Collaborating with the career planning and placement center in the job-search project.

Developing a job-search project where students Dare required to use the resources of their university's career planning and placement center can be a worthwhile experience for you and your students. Since I have started using the project in my business communication class, the students' comments

have been positive. Students remark that they didn't realize how much time and energy are required to plan for a career and find a job and are grateful they were given the opportunity to discover these things now. They are also surprised to discover the number of ways that the center can assist them in their career planning and job search.

The project I assign incorporates the services provided by the campus career center into the already existing employment communications section in the business communication textbook. Since the career center is able to focus their full attention on career planning, more specialized resources and staff are available to assist the students. By making use of the services and expertise provided by the center, the job search process could be included into variety of existing courses, not just business communication. The student can complete much of the work outside of the classroom without taking time away from the required content. A project such as this also provides students an opportunity to practice their writing skills for a practical purpose.

Setting aside three 50-minute class sessions in your schedule to introduce the project, to accommodate the guest speaker from the career center, and to review resumes and letters of application will probably be sufficient. Also, allowing a few minutes at the beginning of class for questions about the project will be helpful for tracking the students' progress. To provide students with the opportunity to complete the project thoroughly, give a two- to three-week deadline.

Project Requirements

The project is divided into seven requirements (a) self-analysis, (b) occupational background research, (c) matching self-analysis to occupation research, (d) organization investigation, (e) writing the resume and letter, (f) interviewing, and (g) attending a career center workshop.

A job-search project is normally incorporated into the business communication course, and a variety of business communication textbooks provide a career planning and employment procedure that can be followed. Since the uniqueness of this project is the contact the student has with the campus career center, only those aspects are discussed below.

Get to Know Your Career Center

As the instructor, you must become familiar with your campus career center. Depending on the size of your placement or career counseling center, a variety of services and activities may be offered -- individual placement counseling; placement registration; credential services; on-campus interviews; job fairs; job-vacancy bulletins and listings; a career library; computerized resume writing software; and job-seeking workshops focusing on job-search techniques, resume writing, business correspondence, and effective interviewing techniques. Contact your career center and ask for information describing the services they provide. Meeting with someone in the office and requesting a tour of the center would provide you with the appropriate background information to design the project.

Career Center as a Source of Information

Invite someone from your campus career center to speak to your class after the project requirements have been given to your students. Provide a copy of the project requirements to the career center representative. Work closely with the speaker so the presentation can be tailored to your class project. Ask the speaker to inform the students of the employment services they provide.

The career center will usually house a large variety of sources of information that may not be available in the library. These sources of information can provide detailed information on (a) the typical job responsibilities; (b) working conditions; (c) job qualifications and educational requirements; (d) advancement possibilities and career track; (e) employment outlook, projected employment levels, and factors influencing the future of the occupation; (f) average earnings; (g) related occupations; and (h) industry trends. This information can be found in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, Encyclopedia of Associations, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Forbes, Job Opportunities, Dictionary of Occupational Titles, trade journals, and informational interviews. Communicate with your career center to determine what titles are available for student use.

The counseling center or career center may also have computer programs where students can conduct a self-directed search and produce a printout summary of career matches on abilities, values, and interests with general information about specific occupations. SIGI PLUS, Discovery, Horizons, or C-LECT are just a few of the programs that might be available through your institution's career or counseling center.

When the students are ready to investigate a specific organization, direct them to the career center and library for a variety of indexes, directories, and business manuals, including ABI/Inform, Academic Index, Million Dollar Directory, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), US. Industrial Outlook, Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys, CPC Annual, Internships Guide, Hoover's Handbook of American Business, and America's Fastest Growing Employers. Many companies also provide university career centers with pamphlets, annual reports, and videos describing their career opportunities.

Career Center Workshops and Job Fair

The most important requirement for this project is attending a workshop presented by the career center. The workshops provide supporting information that was presented in class or in the textbook. Encouraging the student to attend the workshops provided by your career center may provide you with more time to cover the numerous topics which must be included in business communication courses. Some of the workshops provided by our career center include the following: "Successful Interviewing Techniques" "Resumes and Cover Letters Made Easy," "Mock Interviews," "Make Yourself Marketable" "Job Search Strategies for People With Disabilities," "How to Find a Job," "Planning for Relocation" "What Is the Best Job for You?" and "Preparations for That First Job."

Obtain a schedule of workshops conducted by your career center so the project requirement due dates can be organized around the workshop schedule. Students are also encouraged to attend the job fair that is organized by the career center each semester. When a student attends the job fair organized by the career center, a real purpose exists for completing this project. Completion of the project is scheduled around the dates for the job fair. To document attendance at the workshop or job fair, require students to submit a one-page, double-spaced paper describing what they learned and how they will apply the information.

Value of the Project

The demands placed on business communication courses are becoming greater. Intercultural communication, communication technology, and ethical issues in communication are important topics which we must somehow squeeze into the existing curriculum. By utilizing the existing resources of the career center, maybe we could eliminate devoting so much class time to job-search techniques. Since the resources and expertise already exist, why not make use of them?