The Career Planning and Placement Center is ready and willing to teach students how to find jobs effectively.

“It’s not the best candidate who gets the job, it’s the candidate that best knows how to get the job,” said Gary Scott, Director of Career Planning and Placement at NIU.

The office, located at Swen Parson, Room 210, is open throughout the school year to help seniors and graduate students enter their careers as smoothly as possible, Scott said.

Counselors at the placement center first try to get the interested student to specify the career direction they would like to take, Scott said. Once this is determined, student and counselor begin work on a resume tailored to the job the student is seeking.

“We feel a general purpose resume doesn’t do a person much good,” Scott said.

Vickie Oliver, in her third year as an NIU placement counselor, agreed that making a resume is an essential, if time consuming, part of a job search.

Students who have drafted a resume can have them looked over in counselor booths in front of the center, Oliver said. The booths are open on school days from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“The (booth) counter is really there for those who need assistance very quickly,” Oliver said.

The center is also there to be an information service for students wondering what kinds of jobs are available. The more a student knows about a job, the more effective job hunting will be, Scott said.

Part of the center’s service is to locate and recruit employers for students and place students in contact with them, Scott said.

A continual problem when recruiting employers, however, is the economic downturns that affect job availability in certain professions, Scott said.

For instance, a couple of years ago, it was hard to find education jobs for NIU students, Scott said. Fortunately, 125 school districts have applied at the placement center this year, he said.

Finding jobs at companies may be more successful if a student looks at other employers besides those dealing mainly in the student’s chosen profession, Scott said. Accountants, for example, might have luck finding employment in companies other than accounting firms, he said.

Another barrier in job hunting is the students’ unwillingness to seek out-of-state employment, Scott said. Around 90 percent of NIU graduates get jobs in Illinois, although increasingly, good jobs are to be gained elsewhere, he said.

“We can’t bring employers for everybody,” conceded Scott.

A student has three things to sell—his educational experience, his employment experience, and his personal attributes, said Scott.

Although personal attributes can be hinted at in a resume, an interview is where a student can best indicate his or her strong personal characteristics, said Scott.

Oliver said she often conducts mock interviews with job candidates to make the process seem more familiar and give them a chance to practice responding. The center also offers workshops on interviewing techniques, covering such things as what to take, what to wear and what to do afterwards, she said.

The placement center tries to teach NIU students some things they won’t learn in any of their courses, Scott said.