As a student and student employee who has begun his fifth year at PNW, I have utilized PUC’s CareerTrax to find a job and to post about job opportunities for the student newspaper. Since before unification, CareerTrax was an absolute disaster on both of those fronts. The new Pride Career Network powered by Handshake has fixed all of CareerTrax’s problems and has proven to be one of the greatest changes since unification.

It is university policy that all student employment positions have to be posted on whatever career network the university uses in order to meet equal employment opportunity standards. This is fine, as all students deserve the opportunity to apply for employment on campus, but CareerTrax offered no way for employers to filter the results.

For example, in the Fall 2015 Semester, our adviser posted on CareerTrax that we were looking for a managing editor for the newspaper. This is a job that requires knowledge of reporting, Associated Press Style writing, copy editing and management. Of the 10 people who applied for the position, only one person was qualified, which was our news editor who applied. The other people who applied were looking for any job on campus and were unable to filter the job search for something that fit their skills. The experience proved to be a waste of time for both us and those who applied who had no experience with journalism in general. This is where the Pride Career Network is truly beneficial. Students can look for jobs on and off campus that are more tailored to their skillset.

From a student standpoint, trying to post a resume, cover letter or apply to a position was a nightmare. Every time I sent my resume or cover letter, I was never quite sure whether it went through; furthermore, saving information to my profile was also convoluted, as sometimes a file would distort the layout of your profile page. After contemplating chucking my laptop down a flight of stairs out of frustration, I would eventually finish applying for a position, sometimes after an hour of trial and error, and I still would not be sure if I was successful. The Pride Career Network, thus far, through my experience has been seamless in every way. I send out a few applications and clean up my page in about 10 minutes.

The only issue that remains with the Pride Career Network and Career Center in general is both are underutilization by students. One thing that I truly wish was taught at my high school was how to create a resume and how to conduct myself in a job interview. Many students try to find some sort of employment prior to college, so these are skills that are necessary to have. Prior to my first visit to the Career Center, I did not even know what a cover letter was. When I had to do a mock interview for my MGMT 30000 class, I thought it would be a waste of time, but I learned how much little things could affect whether I get a job, such as not following-up or rehearsing potential questions I might be asked The Career Center is located in SUL, Room 349 on the Hammond campus, and LSF, Room 104 at the Westville campus.

Having a service for students to find employment opportunities while they’re in school is essential to their success. It is a shame that students had to go as long as they did without a more functional career network, but I am glad that we have one now.