44
Sean Smith/Kansan
Stephen Slaughter, 2003 University of Kansas graduate,mixed drinks for customers at Abe & Jakes Landing,8 East Sixth Street, on Saturday. Slaughter has been working as a bartender for two years.
during the week nights," he says. "But the time is coming," he adds. Slaughter is positive he will eventually find work that suits him. In the mean time, he doesn't mind extracting the last drops of fun before he's decked daily in a suit-and-tie. This morning he went to his third interview for Farmer's Insurance Group. He radiates confidence as he talks about the interview process, and thinks this may be the end of hourly work for him.
According to American Demographics magazine, insurance is third on a list of the top-10 employment sectors that are hiring. In order, the others are: preventative health care, security consumer financial services (loan agents and title company workers), agriculture, pharmaceuticals and energy.
Working wage-paying jobs is not uncommon among graduates. Jennifer Jordan, career counselor at the University of Kansas Business Career Services Center, says students who do not find a position within the first three months often move back home to conduct job searches. They accept positions outside their professional arena, she says, or they may take jobs which do not meet their salary expectations.
Remaining strategic and accepting jobs that will provide transferable skills is most important, Jordan says.
Keith Van De Riet, St. Louis senior, is majoring in architecture. Van De Riet has worked for Dan Rockhill, architecture professor and local designer, the past two summers. For $10 an hour, he built Rockhill-designed houses, constructing every element from the exterior to windows and cabinets. "The other guys tease me and call me the summer
intern," he says.
Van De Riet says he gained valuable experience working for Rockhill, as opposed to learning in class, although he has the advantage of both. Attaining transferable skills will undoubtedly assist him in his job hunt after he graduates in May 2004. Until then, Van De Riet sustains himself through a job as shop supervisor at the wood shop in Marvin Hall and at Cottin's Hardware, 1821 Massachusetts St. If he cannot find a professional position, he says, he may work for Rockhill again until an opportunity presents itself.
If even an hourly job is unavailable or does not offer any use for the future, Jordan recommends an oft-overlooked option: temp services. Temping allows graduates to network and develop relations, she says. Don't cling to rigid ideals about what your first job has to be like, Jordan says, keep an open mind. And by the way, after Slaughter was interviewed he found out he received the job with Farmer's Insurance Group. There is hope.
—Sara Behunek, Jayplay writer, can be reached at sbehunek@kansan.com.
WILL WORK FOR FOOD
BY MAGGIE KOERTH
It was the spring of her senior year and Erin Harrington still didn't know what she wanted to do after she graduated. The biology major had volunteered for Douglas County Women, Infants, and Children, worked with Latin American Solidarity and gone on two study abroad trips, one in Budapest and Vienna and another in Costa Rica. Through these activities, she found an answer to her dilemma. Harrington joined the Peace Corps. She will leave Jan. 26 for two years of service in Paraguay, where she will be a rural health educator.
Non-profit organizations are a great way to fill the time between college and other paths, such as graduate school or the career track. In the past few years, organizations such as the Peace Corps, Americorps and Teach for America have seen a surge in numbers that the organizations attribute to both the sagging economy and a post-Sept. 11 interest in volunteerism. But non-profits are more
than just a resume-boosting alternative to working at UPS. Some programs are competitive and organizers discourage people from joining just to postpone the real world. Students who have joined say that the world they experience through non-profits is far more real and gritty than anything their peers have seen.
The Peace Corps places volunteers in some of the world's neediest communities. Assignments are usually tailored to volunteers' past experience and interests. A business major might find herself working with small businesses in South America; teaching village tailors and carpenters the basic skills they need to turn a bigger profit. Students with farming backgrounds may teach agriculture skills in rural Africa.
The application process for Peace Corps is long. Harrington will leave the country nearly 12 months after she first applied, so time is of the essence if you want to leave soon. You can apply
through Betty Baron, the University of Kansas' Peace Corp representative, at peacecorps@ku.edu or through the organization's Web site www.peacecorps.com.
Americorps is the stateside version of Peace Corps. It is much less centralized. Volunteers work in communities across the United States for a variety of organizations that have acquired grants through Americorps. You can find Americorps programs at www.nationalservice.org and apply to the ones you're interested in. Peter Shifter, from Americorps' Office of Public Affairs, stresses the skills that volunteers learn. He says people learn management and organizational skills and are able to put their specific interests to work in a positive way for their community.
Teach For America is one of the programs Americorps helps fund. Volunteers for this organization teach in underprivileged districts across the country. Competition for volunteer positions is
fierce and the organization is selective. Christian Simamora, national campaign director for the University of Kansas, says applicants must demonstrate leadership skills, academic and extra-curricular achievement and high levels of personal responsibility. The first application deadline has already passed, but the second deadline is Feb. 15. You can apply online at www.teachforamerica.org. Kendra Seaman, a KU graduate, is in her second year of the two-year program. She says TFA is the most rewarding and the hardest job she has ever done. "I think I work harder than I would ever work at a regular job or in graduate school," she says. "Knowing that a bunch of teenagers, who may or may not have anyone else they can count on, are waiting for me at school every day motivates me more than a paycheck or a degree."
—Maggie Koerth, Jayplay writer, can be reached at mkoerth@kansan.com.
thursday, november 20, 2003
jayplay
23