Section B · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, September 20, 1999
Careers
More businesses are searching Web for potential employees
By Amy Train Kansan staff writer
The Internet is being used more and more by companies to recruit potential employees and by students to find jobs.
One of the largest and most popular online job listing services is www.jobtrak.com, which tracks trends in the job market by providing details about employment outlook, hot jobs, salaries and career planning and development for college graduates.
Ken Ramberg, the Web site's cofounder, said the site was one of the top online job listings used by universities around the nation.
"More and more employers are turning toward the Internet to search for employees," he said. "Fewer employers are posting jobs in the newspaper."
Ramberg said Jobtrak.com, which has offices in Los Angeles, coordinated with career services at more than 900 universities helping graduates match their qualifications and backgrounds with specific jobs or regions
grounds with respect to Job Regions.
Last fall, the Student Monitor LLC Lifestyle and Media study ranked Jobtrak.com, which was launched in 1997, first in student-targeted Web sites in 1997 and 1998.
It was the only college-related site to be ranked among the study's most popular Web sites.
The monthly Jobtrak.com index monitors job posting data at a representative sample of colleges and universities across the nation.
Jobtrak.com's August index indicated that college students looking for jobs had many options. The index showed a 16 percent increase in total job openings posted in August 1999 versus August 1998.
The average starting salary last month was $35,329. The highest starting salary — $49,037 — was for graduates who held degrees in computer and information sciences. The lowest — $26,570 — was for graduates in education.
Ramberg said Jobtrak.com posted 440,000 jobs last year, including 70,000 in sales and marketing, 46,000 in business management,
46,000 in computer science, 41,000 in accounting, 30,000 in engineering and 25,000 in education.
"Our site is unique, because employers' posts are targeted at specific schools," he said.
Employers pay $325 per week, per campus to have a college-targeted link on Jobtrak.com. Companies pay $18 to be listed under one university's link and $395 to be listed under the links of the more than 800 participating campuses.
Sixty percent of the jobs posted are full-time, and 40 percent are part-time positions or internships.
Last year, 100,000 employers posted jobs on Jobtrak.com. Since 1997, 460,000 companies have used the site to recruit employees.
But Ramberg said students should research companies before interviewing with them.
"It gives students the chance to see what the company is about, and they can be totally prepared," he said.
Ramberg said Jobtrak.com had received a lot of e-mail in praise of the site's services.
Craig McKnight, engineering recruiter for Acsys, a Lawrence-based engineering company, said he recruited 50 to 60 percent of its candidates through www.monster.com, an online career network.
Monster.com, which is based in Maynard, Mass., provides job seekers with information about the most progressive companies. Some of the site's features include interactive, personalized tools to make the job application process more effective and convenient, such as resume management, personal job search agents, career networks, chats and message boards, privacy options and advice on job seeking and career management.
McKnight said Acsys received many responses from University of Kansas students for entry-level positions but that most of the engineering positions required two to three years of experience. Acsys employs only four or five KU students in entry-level positions.
Acsys posts between 20 to 30 jobs per month and usually receives about 50 responses. McKnight said
JOB LISTING WEB SITES
www.jobsmart.org
- www.jobsmart.org
- www.careers.wsj.com
- www.eresumes.com
- www.careermosaic.com/cm/cm40
- www.monster.com
- www.discoverme.com
- www.jobbrak.com.
- www.employmentspot.com
- www.onlinecareerguide.com
- www.vault.com
positions might be posted for three to four hours and receive several responses, while others might be posted for weeks and go unanswered.
Another online job placement service is www.discoverme.com, which was launched in January 1988 and is based in Overland Park. This service is free for universities, students and alumni.
The site uses an online personality-based job placement service to place potential employees. The personality assessment takes about an hour to complete.
DiscoverMe.com's mission is to help people enhance their personal potential for the benefit of themselves, their employers, and society through the creative use of advanced technologies and proven research practices.
The career services center at the University has a Web site that provides a guide to Internet career resources. Several job sites can be accessed through the site, www.ukans.edu/~upc. The site also provides tips for preparing an Internet resume and applying online.
Different schools at the University also have individual career-related Web sites.
For example, Engineering Career Services has a Web site, www.engr.ukans.edu/engr-car.com, that provides links to career placement sites. It uses an Internet-style database for student career placement, said Cathy Schwabauer, recruiting coordinator for the School of Engineering.
Edited by Kelly Clasen
Networking can connect greeks providing life-long job support
By Lori O'Toole
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
Kristen Davis knows which tool she will use to search for her first job.
Davis, St. Louis junior, is a member of Alpha Chi Omega, which keeps close connections with its networking service based out of the sorority's national headquarters in Indiana.
She said she was confident networking would be beneficial because she had seen similar services help others steer their way into the work force, including her mother, who was a Kappa Alpha Theta at the University of Missouri.
Davis said her mom was out of a job several years ago after her former employer eliminated her public relations position.
However, she found a new job after she contacted the sorority's national headquarters to seek available positions through professional connections with other alumni.
"I said 'Wow. That's so cool that she has a support system for the rest of her life.' Davis said.
She said she hoped to find a similar support system when she was in the work force and that the network was one of the reasons she decided to join a sorority.
Kelly Jo Karnes, assistant director of greek programs, said networks vary from chapter to chapter.
many consisting of both formal and informal services.
"Fortunately there's people everywhere in almost every field that have Greek affiliation," she said.
karnes, who graduated from Emporia State University in 1997, met with area Sigma Sigma Sigma alumni for local networking after graduation.
"Having that alumni recommendation, that alumni connection after you get out is very important," she said. "When you find out someone was a member of the same sorority, there's an instant connection."
She said she spoke with one of the alumni who was in student affairs, the career path Karnes was interested in. The alumni gave her suggestions about schooling options and names of other people to talk to.
Ryan Sheahan, Fort Collins, Colo., senior and Sigma Nu member, said he hoped to use alumni connections to find a sales and marketing position when he graduated next summer.
He said fraternity members first contacted their chapter advisers when they were interested in finding a job or internship through the network.
The adviser calls people he knows, and the individuals make follow-up calls to start the process, Sheahan said.
"It's like our own human resource department," he said. "There's just hundreds and hundreds of alumni. It's such a great resource to have."
Workers go bust amid booming times
—Edited by Katrina Hull
The Associated Press
PALO ALTO, Calf. — At a sunny playground in the heart of Silicon Valley, children fill pails with sand and dangle from bars while their nannies chat. In variably the conversation leads back to one subject: money.
"We just don't make enough to live on anymore," said Juan Hernandez, who gets $10 to $12 an hour to watch two young boys. "Certainly our bosses could afford to pay more."
For a nanny in another region, $10 might be good money. But in Silicon Valley, where the average two-bedroom house rents for $1,200, it's simply not enough.
"People talk about trickle down, but money just doesn't trickle down very far," said Chris Bender, a researcher at Working Partnerships USA who recently completed a study on the Silicon Valley economy.
He found that hourly wages of 75 percent of Silicon Valley workers actually were lower in 1996 than in 1989.
At the same time, top executives in the electronics industry earn more than 200 times as much as average production workers. Last year, the valley's top 10 executives received $442 million, mostly from stock options.
The average annual wage of software engineers exceeds $90,000.
This newfound prosperity comes with a price. Housing costs have soared, freeways are packed, and a new class of have-nots has emerged.
Amy Dean, CEO of the South Bay Labor Council, recently pushed the city of San Jose to raise its minimum wage to more than $10 an hour. The city agreed to $8.50 an hour with benefits, which Dean said wouldn't be enough.
"We see unprecedented prosperity, millionaires being minted on the hour," she said. "But on the other hand, we see hundreds of thousands of people simply being left behind."
Alfredo Felix trims hedges a few blocks from the home of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. His employer, a landscape contractor, pays him $8 an hour. Felix, his wife and two boys live in one room of a house in San Jose. The rent is $500 a month.
"Yes, I see these people here make good money." Felix said. "But for me, it's very difficult. I work hard, yes, but it just isn't enough."
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