For career advisers, the weeks surrounding the University of Idaho Career Fair are a time when their hard work pays off said UI Career Adviser Eric Anderson.
“This time of year “¦ this is our Super Bowl, this is our Oscars, this is like harvest season,” Anderson said.
Anderson has 11 years of career advising experience, four of which he has spent as a UI adviser.
“Why I do what I do is the student success stories,” Anderson said. “And by success, it could be a student just walking away from here and being like, “You know, I feel a lot more confident about my resume.””
Most of the time, Anderson said his days consist of four or five appointments and one or two resume reviews that can be done via email.
Alex Brizee | Rawr
University of Idaho career adviser Eric Anderson speaks with students seeking internships and jobs at the Career Fair in the Kibbie Dome Wednesday.
“What an average day looks like for me is multiple one-on-one appointments with students and alumni,” Anderson said.
He also said the Career Center team does class, club or student group presentations two or three times a week.
Anderson said this includes visits to student on-campus housing, such as the dorms or Greek houses.
“Last week we were preparing for the Career Fair. Big week,” Anderson said. “Probably like every day we had two or three different class presentations, or at night we go present to clubs.”
Anderson said in addition to one-on-one advising appointments, career advisers also lead specialized workshops once a month as part of the Career Center”s “Slice of Advice” series. Anderson said each workshop has a different focus, and students attending the workshop get free pizza.
When it comes to being a career adviser, Anderson said he would describe his job as fun. Anderson said he loves learning about all of the different fields UI offers.
He said UI has a tremendous amount of experience and involvement opportunities.
“My piece of advice is to learn how to talk about that effectively,” Anderson said.
Anderson said students should find what they”re good at, but also what they are passionate about.
The university takes pride in the success of their graduates and Anderson said university faculty and staff would like to share those success stories with current students.
“We know our alums are going off to do great stuff, and we want to be able to share that with the campus and to share that with the people of Idaho,” Anderson said. “So we have started a new graduation survey.”
Anderson said the survey is collaboration between multiple UI departments, and will be sent to students after they graduate.
Anderson also said students don”t have to wait until their senior year to get started on their own success story.
Anderson said he wants to see more students visit the Career Center in their first two years of college.
“It”s students who feel a little more confident about themselves and the decisions they”re making about their future, that makes me pretty happy,” Anderson said.
Whitney Hilliard can be reached at [email protected]