CS offers guidance to graduates

As commencement approaches, a priority for Texas A&M International University graduating seniors is the amount of jobs available as they enter the workforce. The Career Services at TAMIU assists seniors by offering them a wide array of services, such as improving resumes and learning effective interviewing skills, in order to help them land their dream job.
Career Services also offers guidance by emphasizing the ambience of the current economy as a challenge for upcoming graduates as Laura Martinez, director of employer relations at TAMIU describes.
"Right now we are seeing an increase in students coming to our office, primarily the senior students, because they are approaching graduation and that is really important for them to be prepared for finding a job. They're coming in looking for assistance on their resume, a lot of them already have their resume, what we do is basically look it over and polish it up, then help them find a job that is in line with what they are graduating with and what their major is."
Martinez suggests that current TAMIU grads should consider relocating to find a career especially suited to their degree.
"The economy is not at its best in terms of the availability of job opportunities right now. So, Laredo is very limited in what it can offer. A lot of the time, we do encourage students to consider moving out up north in other Texas cities or maybe even across the nation in other states so that they are able to have a greater pool of jobs to choose from."
Martinez does say that there are some jobs available in Laredo however the competition for these jobs is intense.
"What we are seeing is that the few jobs which are available are very sought after by a large group of unemployed people. So what happens is that there is this great demand for very, very few jobs. The competition is very much present. That's why we say consider moving out where there are bigger cities and more opportunities."
Some of the occupations that are increasing in job availability according to Martinez include those within health and home care.
"We are going to be seeing according to the statistics from the Bureau of Labor, as their projections state that we will see an increase in certain industries, for example, the health industry. The generation of the baby boomers is approaching that age where they are retiring, they have medical needs and they need a lot of the diagnostic laboratory procedures. Home health services are also going to be increasing because of that. In terms of industry that will be in growth mode will be the health industry as well as information technology in relation to the health industry."
Martinez's biggest suggestion to future graduates as to what aspect an employer looks at when hiring an individual at this point is adaptability.
"Adaptability is the key quality in anyone going out into the workforce right now. The traditional structure of the way jobs were five years ago or ten years ago is not the same this time around. Because of the way the economy has set things up, now it's not as structured, the expectations are not the same. They are constantly changing so employees need to constantly adapt to those changes."
Networking is also an extremely important tool graduates need in order to find a job at this phase of the economy.
"We encourage students to make use of all of the tools that are available to them, to exhaust them in terms of networking as it becomes very important. We tell students to not isolate themselves because for several reasons it's not the best way to go about it. You want to get out there and just use the resources which are available to you. Networking involves talking to your groups of friends, then friends of your friends, relatives, professors, and past employees. You want to make use of all of those people that you know of to get the word out there that you are looking for a job and that they are aware that you are doing that so that they can put you in contact with someone. If they don't have the information, they can recommend you to another friend they know or an associate."
As graduates enter the job market, the career path proves to be challenging. By encouraging these standards among students entering the workplace, the opportunity for them finding a job increases exponentially.
For more information please contact Career Services at 326-4473.
(Christine Rojas may be reached at christine_r7@
dusty.tamiu.edu)