Finding summer employment is the emphasis of workshops being held this semester at various NIU residence halls by the Career Planning and Placement Center.

These workshops are aimed at helping students locate summer employment by discussing the necessary steps in finding, and then getting, a summer job, said Dawn L. Scheffner, coordinator of Job Location and Development.

Scheffner started the summer workshops because she believed they were a natural outgrowth of many other workshops sponsored year-round by the Career Planning and Placement Center.

“I developed this workshop myself, and we do job workshops as a regular part of our program. The summer-job workshops were started because a need existed for students to know how to go about looking for summer employment,” Scheffner said.

The summer-job workshops focus on the steps involved in looking for a summer job, which include beginning the job search, applying for jobs, interviewing, accepting a position and benefiting from a summer job. The workshops also cover the many problems encountered in a job search.

“An important thing is that a student has to start looking for a summer job now,” Scheffner stated.

To start a summer job search, a student should think about his abilities, needs, the time he can spend working and if he really wants to spend his summer working. Resume writing is an important step, and a few workshops are focused primarily on this step.

Examples of resumes, common places to look for a job, internships and how to prepare for an interview is some of the information included in the handouts given out at the workshops.

Expecting rejection and, therefore, filling out many applications is one aspect of a summer-job search that many students overlook, Scheffner said. Many students do not realize that many others are applying for a few summer jobs, she said.

The workshops are being held in the residence halls because Scheffner believes that freshmen and sophmores usually have the least amount of work experience and typically have the most problems finding a job. She said more students attend the one-hour workshops because they are held at a very convenient location.