Career Aggie offers student employment
A new online source, Career Aggie, allows students to search for jobs or internships and arrange for on-campus interviews with potential employers.
Students logged into the account can upload their resumes, cover letters and transcripts for seeking employers posted on the site to view, said Randy Jensen, director of USU Career Services.
Employers can type in keywords to search for students with a particular skill or major. Students can also research employers to learn what skills are needed to get a particular job or internship, he said.
“The good thing about this process is that the employers who are contacting us are really interested in finding students from our school who are seeking degrees,” Jensen said.
Career Aggie is now USU Career Services’ primary database source for the students, Jensen said, and can be accessed at www.usu.edu/career.
“It’s a good way to let students know about the opportunities available,” he said.
Because students don’t have to go through the job hunting process in person, and employers will come to campus to interview students for jobs, Jensen said he thinks using the online source is convenient for students.
Ben Call, a senior majoring in Mechanical Engineering uses Career Aggie to post his resume and to check up on interview opportunities.
“Usually I hear about things through the e-mails that Career Services sends out,” he said.
Call has never found a job through Career Aggie but has through other opportunities Career Services has set up like the Career Fair.
“We had the interview over the phone. And a couple weeks later, I got the job,” Call said.
“I like how easy Career Services makes it to get your account going and how much they advertise it so you don’t forget about it,” said Call about Career Aggie. “I don’t like how I forget how everything works when I don’t use it for a while, and I sometimes don’t feel like I have time to do it.”
Alumni also have access to the system. Sometimes alumni who already have jobs use Career Aggie to look for something different, Jensen said.
E-Recruiting, the company USU Career Services used before Career Aggie, changed policy, charging employers who wanted to post job listings. This may discourage employers from posting themselves on the site, Jensen said. Part of the reason why Career Services switched outsource companies is to get more opportunities for the students, he said.
“This system is free to employers and because we use an outsource company, it is accessible twenty-four hours a day to everyone,” said Jennifer Loscher, from the Career Services office.
Career Aggie will be different from E-Recruiting because it will post upcoming career events, such as the Tech Expo taking place on Oct. 26 and Career Fair on March 2, said Loscher.
Loscher said the on-line service has adapted to USU’s identity. Instead of calling it it’s real name, “CSO Research,” Career Services named it “Career Aggie.”
Career Aggie has only been available for a couple of months and there are no current statistics of how successful it has been for job seekers, Jensen said.
Loscher said there are improvements that could be made to better the site. By December, Loscher said she wants to integrate the on-campus interview schedules with the jobs database, so that users can clearly see the information.
“Our hope is that every student gets into the system in order to have access to full-time job positions, internships, and networking contacts,” Loscher said.
-doantn@cc.usu.edu