After four or five years of twenty-minute parking space hunts, dining on ramen noodles and cold pizza and all-night cram sessions, every college student hopes to walk across the graduation stage and into a career.
Unfortunately, many students walk into sluggish job markets and face the possibility of working at dead-end jobs that have nothing to do with their hard-earned degrees.
The U of M's Career Counseling Unit hopes to help students struggling to make connections in their chosen fields with the introduction of Career Encounters.
Sponsored by the Student Affairs Office, this program seeks to assist students with "gathering information on careers and exploring their interests," said Will Adams, project coordinator for Career Encounters.
"The program establishes the opportunities for students to make a perfect [career contact] match," he said. "It's an opportunity that can lead to something else later."
Adams added that Career Encounters is a "job-shadowing" program that allows students to have contact with someone who is presently employed in their field of interest. The student has the chance to talk with the employee via phone or an in-person visit to their office. Adams offers students assistance by obtaining contact information and proffering guidelines, such as a list of questions to ask, for contacting and meeting with sponsors.
"The program establishes the opportunity, but the student has to take the initiative," Adams said.
Students' taking the initiative is what Joel Whitney, sophomore journalism major, said he believes will make the program a success."If we were lazy we wouldn't be here," Whitney said. "The University has many resources and it's up to [us] to take advantage."
The idea to implement the program came from Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Rosie Phillips Bingham, who could not be reached for comment. Karen Hayes, director of Career and Employment Services, said that she thinks the decision to pair students with sponsors will help to "remove career anxiety."
One student said she believed the program wouldn't be very helpful to her. Brandi Brassell is in the last semester of her master's program in sociology. Brassell, 31, said that she needs something that can be added to her resume.
"If the meeting will lead to a job then I would be interested," she said. "Since it isn't like an internship, I can't see how I could pitch it to a prospective employer who is looking at my resume."
Whether or not the program will be successful remains to be seen, but Adams is off to a great start. So far, he has obtained participation commitments from employees representing 50 companies including FedEx, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, Northwest Airlines, the Memphis Police Academy and Deloitte and Touche, LLP.
"We do not see any issues with working with the sponsors," said Adams, who expects the number of companies being represented to continue to grow.
So far, five students have taken advantage of the program. Each student received a packet that included a Career Encounters evaluation form. Adams said he expects to receive the first forms in the next few weeks.
Anyone interested in participating in Career Encounters should send an email to rwadams@memphis.edu or call 678-4895.
