Centralizing Career Education

The Center for Career Education’s events calendar is jam-packed with events for students. Something seems to be on the agenda every day, and weekly CCE e-mails always have a variety of opportunities. With so much going on, it is surprising that a number of students do not even know where CCE is located and lament that CCE does not do a good enough job connecting students to employers. Something here is amiss.

As stated in its Web site, CCE works to educate students about the opportunities available to them and to help connect students to employers. This requires an active role on the part of students and CCE, although both, at times, fall short. Students need to take advantage of the events on campus and realize that, ultimately, they must take the initiative to find a job. At the same time, CCE must be better integrated into the various other advising programs, so student advising can be a smooth process across all stages in an undergraduate’s career.

CCE serves Columbia’s three undergraduate schools, the School of Continuing Education, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of the Arts, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and their alumni. With such a large number of student clients, there is no reasonable way for CCE to keep track of every single student without an official advising system. Right now, students know that they can e-mail their Center for Student Advising advisors with questions about classes or academic issues. In many departments, once students have declared majors they can meet with their major advisors if they have specific questions. But within Columbia’s advising system, there is no go-to person at CCE for individual students. Seniors graduating this year, and for several years afterward, will have a stressful time finding a job because of the current market. If seniors were each assigned a career counselor, they could foster relationships and make connections with advisors—not to mention potential employers—that many students have trouble establishing on their own, thus alleviating much of that stress. Finding a job after graduation is one of the primary goals of a student’s undergraduate career, and students need personal career advisers with whom they can discuss their futures.

With this in mind, students must also take an active role in their relationship with CCE and capitalize on the resources CCE provides. Some of the big dates and events for the first half of the fall 2009 semester have been the Career Fairs: On Sept. 25, CCE hosted the Fall Career Fair; on Oct. 2 it hosted the Study Abroad & International Opportunity Fair; and on Oct. 23 it will host the Engineering Consortium Career Fair. Each month there is a Virtual Career Fair where students and alumni can chat with employers online. Some other events this year will include the Not-for-Profit and Public Service Career Fair, Media Networking Night, Job Search Saturday, and International Organizations Day. Although all this sounds promising, many students are still unaware of these events or the services offered by the center. In order to remedy this situation, students must be proactive in their efforts to find jobs and internships while CCE must work to make the connection with students by formalizing their advising system.