1.2. Career Services Department

At the center of the redesigned Career Services workflow is an enhanced Web site that will be integrated into the department’s operation. Students will be encouraged to use the Web services in order to be better prepared for their appointments with counselors. Counselors will include introduction and training on the Web services so that students can use the site for ongoing training, support and information.

Career Center events will be publicized on the Web, and students will be encouraged to sign up online. Notifications to students will be integrated into the campus e-mail system.

Experiential Education Experiences

Within the Division of Cooperative Education, each department (Co-op, International Co-op, and Career Services) handles a wide range of experiential education opportunities. These include part-time jobs, work study, community service, internships, and more. Career Services provides orientation and preparation for the opportunities it oversees.

At many schools, all students make contact with Career Services during their freshman year. That is not a requirement at NU, since a student can also make contact with Co-op or International Co-op. However, it is important that each student make contact somewhere within the division and receive an orientation that sets the stage for their development of career skills. For this reason, the new system will require registration at the time of first "real" contact with Co-op, Career Services, and International Co-op. Students who have not made contact somewhere within the division by a designated time period will require outreach by Career Services.

Career Counseling

Career Planning

With the dissolution of central freshman advising, it has become critical for Career Services to offer freshmen additional assistance in selecting their majors. In addition, many students with undeclared majors or uncertain interests require counseling or assistance. To respond to this need, the system will provide the ability for a student or counselor to search by interest, major, or occupation and view related information about NU programs. To support this feature, it will be necessary for the university to capture related information about occupations and interests when defining new majors or programs of study. While a new program is being designed, there is undoubtedly discussion of the type of students who would be applicants and the job fields they might enter upon graduation. This information could be codified, along with major and degree codes, and entered in the system.

Graduate School Information

The Professional School Credential Service offers assistance to NU students applying to medical school. General information will be available through the Web, along with the registration form for this service. Career Services staff will define a checklist of the application activities required for each participant. The updated checklist information, including whether references have been returned and where files have been sent, will be available for individual student viewing.

The Career Services Web site will also have links to other graduate school information, including Peterson’s Guide, the GMAT tests, and fellowship information.

Career Resources

Career Services maintains a resource library for student, staff, and alumni/ae use. A bibliography of available materials is kept updated by Career Services staff and will be available online for viewing. The department may also want to store informational summaries, scanned images of book covers, etc. on their Web site to encourage use of the resource library.

An additional resource is the alumni/ae network. Alumni/ae who choose to serve as a resource for students exploring a career field will be able to enter their information through the Web, enabling students to contact them for information about their occupation.

The Career Services Web home page also has links to other Internet career resources.

Career Events

Career Expos

Companies will be able to apply via the Web for participation in Career Expos on campus. Once the company’s application fee is received and processed, Career Services staff will update the company registration. The list of registered companies, along with their preferences for specific majors or types of degrees, will be accessible via the Web by students.

Employment Services

Job Search Preparation

Career Services provides both general and individual information and assistance for those searching for jobs. The information includes a number of "how to" tutorials: finding a job, completing an application, and interviewing. This will be available through the Web. An enhancement to current Web information will be the addition of resume templates for PCs and Macintosh. These templates will be available for downloading and will be written in MS Word. Note: much of this information is currently on the Career Services Web site. Other information, such as the resume templates, will need to be developed.

Self-directed Job Search

The current Job Bank in Career Services consists of paper listings. In the future, those listings will be centrally stored on the database and accessed through the Web. Students will perform self-directed searches and send resumes to their selected jobs. (If their resumes are stored on the system, students will be able to forward to the employer through e-mail.)

Resume Matching

Employers seeking to hire NU students or alumni/ae will provide Career Services with information about their available positions, preferably by filling out a form on the Web. Career Services staff will perform an automated job search, matching the position requirements to the electronic resume pool. Companies will be sent the resumes of qualified candidates, and candidates will be notified that their resume has been sent out.

Our committee discussed the possibility of employers doing their own online searches with proper security. However, there are a number of factors that led to our decision to recommend against this option:

1. This does not appear to be an important feature to employers who contact Career Services.
2. The preponderance of resume banks and job searches on the Web is already creating confusion among the student population. Students frequently wonder how a company got their resume or what is being used for - forgetting that they posted it a Web site.
3. The recent trend for employers to offer financial rewards for referral of job candidates has put online resume banks at high risk for theft.
4. Our committee does not see employer-directed searches as benefiting the on-campus recruiting process.

Job Tracking

The system will be able to track any site visits made to a company. Additional notes associated with a job, such as problems that arise during the assignment, may be captured in confidential comment fields on the database.

On-Campus Interviewing and Recruiting

Students will become eligible for on-campus interviewing and recruiting by attending required orientation and registering for this program. On the registration form, students will also be able to give consent for their resumes to be available for secured employer access via the Web. Students will be able to sign up online for the orientation.

Career Services will post a list and schedule of companies recruiting on campus. Each individual company entry will point to the corresponding company URL (Web site address), if available. Registered students will express interest by sending their resumes to participating companies using the company-specified format and method. For example, some companies may request e-mail attachments; others may request faxes. Companies will review the resumes received, and then make decisions about which students to interview. The selected students will be notified by phone or e-mail, and will then have a limited number of days to sign up on the schedule. The schedule will be available through the Web. Time slots will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Students will be able to see the available time slots and (with security) what they are signed up for, but will not be able to see who else has signed up. The system will check for conflicts so that students cannot "double book" their time. Changes and cancellations will be allowed until 48 hours prior to the interview.

If enough of the students selected by a company do not sign up for interview, there will be available time slots remaining. Career Services will selectively populate the remaining interview slots if the company so desires, or allow authorized students to sign up online. Authorized students will be those who have registered with Career Services for the on-campus recruiting program and who match the company requirements for degree, major, and QPA.

Senior Surveys

Follow-up surveys with graduates will be provided through the Web, as well as being available in paper form. Information about employment and evaluation of the NU career preparation will be captured for research purposes.
 

The detailed Software Requirements Specifiation can be found HERE.

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