As Medill students start their searches for internships and jobs this quarter, they will have to take the additional step of registering with InterviewTRAK, part of CareerTrak, University Career Services’ online database.
The Web site helps students learn about recruiters coming to campus, submit their resumes in advance and schedule interviews.
Medill’s Director of Placement Bonnie Bell said InterviewTRAK will “empower students to control their own interview scheduling with on-campus recruiters.”
Career Services is available to all students and alumni, excluding some professional schools such as the Law and Medical schools. CareerTrak includes InterviewTRAK and a section called Jobs and Internships, which focuses on job opportunities where a recruiter will not be visiting campus.
Although their students have access to Career Services, Medill and the School of Music have their own placement offices.
Medill students have had access to InterviewTRAK, but they had to visit the school’s placement office for journalism jobs through Medill. Bell said students now will be able to use InterviewTRAK for both.
Dianne Siekmann, acting director of Career Services, said that although Medill students will be using InterviewTRAK, they will not be using the Jobs and Internships section of CareerTrak.
Siekmann said the placement office will continue to post job and internship listings in Fisk Hall. She said that Medill’s use of InterviewTRAK will make things “a lot easier for everybody.”
Medill sophomore Karin Kowalski, who used the placement center’s job listings last year, said she received good advice from Bell, but thinks “it’s good to have another tool to find jobs.”
Kowalski decided to work for a trade paper not listed by the placement office, but she said she intends to keep using the office’s resources and possibly begin using InterviewTRAK.
Medill senior Ellica Church tried to use the placement office last year to find a summer internship but instead found one on her own. Church said the placement office did an OK job, but she had to do “a lot of footwork on (her) own last year.”
Church said the placement office was difficult to get in touch with, a problem she hopes will be alleviated by the new program. Church thinks InterviewTRAK will be better than the previous system because there will be less paper to deal with and that the system will be more cost effective because resumes can be uploaded onto the system rather than repeatedly photocopied.
Dorothy Wyandt, the School of Music’s placement director, said her school does not use CareerTrak at all because “it’s not relevant to the performing musician.” Wyandt said many job listings are sent to her directly and she puts together a list of job-hunting resources for students. But, Wyandt said, she has some students who use CareerTRAK to find non-music positions.
On Friday, Career Services representatives gave seniors and graduate students a crash session on InterviewTRAK, along with other job-hunting and graduate school tips at the Class of 2002 Career Conference. The event was held to familiarize students from all schools with the job-search process, Siekmann said.
“I believe every one of you can find a good job after graduation if that’s what you want to do,” Vice President for Student Affair William Banis told students at the opening of the seminar.
Banis said that if a student “really exploits the resources” offered by Career Services, he or she will have a much better chance of finding a job or internship.
