Despite all the attention being paid to seniors seeking post-graduate employment, Career Services offers a number of services geared to freshmen, sophomores and juniors seeking leave-term jobs, internships, scholarships, and general career counseling.
Career Services Director Skip Sturman explained students interested in taking advantage of his office should "start with self-assessment, then move to reality testing stage through internships and leave-term jobs so by the time they get to senior year they are sophisticated, savvy users of our offices."
Daniel Neiderjohn '97 said "I regret not utilizing Career Services because I feel that I was somewhat limited in my choices and for that reason I didn't have the best opportunities for internships."
Within the Career Services office is a listing of between 1,300 to 1,400 actual leave-term job opportunities, many of which have previously been held by Dartmouth students.
Students can access these job descriptions through the use of their computers and the DCIS Navigator. More detailed information is contained in files located in the Career Services office.
In addition to actual job listings, Career Services offers many internship directories, including a world geographic directory, and a career posting service called Job Track, that allow students to access names of employers and firms where students might seek employment.
Sturman explained that students often make the mistake of shying away from non-paying internships.
"There is an amazing variety of funding on campus for off-campus experiences for internships and undergraduate research. We have information in the office about where funding sources can be found whether they be the Rockefeller Center, the Tucker Foundation or the academic departments," Sturman said.
An increasing number of companies are interviewing for internships on campus, including some this fall. Freshmen and sophomores should "monitor their blitz bulletins for any information on upcoming interviews," Sturman said.
Using Career Services, Larelin Cartaya '97 "very easily" found an internship in San Francisco working with emotionally disturbed children.
"First of all they told me where everything was. I wanted to be in a specific location and I wanted to go into something that had to do with education and psychology. They showed me a specific folder and I found what I was looking for," she said.
However, Nina Ji '97 had a different experience with Career Services.
"Every time I looked for jobs, particularly in the field of science I found the job lists seriously outdated. Often projects or programs offered would be canceled . The list was compiled three of four years ago and has not been revised since. Many of the alumni that I tried to contact [through the list] were unhelpful, unresponsive or impossible to reach," she said.
David Walthall '98 said he "found the process to be fairly scary just because there is a lot you have to do. [Career Services] points you in to the right place but you have to do most of it on your own."
