Marie Bagwell
Staff Writer
Career Services offers beneficial, free services to CU students and alumni; the office is located in Room 225 of Cynthia S. Ross Hall.
Career Services includes an array of helpful opportunities, from resume building to interview preparation. These services are offered in the physical office or online at hirecameronaggies.com.
Career Services Coordinator Paula Merrifield said a resume is very important because it shows a potential employer that an applicant has a great skillset, such as good writing skills, and initiative.
“Don’t graduate [from college] without a resume,” Merrifield said. “Don’t graduate without asking for help.”
Merrifield said it’s necessary for students to properly conduct themselves at interviews – their interview presentations must back up their resumes, which take care to prepare.
“You can’t just copy a template,” she said.
Career Services Coordinator Jordan Scribner said the service coordinators provide interview training for students who would like help with their interview skills.
Scribner said the coordinators pay attention to students’ visual and oral presentations, including their mannerisms and how quickly they talk.
The coordinators also tailor questions according to students’ different career interests.
She said they will “try to cover questions that both focus on your strengths and your weakness and why you’re qualified for the position in which you’re applying.”
Career Services holds job fairs, which are opportunities for students to learn more about their desired careers.
Each fall, they host the part-time job fair, and this year’s featured about 23 potential employers.
The major job fair takes place in the spring. The Red River Career Expo brings an average of 800 potential employers.
Scriber said the fair is a big deal, and they look forward to it every year.
Merrifield said Career Services also enables students to feel secure by knowing whether they are on the right career paths.
“A lot of students,” Merrifield said, “they invest in their education, but they’re not quite sure if this is really what they want to do. Either their mother or father told them this is kind of what they have to do, or they do it for money.”
At Career Services, students are given an idea of what their future careers will involve.
“It [the career] has to be something that you really love to do,” Merrifield said, “or you’re probably not going to succeed in it.”
Scribner said students may also job shadow, which provides them with beneficial networking opportunities.
“Basically, we ask that students provide us with a list of their top three professions,” Scribner said, “then we do the hard work, and we pair them up with an employer, and then we arrange for a meet and greet.”
Trevor Harrigan, a junior multimedia design major, said the services prepared him for his interview with Information Systems and Management Consultants (CGI) Federal.
“They [career services] helped me determine some of my personality strengths that I could use,” Harrigan said.
The services also readied him to respond to and ask questions at the interview.
“You show that you have done your research beforehand,” Harrigan said.
Students can visit the services to receive loan study material for tests, including the Medical College Admission Test, the Graduate Management Admission Test and the Graduate Record Examinations.
Scribner and Merrifield both used career services when they were Cameron students, and Scribner said her current position there is “a very fulfilling role.”