The recent collaboration between Career Services and the Division of Professional Practice to build a common job-search site and clarify the roles of each is sure to make students’ lives easier, but it raises questions about the relationship between the two. In particular, if a common portal for jobs reduces confusion for students hunting for jobs, combining the two under an umbrella organization would do the same for students looking for services related to careers. It seems odd that two organizations with such closely-related goals are not part of the same organization.
Regardless, as for the common career search site, it definitely represents a step in the right direction. The more aggregated job opportunities are, the more likely it is that students will find their perfect match to an opening. As a result, the common portal could even evolve into the center of a student’s job search, instead of just a listing of jobs and applications, but only if the system doesn’t have the prerequisites that previous sites (like P2D2) required students to satisfy before allowing them access to the system. The easier a system is to use and the less time it takes to get started, the more students will use it and reap its benefits.
More, career services on campus will hopefully keep up their record of going to bat for Tech students in the work force, and use their combined influence to track students’ intern and co-op experiences, help companies develop programs and black-list companies that mistreat Tech grads. These services should also look into combating aggressive recruiting policies by employers, such as problems with “exploding offers,” where students are required to accept or reject an offer from a company within a one to two week period. Many other top-tier schools use the value of their name to prevent companies from making exploding offers to their students until late in the year, allowing students time to apply for a wider range of jobs and to grad schools.