Now is the time of year, just before you settle in, when everyone urges you to consider what's next. Most of the commentary around Grounds centers on recruitment or graduate school or landing the right internship. Hardly a career fair or informational session exists dedicated solely to the road less travelled. What about students who want to spend time after college evaluating their options? What about students who want to travel, find a job somewhere different or maybe do something selfless for a year or two before joining their peers in the "real world?" Where are their career fairs?
The University should have more services for students who want to pursue alternative ways of spending their years after graduation. There should be comparable resources for students exploring service organizations as there are for students exploring investment banking.
Most students looking for jobs after graduation know that they have countless resources at their disposal. University Career Services requires any student conducting interviews on Grounds to attend an orientation seminar, at which they explain CAVLink -- the University's "technically enhanced Web site where you'll enjoy access to thousands of jobs, internships, and externships." CAVLink should include more sections for NGOs, foreign companies and service organizations.
Usually, students looking to work overseas are left to fend for themselves. True, some employers recruit for jobs in other countries. But there should be a place where students could go to learn about the process from beginning to end. UCS could support counseling services for students who know they want to work in a foreign country, but who might not have decided exactly what they want to do.
Applying for visas, arranging housing and coordinating alumni networks: These are just some of the daunting tasks facing any prospective traveller that UCS does successfully for students seeking more traditional careers. UCS offers career advice and resume critiques, neither of which would be difficult to adjust to the needs of students searching for alternative careers.
On UCS' Web site, the only career fair listed that seems especially helpful to students pursuing foreign companies or service organizations is one encompassing government organizations and non-profit groups. Service organizations like Teach for America, the Peace Corps, Americorps and the Red Cross -- all of which recruit on Grounds individually -- could coordinate a single career fair for similar groups. Such an event would help fill the gap between traditional recruiting and students considering community service.
Students shouldn't always think they need to live one year in the future. Over the next several weeks, real estate companies will tell first-years that they should begin arranging their housing for next year. Professors will gently urge second-years to begin declaring their majors. Companies will emphasize the need for third-years to line up that internship. And nearly everyone will tell fourth-years it's time to consider the rest of their lives.
Everyone, especially fourth-years soon to be coping with college withdrawal, should be comfortable knowing that whatever path they choose, someone at the University can help.
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