For alumni and students alike, the road to employment in a depressed economy leads through UGA's award-winning Career Center

B Y - D O U G - M O N R O E - (A B J - '6 9)

acing graduation and a chilly job market last December, real estate major Ryan Hoyt got serious about finding work. He started going to the University's Career Center in Clark Howell Hall and signed up on DawgTRAK, an online job/internship posting and campus recruiting system.

He volunteered for mock interviews at the center with several large corporations to get feedback on his interview skills before going to real sessions with his chosen companies. After a mock interview with a pharmaceutical giant, Hoyt was expecting candid comments about his answers. Instead, the interviewer told him bluntly: "Sit up straight in your chair."

Thinking back on that experience, Hoyt (BBA '02) says, "I made sure to sit up straight the rest of the time."

In fact, he sat up straight enough, and handled his subsequent interviews well enough, to land one of only four pre-sales associate jobs at Grubb & Ellis Co., one of the nation's premier real estate firms.

"The Career Center didn't get me the job, but they gave me the tools and showed me how to apply," says Hoyt. "They helped me with everything from setting up my resume to basic interviewing skills."

Parents as well as students are discovering the value of the newly aggressive center.

"I think the Career Center is the best-kept secret at the University," says Duncan Beard (BBA '70), co-chair of UGA's Parents Council, who found out about the center when its executive director, Scott Williams, made a presentation to the council.

"I'm a big fan of Scott," says Beard. "He is one of the University's hidden diamonds."

Williams was front and center on Jan. 22 during the center's Spring Career Fair, which drew 1,600 students to the Classic Center to meet with more than 100 companies that set up recruiting tables. The city looked as if it had been invaded by a junior Fortune 500 army. Virtually all the students took the center's "Dress to Impress" advice and wore dark suits, white shirts and black shoes.

"Everybody looks very professional and poised," said Shaunteria Dye, a junior marketing major who was looking for an internship. "They have a lot of style for college students. Normally, they're in jeans and T-shirts."

Recruiters were impressed as well.

"They're all very well put-together and they're motivated to get jobs," said Jennifer Baine of Progressive Insurance, standing at a booth with a sign that proclaimed, "We're fun, exciting and (here's the weird part) an insurance company."

Williams presided over the job fair like the conductor of a symphony orchestra, talking with students and recruiters as they entered the hall. When he heard a complaint that the fair seemed weighted heavily toward business majors, he said, "I think many employers are looking at a wide spectrum of majors and they're looking at the entire package, including co-curricular activities, internships and leadership."

A few feet away, third-year law student Damon Kitterman was making contacts with large corporations about a possible in-house counsel job. He sought out the job fair because most recruiters at the law school tend to be law firms, not corporations. He met more than a dozen recruiters at the fair and planned to follow up by sending his resume electronically.

But just to make sure other bases are covered beyond the traditional corporate-dominated job fair, Williams started two new on-campus job fairs this year: the Nonprofit Expo and an event specifically geared to South Campus majors: Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Family and Consumer Sciences, and Forest Resources. The Nonprofit Expo attracted nearly 100 agencies that had never recruited at UGA before, exposing students to a large number of government jobs. The South Campus event featured fashion merchandising recruiters as well as agricultural companies.

ince arriving at UGA just over two years ago, Williams has rapidly and radically transformed the Career Center so thoroughly that the 2003 edition of Kaplan's "The Unofficial, (Un)biased Insider's Guide to the 320 Most Interesting Colleges" recently ranked UGA's career services among the best in the nation.

First, Williams streamlined operations to make the center more user-friendly for both students and employers. Next, he organized the center into a college-specific model of career services so that each college has its own specialized career consultant. He also followed the corporate model and created a mission statement, a list of specific goals, and a vision: "Students whose career choices and educational experiences maximize lifelong professional impact and personal satisfaction."

The 37-year-old Williams brought his high-energy style to UGA just in time to address the challenges of what has been called "the jobless recovery."

Dan Parker (AB '69, MA '71), a partner in BakerParker and Associates, an Atlanta-based executive recruiting firm, recruited Williams from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he had just arrived after successful career services jobs at Vanderbilt and Ole Miss.

"Scott and his team have turned the Career Center into one of the better programs around today," says Parker, who also recruited President Michael Adams to the University. Parker credits Adams with making the Career Center turnaround an urgent priority. He also believes Williams is the right man for the tough times many students now face in finding a job.

"Look at the '02 graduating class," Parker says. "I estimate that no more than 50 percent of those graduates have what we call career jobs. That's a direct result of the economy."

"I don't like the word 'placement.' It implies that we do it for somebody. I always use the analogy of when you want to get in shape, you don't just go to the gym and automatically you're physically fit."—Scott Williams

Williams says the Career Center can help, even in a down economy: "It's definitely a much more competitive job market right now. But I think too many students are hearing the media buzz about the economy and it's all doom and gloom, while the reality is that there are still some very good entry-level jobs and companies are still recruiting at the University of Georgia. They are just recruiting 10 students instead of 20. And so there are fewer opportunities on the entry-level basis."

Williams sees the Career Center as a vastly different sort of place than the old notion of a "placement office."

"I don't like the word 'placement.' It implies that we do it for somebody. I always use the analogy of when you want to get in shape, you don't just go to the gym and automatically you're physically fit. You have to exercise, ride the stationary bike, lift the weights, run on the treadmill, and then you'll become physically fit. You don't just come to the Career Center and automatically get a job. You have to exercise while you're here. You have to meet with your career consultant. You have to participate in the programs, services, and resources that we have available. You have to attend our career fairs and engage in the campus interview process and register for DawgTRAK on campus. We have a weekly e-career newsletter that goes out to more than 10,000 students and alumni."

Williams is polished and confident enough to give hope to parents of liberal arts majors, who often despair of their children ever getting jobs. Williams believes liberal arts graduates have all the skills an employer could want. To back up his belief, the center's Web site (www.uga.edu/career) offers examples of the types of jobs liberal arts majors might find. For example, for graduates with English degrees the site lists 72 possible job titles, from academic advisor to travel agent.

On any given day, a hallway near Williams' office on the second floor of the refurbished Clark Howell Hall is lined with suited-up students poised in chairs outside 18 interview rooms. A list on a nearby bulletin board names the companies interviewing on campus that day. Computer labs are filled with students working on their resumes and prowling DawgTRAK for internships and interview possibilities. Undergraduates take tests to figure out a major. The bustle of activity makes it clear that the word is getting out about the center.

"Students who have been successful here, who have had a pleasant experience, are our greatest ambassadors," says Williams.

Sarah Hughes, a senior advertising major who wants to work in the motion picture industry and holds an internship at the center, is one such ambassador.

"It's become a running joke among my friends that every party I go to I somehow find someone to talk to about the Career Center," she says. "People need help finding an internship or working on a resume. I tell them what the Career Center can do for them. The database is right on line. Students can log in and search for amazing jobs. I've gotten a lot of people to go in."

Neil Hurwitz (BBA '01) is an example of a student who used the Career Center to the hilt. A marketing major who minored in film, Hurwitz has worked for a year in marketing and advertising with Compass International, a construction company he connected with through the center. He began going to the center as a junior and went on 30 interviews amidst the tight job market that followed the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

"The reason I got the job was that I was really good on the interview," says Hurwitz. "When I started interviewing, I was a pretty rough work-in-progress, but I kept going and getting advice, and by the time I interviewed with Compass, I was pretty good at interviewing."

Hurwitz stills harbors the desire to be a screenwriter and says his UGA career consultant, Jed Gillespie, not only helped him prepare for the business world but has given him helpful advice about getting into the film industry.

Rusty Clifton (BS '02), who earned his degree in agricultural communications, had his heart set on a marketing job in motor sports, ideally with NASCAR. He worked with the Career Center's Christie Sanders, who helped him write cover letters, prepare for interviews, and learn how to cold-call potential employers. But his offers in motor sports were mostly internships, which he didn't want because he was getting married and needed a full-time job. Instead, he got a sales position with Pennington Seed and has already earned a promotion. "It's a good job with a great company," he says. "The Career Center gave me a lot of confidence and also a lot of intuition and insight. I tell everybody who's still in college to use it. It's an extremely valuable asset to the University. By doing what I did, a lot more doors open to you."

"UGA students come well equipped with solid team orientation, strong academic performance, and proven leadership abilities."—Meredith Gaile, SunTrust Bank

Employers see the center as an effective way to find capable young employees.

"SunTrust's successful recruiting efforts are greatly enhanced by the Career Center's commitment to customer service," says Meredith Gaile, SunTrust Bank's campus and community relations manager. "UGA students come well equipped with solid team orientation, strong academic performance, and proven leadership abilities."

Students and recent grads aren't the center's only beneficiaries. Dan Parker, the executive recruiter in Atlanta, credits Scott Williams with creating a new thrust to help alumni as well as students in their job searches. "Scott is doing something very important by assisting alumni in their career endeavors," says Parker. "A good many schools, including Georgia Tech, offer a defined program that helps alumni."

Parker is also a satisfied parent. His son, Daniel (BBA '02), landed a job with Nissan Corp. last year and the Career Center helped him with counseling and advice. "He had 40 or so interviews," says the grateful father. "If you ask any parent who sends a kid to the University for an education, we'd like for them to be prepared to take their place in the work force. Part of the University's role is career advice and counseling."

Duncan Beard of the Parents Council also has personal experience with the center. He enthusiastically recommended it to his son, Charles, a junior majoring in real estate.

"Not only has he been to the center," the elder Beard says, "but he's also the pledge trainer for the SAE fraternity and he made all the pledges go. He tried to emphasize to them the importance of getting on this track early."

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