Educators have pushed students to get at least one internship in their field of study before they graduate. 

OUCareerLink provides students with professional exposure.

OUCareerLink has more than 2,300 employers per year recruiting in the system and the site receives 742 listings per month, according to the director of Career Services, Wayne Thibodeau. 

He said more than 6,400 students search for jobs each year and the site receives 401 visits daily.

Students can access OUCareerLink through their SAIL account. The site allows them to create an academic  and profile to provide necessary information for possible employers.

Students can then upload a résumé. Cover letters may be needed for certain jobs or internships.

Students can search for jobs based on their major or on a full or part time basis.

Junior psychology major Casey O’Connor found her internship at J.D. Power through the website, but it was not an easy task.

“There are no psychology internships out there,” O’Connor said. 

Through the psychology program, O’Connor was trained in SPSS Software, which is a software program that deals with predictive analytics, according to www.ibm.com.

O’Connor’s knowledge of the software was brought up in her interview and she believes that is what ultimately got her the paid internship.

O’Connor’s daily work duties include data checking and data processing for the annual customer satisfaction studies on airlines, hotels and rental car companies.

Though she was successful in finding a job through the site, she thinks the site could use some improvements.

“It could be more user-friendly, it’s confusing when you first start using it,” O’Connor said.

She also believes the site is geared more toward students within certain programs.

“People who are in business or IT programs have more of a chance than those in the social sciences,” O’Connor said.

Not everyone is finding employment through the site, however. 

Samantha Marcereau, an accounting major and Spanish minor, created a profile in her SBC class last winter semester.

According to Marcereau, SBC 299 Achieve II is a class that is required for all business majors. In the class students were required to upload their résumé to OUCareerLink.

“Professors always talk about CareerLink,” Marcereau said.

Though Marcereau has not yet found a job through the site, she still recommends it to others.

Career Services IT intern Jessica Cockream believes it’s an excellent program that is underutilized for several reasons.

Cockream got her IT internship at Career Services through OUCareerLink. She recommends it to students that visit the Career Services office looking for employment.

“When they come in here and don’t know where to go, we send them there,” Cockream said.

Cockream has heard of the struggles other students have had with the site, but believes it all comes down to how much detail you put into your personal and academic profiles.

She said if profiles are incomplete or completed incorrectly, students cannot search or apply for jobs within the system.

“Some students throw them together just to get past that stage,” Cockream said.

Cockream has seen student successes with the site and knows that it is just a matter of making sure things are done correctly.

“Students who use it to its full potential get the best results,” she said.

Students can find more information about OUCareerLink from the Career Services office in 154 North Foundation Hall and from the Career Services webpage at www.oakland.edu

 

Contact Staff Reporter Ali DeRees via email at [email protected]