NIU’s Career Planning and Placement Center helps students tackle the post-graduation job market in a variety of ways.

The center’s most frequently used service is its on-campus recruiting program. Campus Recruiting Coordinator Jean Callary said NIU’s recruiting procedures are helpful compared to those of most schools, making the recruitment process easier for both employers and students.

The first step involves attending a campus interviewing orientation. This brief session explains procedures and provides students with general interview guidelines. Once students have attended orientation, they can choose employers that interest them and submit resumes to the center before the appropriate deadlines.

“The unique aspect to NIU’s recruitment program is that the employers see every resume submitted to them, unlike many universities which follow a bidding system,” Callary said.

NIU graduate Jim Brust went through campus recruiting four years ago and landed a job with Andersen Consulting in Chicago. Brust now returns to NIU to recruit for Andersen.

“Interviewing on campus eliminated a lot of work for me and gave me the opportunity to make contacts that wouldn’t have been available to me otherwise,” he said.

Brust said he always enjoys coming back to NIU. “We’ve found that NIU grads fit in well with how we run our business, they tend to be very ambitious, yet realistic in their goals.”

If students do not find the opportunities they want through campus recruiting, the office provides other services to help students in their job search. Placement Counselor Ellen Anderson said the center holds general workshops on resume writing, interview techniques and second interviews.

Anderson said the center also provides workshops catered to specific disciplines and holds workshops for various campus organizations. Counselors are available Monday through Friday to help students prepare resumes and answer general job search questions, she said.

The center also tracks the careers of NIU graduates. Anderson said the career planning center provides information on companies that have hired NIU grads and breaks these down according to majors, their starting salaries and how alumni prepared for interviews.

Career Planning graduate assistant Carol Pultzin is working on another option to help students’ job searches. Pultzin is compiling an alumni file containing names of NIU grads willing to offer career insight in their respective fields.

“With the vast variety of resources available, it seems hard to believe the number of students taking advantage of them is declining,” she said.