Winning the Job Search

Dana Mace*

Department of Business and Economics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation Category: Oral-Human Engagement (Oral Presentation #17)

Student’s Major: Economics and Finance

Students need more career support early in their academic career. The career search has increasingly became more competitive and companies are expecting more out of college graduates. Over the past few years, companies have started recruiting earlier and younger students. There are also countless Leadership and Development programs designed for Freshman and Sophomores to get a feel for companies and roles within them, that are not fully utilized. These act as great “pre-interview” tools for the companies, but also major resume builders and decision-making tools for students. These under utilized corporate programs are great ways to learn about specific majors and job descriptions. Many juniors and seniors still find themselves unsure about what they want to do. With more insight about these programs students would be more educated and have more confidence in the direction they are heading in their junior and senior years. Additionally, as a finance major, for example, simply searching “Finance” will not provide a detailed job search. Students need to learn the tools to effectively search through key job titles and perspective career paths. Students are taught later in their academic career how to correctly search databases through library workshops, but they are not provided the same expertise for their job/career researching. With these tools and increased insight students will be more competitive for internships and full-time positions, ultimately also increasing placement ratings.

Funding: Honors Excel

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: Other, Honors EXCEL