Career Development Center Now "One of the Finest in the U.S."

The Career Development Center (CDC) had a $1.3 million upgrade this summer that centralizes all career planning activities and gives it state-of-the-art status among college career offices. In fact, CDC director Philip Jones said it's one of the finest such facilities at any U.S. college or university. Students began using the new CDC in late August, parents and alumnae will get tours on October 4, and an open house for the campus will be held later in the semester.

The building received a 3,850-square-foot addition and extensive renovations, giving the CDC more than double the library space, a conference room, a workshop room for large presentations by recruiters and campus speakers, and updated interviewing facilities to lure even more recruiters to campus. The changes came in response to a rising tide of student requests for coordinated assistance in planning and developing career options. The CDC staff worked with twice as many students last year as it did two years ago.

Now, instead of hosting recruiters in a separate building down the street from the rest of the CDC, recruiters can interview seniors in formal or informal private rooms, interviewees can wait their turn in comfort, and recruiters can relax between interviews in their own lounge. The facilities and amenities "should surpass anything recruiters have seen almost literally anywhere," according to director of employer relations Candace Schuller. "I've been to many career offices, and all our colleagues are very envious of what we're doing."

But the physical changes show only part of what the new CDC offers. High-tech enhancements will allow students and alumnae to search for jobs electronically, using Jobtrack, the largest employment computer database in the country. "We'll be teaching electronic job-search techniques, and I don't know of any other institution that does that," says Jones. "We'll teach in the new workshop room, then walk students next door to the library where they can sit down and actually do a search."

Another innovation is ViewNet, a long-distance interviewing system that links employers and applicants via computer. Each person's screen shows an image of both interviewer and interviewee, along with the applicant's resume. MHC is the only college in Massachusetts with this capability.

According to CDC internship programs director Fred McGinness, the high-tech tools are a means to the end. "It frees us for the most important thing we do: counseling," he explains. Students may be dazzled by things they find on computers, but counselors need time to talk about what students have found, and about how that fits into their interests and academic program. "In the past we've had to spend considerable time orienting students to our resources, but now, with the central library, electronic resources, and more student assistants, this can be done by students and it leaves us with more counseling time."

Jones adds, "With this building, we present ourselves as an institution that cares very deeply about what happens to students beyond college. It's more than just a nice building."