center. 

Students gain professional development during winter intersession

     The Career Development Center at California State University, Long Beach hosted a workshop for students looking to improve their resume writing skills on Tuesday. Trained counselor Betty Schmicker-Black conducted the workshop. Roughly 30 graduate and undergraduate students attended the workshop.
     At Tuesday's workshop Schmicker-Black advised students to avoid websites that charge money for resume development, "You'll probably get a product that is less personalized." From her experience, employers are not looking for a cookie-cutter resume, but a resume that will allow employers to see the depth of a candidate.
     When tailoring a resume it is important that students provide a professional email and phone message for potential employers who might try to contact them. During the workshop, Schmicker-Black displayed a slide in her PowerPoint showcasing a plethora of inappropriate emails she was able to acquire from resumes students had submitted to the Career Development Center for review. There are several websites where a person can receive a free email such as: Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail.
     The workshop contained data from a survey that was conducted, showing half of employers did not like when a candidate expressed an objective on their resume. However, it is unlikely an employer would not hire a candidate for this reason, so the career counselor's advice is to include an objective tailored to the position that is being applied for. "A common mistake I see with students is they are too wordy; employers have a limited amount of time when reviewing resumes," said Schmicker-Black "Students have to make good word choices and not be too extraneous."
     When formulating an objective for a resume it is suggested that it be brief and not self-serving. Students may have a tendency to create an objective that outlines what they hope to get out of their employment when it is more relevant for an employer to understand what a candidate will bring in to a job or company.
     Students seeking help with their resume are encouraged to utilize the drop-in advising hours at the Career Development Center, Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The next workshop on resume writing techniques will be hosted on Wednesday, Jan. 16th at 1 p.m. Seating is limited and it is suggested students reserve their spot on BeachLINK.
       "The workshop was really helpful, I'm sure it will help me build a stronger resume and make me appear more confident." said Ketaki Savadi, a graduate student studying computer science.

     Winter intersession classes started Jan. 2nd and will be held until Jan. 18th. During the spring semester the Career Development Center hosts workshops Monday through Thursday on topics including: resume development, interview preparation, cover letter creation, and social media etiquette.