UCSD Career Center lends students a hand

Coming off the heels of UCSD’ recent graduation ceremonies, this year’s class got a helping hand from the university to get a job in a tough market. The week following commencement, the campus’s Career Services Center sponsored up-to-date job search, resume, interviewing and networking programs. Wednesday’s Future Destinations Job Expo, a “just in time” job fair designed to help recent grads seeking immediate employment needs, gave the class of 2010 an edge on the competition. At the event, hundreds of attendees revitalized their employment options and networked with recruiters from companies with current job openings.

Saad Shaikh, a graduate student in the electrical engineering master’s program at UCSD, said he was excited to learn about his career options at the event. “There are some impressive companies here in my industry,” he said. “I am looking for a summer job and have met with employers from Ortiva Wireless, Jetthead and Hewlett Packard.”

Other events of the week included two “Ultimate Guide to Finding a Job” seminars, a three-hour job search workshop, that included the latest information on resume writing, effective networking, impressive interviewing and a list of which industries that are still growing in this economic climate.

As unemployment has risen, UCSD’s Career Services Center has amped up its services to students competing for jobs. The center increased the number of visits from industry experts who offered expertise, shared insight into job market strategies and talked about how to make personal connections through networking. In addition, the center held more job fairs and created new events. For example, the center hosted a new “Discover your Career” event for undeclared majors or for students in majors that don’t easily connect to industry. Also new, the center has hosted a “Business Week,” “Engineers Week” and “Bio Sciences Week” so students could discover job opportunities in growing industries related to their field of study.