Career Services Might Not Help Everyone Equally
By Matthew Strickland

Graduation is just around the corner for many seniors, and University Careers Services tries to relieve that stress and provide opportunities, but they may not help everyone who’s out there looking.

The spring job fair provided by University Career services is the last chance for many seniors to lock-up employment before graduation.

Director of Career Services Marci Harris said they do a little more than supply a name tag to help UNC students find a job.

“Well our office has a wide array of programs, from individual counseling to programs like career fairs, career panels, networking nights. We schedule about 4,000 on-campus interviews a year,” Harris said.

And with resumes in hand, students come to the career fair to try and find a job, but what most find is that their major is being left out.

Journalism major Mary Dupre said the career fair seemed to help other people’s piggy banks.

“It seems like most of the opportunities are for business majors – a lot of analysis positions – and there’s just not that many for communications,” Dupre said.

And Mary isn’t the only student who feels slighted by the fair’s emphasis on business majors. Biology major Susan Britt says a great place for her to work is somewhere more science focused.

“I feel like a lot of times they end up focusing toward business and econ. And if they could focus also toward the sciences, and journalism (it would be great),” Britt said. “I know a lot of my friends feel the same way I do.”

Harris also said it’s hard to know how much career services really helps students find a job.

“What we do know is that about 90 percent of the graduating seniors every year indicate that they’ve used careers services,” Harris said.

Harris also said that 85 percent of graduates who completed their survey agree that career services is helpful, but for some majors, that help may be minimal.

To visit career Web site, go to careers.unc.edu