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Career Services helps students and alumni prepare for and launch their careers

Shelly Drouillard, Director of the Center for Experiential Learning and Career Services

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We editors at the IC requested this letter to the editor from Career Services, as one of our stories last week caused some distress in that department. The story in question is no longer available online. We did not intend to report any information we feel could misrepresent any person or institution.
Students can face many challenges and choices as they navigate their way through college and transition into their careers. The Jan. 13 article “Job search struggles” attempted to highlight the struggle of some students to find viable employment opportunities to fund the cost of their education. Initially, I was interested to see how the article would address the issue but, after reading it, was left both disappointed and concerned with the reporting and the negative messages that students might take away from it.
As the Director of the Center for Experiential Learning and Career Services (CELCS), I take exception to the subheading “Career Services helps some students, lets others down” and the last phrase in the first sentence, “though their success seems to be varied.” There is nothing reported in the article that supports those statements and they are misleading at best. Further, a Career Services professional was quoted as saying, “Career Services isn’t here to get you a job,” which was taken out of context and how it was edited sounded very harsh. The accurate statement is that while Career Services cannot place students in particular jobs, we can absolutely assist in helping students find desired employment and career opportunities. We are here to help students launch their careers!
The article later goes on to imply that because a student may not be able to fund their entire tuition with an on-campus job that it is not a viable employment option. Students might be discouraged from considering on-campus employment as the benefits of it were not discussed including: income, the gaining of valuable transferable knowledge and skills, establishing professional references and great networking opportunities with other students, faculty and the campus community at large.
Finally, it was suggested in the article that students are not able to find good paying jobs on Rocket Jobs. In reality, there are full and part-time positions that pay well posted on Rocket Jobs and there are employers who post on it that offer attractive tuition reimbursement and/or scholarships for college students. Students who are unsure about how to find such employment/employers should make an appointment with one of our professional staff to discuss their unique situation and needs.
The point I hope to make by responding to this article is to reassure students and alumni that there are multiple resources available to them to address their employment and career-related questions. Last semester alone CELCS assisted over 6,000 students and alumni via in-person appointments, online support, programs, events and student employment services. It is also important to note that there are faculty, success coaches, academic advisors, and other career services professionals embedded in the individual colleges who also provide valuable career-related services, programs and events. I am proud of my CELCS team and proud to work with colleagues across campus who are student-focused and committed to student success. Let’s focus on solutions and go launch some Rockets together!
- Shelly Drouillard, Director of the Center for Experiential Learning and Career Services

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1 Comment

  • bobbyt2012

    I can sympathize with the Career Services team if the article was slanted, but was the quote mentioned a misquote? If someone says something, you don’t get to send in a revision to that statement just because you didn’t like what they said. That’s a job for the Ministry of Truth.

    [Reply]

Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919.
Career Services helps students and alumni prepare for and launch their careers