As October begins and brings with it the first round of exams at Tufts, a good proportion of Tufts students have additional worries besides their studies. Before too long, the school year will be over, and seniors will enter the demographic of recent college graduates that labor economists love to study.
The process of finding employment after school is a job in and of itself. Attending information sessions with employers, submitting r?©sum?©s and landing interviews are time-consuming tasks, but they are necessary ones for students looking to gain an advantage in the job search.
"The competition is tough," said senior Vittoria Reimers, who is in the midst of her job search. Reimers, a quantitative economics major, hopes to find a job in investment banking.
"The real problem," Reimers said, "is that Tufts is not a target school. We really have to work to get our foot in the door."
In addition to her individual job search efforts, Reimers said she has used some of the services offered by Tufts Career Services.
Director of Career Services Jean Papalia said in an e-mail with the Daily that employers can choose from a variety of recruiting options, including on-campus interviews, on-site interviews, participation in Tufts' Career and Graduate School Fair and participation in recruiting events in Washington, D.C. and New York.
Reimers said that she attended one such recruiting event, the Tufts on Wall Street trip to New York City, which took place on Friday, Sept. 15. "We had a short information session about J.P. Morgan, a panel about sales and trading, and a panel about investment banking," she said. A networking reception with about 40 alumni working on Wall Street followed.
Reimers said she appreciated the event. "It was definitely worth the trip," she said, "especially since the people I met at the networking reception will be the ones interviewing on campus."
According to Papalia, over 80 students attended the event. "We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to our programming," she said.
Papalia said that additionally, 90 students attended the "Careers in Consulting" program, a two-hour session in which a panel of alumni discussed their experiences in consulting and answered students' questions about the industry. Fifty students attended an "Introduction to Foreign Service" program, while 45 students attended a workshop on "How to Navigate a Career Fair," intended to prepare students for the Career and Graduate School Fair that will take place on Oct. 11.
Approximately 120 companies and grad schools will attend the Career Fair this year. "Students of all class years and majors are encouraged to attend to talk to employer and grad school reps about graduate school programs as well as job and internship opportunities," Papalia said.
Though Reimers said she did not know about the fair, she plans to look into it. She did say, however, that she had attended the "Careers in Consulting" program and a r?©sum?© critique session held at Career Services on Sept. 29.
The r?©sum?© critique session was part of a group of programs in the "Senior Career Series" offered by Career Services. In addition to the critique session, during which students met with employers or alums to review their r?©sum?©s, the series also includes sessions that offer interviewing tips and practice from employers, a session in November called "Exploring Grad Schools" and a "Marketing Your Tufts Degree" in December, which aims to teach seniors how to market their Tufts degrees to employers.
Although this series is only for seniors, Papalia said that Career Services offers a number of programs for all undergraduates, including a new career series called "Break into Careers through Internships."
"The sooner students start their career exploration, the more prepared they will be to make career decisions in their senior year," she said.
Senior Isha Plynton is one student who took Papalia's advice. Plynton received a Career Services internship grant this summer while working in Sen. Ted Kennedy's Office for Education in Washington, D.C. Before getting her internship, Plynton took advantage of one of Career Services' personal appointments.
"[Career Services] gave me a plan for action, and ... gave me tips to use my networks," Plynton said. "[Career Services] didn't really help me do any job searching ... [They] didn't tell me how to get a job ... but it was good to talk to someone."
Plynton employs other resources besides just Career Services to research job opportunities, especially those online. She cited the Web site Idealist.org as a resource that lists different employment opportunities.
This summer, Plynton hopes to work at a non-governmental organization (NGO) or to return to Washington to work on a political campaign.
According to Papalia, the engineering, computer science and high-tech industries accounted for 31 percent of recruiting at Tufts in the 2005-2006 academic year. Banking and finance accounted for 25 percent, consulting for 16 percent, and education for 11 percent. The non-profit, health care/science and legal industries each accounted for five percent of recruiting activity.
"This breakdown is not necessarily a direct correlation on hiring, but rather on the types of industries that hire in high volume and are therefore most inclined to use campus recruiting programs to meet their hiring needs," Papalia said.
More information on all of the recruiting events and information sessions offered by Career Services can be found at its Web site: http://careers.tufts.edu.
