A sea of business suits, high heels and ties floods Page Auditorium. Nervous seniors tap their pencils and feet in an unconscious response to anxiety. Corporate recruiters have arrived on campus, and students must now wait their turn to be interviewed.
Meanwhile, others are searching the World Wide Web for job opportunities, posting their resumés online and calling companies to inquire about openings.
Although the job-hunting methods vary, the importance of landing that first job does not. For many Duke students, this sometimes agonizing process is the first big step toward the rest of their adult lives.
"I don't think the actual job is as important as the life experience of beginning to work," said Trinity senior David Feinberg. He has had more than six on-campus interviews and plans to work in financial services or consulting before moving on to business school.
While some seniors choose the business route for their first jobs, others opt for more unconventional occupations. Trinity senior Sara Jewett, also an organizer of Students Against Sweatshops, plans either to work hands-on with young people or to apply for a Hart Fellowship to do documentary work with youth programs in developing countries.
"I'd like to be working with community members to identify goals and clarify strategies to improve their quality of life," she wrote in an e-mail. Although she says she has always been fairly sure of her interests, Jewett admits that some members of the Duke community find her job choice strange. "I came to Duke knowing I wasn't going to go the conventional route," she said. "I've gotten a lot of blank stares when I tell some friends I'm not thinking about going into consulting."
Although some students perceive that the majority of Duke students go into consulting and work for big-name companies, Michele Rasmussen, a former Duke graduate student who now works as a fellow at the Career Development Center, said this is not the case.
"The perception is there, and we are trying to dispel that myth," she said. The fellows serve as contacts for students with general questions and can help students navigate through the center.
CDC Director Leo Charette said that because of the big firms' visibility during on-campus recruiting and career fairs, students assume that these larger companies represent the majority of career choices for students.
"Only a certain type of employer can participate in these events," he said. These employers include ones who can afford to send representatives and "those who can anticipate their hiring needs a year in advance."
Although many smaller companies or non-profit organizations may not be able to visit campus, Charette said there are many other options for students to find employment.
Mary Stiles, the center's other career fellow, admitted that for some occupations, "It just takes a lot more on the student's part."
Stiles, Trinity '99, recommends that students start thinking about their job possibilities as early as freshman year so that they can explore their options and develop a relationship with the career center staff, avoiding the senior year panic that affects many students. "Usually, people freak out senior year when they realize, 'Oh my gosh, I need a job,'" she said.
Still, many students spend much of their Duke career trying to figure out exactly what their interests are. For many of them, figuring out what those interests are and matching them up with a job is the difficult part. Feinberg, who went from pre-med to a public policy major, advises students to look to themselves for answers. "Follow your heart," he said. "Relax, and by senior year you'll figure it out."
These interests often manifest themselves in the student's major, and although she says it is important, Rasmussen stresses that a major does not determine a student's final job. "It really doesn't matter," she said. "Your major should reflect what you're interested in."
Renee Salemme, a college recruiting associate for the technology company Microstrategy, agreed. "A major is helpful, but it's not the qualifying or deciding factor," she said. Salemme said her company employs students with a variety of majors.
Trinity senior and computer science major Christopher Brandt advises students to "take a broad range of classes. Take something that you might have a slight interest in." Brandt said that taking CPS 006 as a freshman had influenced his career path-he is now deciding between working in a technology-based company or in the consulting business.
Although classroom knowledge is important, getting hands-on experience can also be invaluable. "[Interning] has helped me a great deal to know that this is what I wanted to do," said pre-med student and Trinity senior Nicola Smith. "I am learning about the profession and learning not just the things that they will teach in medical school, but also about the human aspect."
Smith participated in the Medical Center's Health Careers Internship Program during the spring semester of her freshman year and then worked alongside a doctor for eight weeks the next summer.
Pratt senior and electrical engineering and physics major Amrith Ram said he thinks Duke has prepared him well for future jobs, but said he is still a little nervous about getting out into the real world. "There's always some anxiety when you are going into something you don't know about," he said. "But I am very excited."
Although Ram said he thinks that most occupations could be enjoyable, what's most important is the company's atmosphere-whether or not "the people who work there are happy."
And Jewett says that more than anything else, she would like a job that will allow her to affect people's lives. "I want to look back and be proud," she said. "I want to know people have been positively impacted by my life and that I haven't let my fear... limit my options."
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