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Job hunting made easy at WVU: New kiosks do the work for students
(The Dominion Post in Morgantown (WV)(KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 18--For WVU students, finding a job will soon be as easy as swiping an ID card, university officials announced Thursday.
Maybe it's not quite that simple. There's still the minor matter of applying, interviewing and landing the position.
But new computer kiosks that will be installed around campus promise better access to job postings and internships, said David Durham, director of the WVU Career Services Center. Students will be able to put an ID card into the machine, and it will list all of the jobs that relate to their major and program year.
"It's real easy to use," Durham said. "If they're not going to use it, it's not going to help them."
The university bought 10 kiosks with a total of $40,000 donated by a private donor, Durham said. They are scheduled to be up and running by fall. The kiosks will be located in high-traffic areas, such as the Mountainlair, the Student Recreation Center, libraries and certain departments.
The kiosks will be linked to the university's new Mountaineer-TRAK job system, which started in February. The system already has more than 2,000 students who have signed up.
MountaineerTRAK is a central location for job and internship postings that all students can access. Students can upload their resumes and tailor job listings to their interests and skills.
The kiosks will have only a small set of information compared to MountaineerTRAK, Durham said. But the information they provide is not limited to students who have signed up with the Mountaineer-TRAK Program.
Durham said the kiosks will provide another way for students to quickly get access to job information.
"My goal is that every single student is made aware of every opportunity that they are eligible for," Durham said.
Helping students find jobs after graduation has been one of the university's goals for some time, WVU President Michael Garrison said. But he said the career services department has made a new commitment to helping students with resume writing and interviewing techniques, and connecting students with employers.
Garrison said the university's role has to go beyond education and focus on helping students find jobs once they graduate. He said students expect that kind of help, and the new technology will make it easier.
"Students and parents distinctly expect that there is some help from the university to get a job," Garrison said. "If you look at students as our consumers, they expect it, and we have to meet that expectation."
Jared Ramsey, a student and member of the Student Government Association Board of Governors, said the new kiosks should be helpful for students.
Since jobs will be targeted at students' majors, students won't have to page through hundreds of listings to find the ones they are interested in. He said underclassmen can also use them to find summer internships that can lead to better jobs after graduation.
"From a student's point of view, it's great to have all of these jobs in one place on campus," Ramsey said. "I think it's a big step on behalf of the university to try to get students jobs."
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
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