Kayla Nelson
Staff Writer
Each semester the Idaho State University Career Center conducts the First Destination Report, which indicates how many students are able to get jobs once they complete college.
Surveys are conducted every year in November. These are typically taken six months after graduation to find out where graduates are.
On average 40 percent of graduates respond to the survey that ISU has participated in for three years.
“We have a really good response rate on the surveys but [we] are still missing 60 percent,” said ISU Career Center Director Lance Erickson.
The Career Center also offers a Career Path Internship which is money ISU sets aside for students to work in their field and build on their resume and experience. It is a program no other school in Idaho offers to students.
More information for the CPI program can be found at isu.edu/career/CPI.
“We don’t have statistics on [CPI], but I would assume since they are getting internships in their related fields that it is going to help them in the future because they will have job related experience,” said Tara Smith of the Career Center.
“There is no question about it, [CPI] helps these students find jobs or get better ones,” said Erickson.
The Career Center also helps current students find full or part-time jobs while they are in school. It has an extended network with local businesses and employers in Pocatello which assists students in getting jobs.
“We are willing to work with any [employers] who want to work with us. We advise students to find a job that is related to their major,” said Smith.
“We provide fairness and equality to all employers and we give students the best options and find what applies to them,” Erickson added.
Bengal Jobs, a program through the Career Center, works to help individuals who currently attend or have attended ISU find stable jobs in the work force.
“The Career Center is here to help students at ISU and beyond,” said Erickson. “We provide all kinds of things for students [such as] career testing, mock interviews [and] career and life planning classes.”
In addition to networking and CPI program opportunities, the Career Center hosts job and career fairs in an attempt to help students get into their field.
The Career Center also strives to help students get into graduate programs at ISU or elsewhere and offers classes to help students find a major.
The First Destination Report determined 34.85 percent of 1,650 ISU 2013 graduates completed the survey. Of those, 80 percent of the respondents were employed and 89 percent indicated that their major was helpful with their current job. Further, 73 percent of the respondents were working in a position which required a degree.
The report also determined that 34 percent of graduates are going to further their education by completing graduate school.
The Career Center, located in Museum Building room 418, is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
