With costs rising in everything from gas to groceries, many students are using services on campus to help them create resumes, find on-campus jobs, and enter the job market after graduation.
“The number of students I see is always connected to the economy,” said Doug DeVoe, a specialist at ASU Career Services.
The Career Services helps students, alumni, and faculty develop resumes, learn interviewing skills, understand the workplace culture, focus on career planning and negotiate salary after graduation.
“I normally see the [students] who are really struggling,” DeVoe said, adding that lately, there have been more Liberal Arts majors coming in the office.
DeVoe said there used to be more graduating seniors using the Career Services than any other class, but now things have leveled out as younger students are starting to get career focused earlier. There have even been instances where high school students come for career counseling. He believes this is caused by a more proactive generation of students.
Another resource open to students is the Student Employment Office, which helps students find jobs both on and off-campus. The jobs they list on their website can be one of the first jobs students take in their field of study.
“After graduation, it gives students experience in their field,” said Heidi Bostwick, the assistant director of Student Financial Assistance.
On the Student Employment website, new jobs are posted every day. With an average wage of $8.77 in March 2008, many jobs students find through the service are well above Arizona’s minimum wage of $6.90.
Student Employment also hosts several job fairs throughout the year. It was at one of these fairs earlier this year that sophomore music major Michele Predmore was hired to work for TeleDevils.
TeleDevils, one of the largest on-campus employers of students and a part of the ASU Foundation, is where many students do philanthropy work for the school. The company normally employs 80-120 students at any given time.
The opportunities for working for TeleDevils extend past just a paycheck.
“We try to help students build networking,” said David Proudfit, assistant director for ASU Foundation. That includes opportunities for students to meet different alumni and faculty from ASU.
But even though many companies have great opportunities for its employees, it’s the basics that draw students to employment.
“I got a job for help paying for school, for going out with friends and for food—for life,” Predmore said.
Reach the reporter at stacie.spring@asu.edu.
