Net surfing could help guide you on career path

Arizona Daily Wildcat Dan Keste, career services adviser

"As people become aware of it, they've been using it (the Internet) quite a bit more," said Daniel Kester, career specialist at Career Services.

Hundreds of employment sites on the Internet give students information on jobs from all over the country and provide help on filling out resum‚s and preparing for interviews.

Reginald Montlouis, political science senior, said he decided to use the Internet because his brother found an internship through a World Wide Web job site.

"Nowadays, many companies have a job site on the Internet," he said.

The computer showed him names of companies, the people to contact and their mailing addresses.

The University of Arizona Career Services homepage gives students access to 72 different job sites such as Career Mosaic and CareerPath.com.

With Career Mosaic, students can search for jobs and post a resum‚ for employers.

CareerPath.com posts national newspapers' advertisements daily on its site, which saves the time of thumbing through the classified ads.

Kester said UA students use Career Mosaic and CareerPath.com more than other online career services.

However, many more exist. U.S. News & World Report's .edu is one of the newest college and career online guides for students.

"The Web is an indispensable tool. There's a lot of information you can access. It saves you a lot of leg work," said Imelda Aycud, assistant producer of .edu.

The main menu for .edu offers opportunities for both high school and college students.

In the "Beyond College" section, students have access to graduate school rankings, admission requirements, a guide to jobs of the future and a career counseling section called "Career Zone."

By clicking on the "dollars for scholars" icon, students can also find out what schools are the best values and how to apply for financial aid.

Aycud said .edu provides rankings for over 800 graduate schools as well as maps and photographs of the schools.

The career guide, she said, has 200 job descriptions for those with two or more years of college.

"It's a lot easier to find a job that interests you (on the Internet)," Aycud said.

Though .edu has an attractive Web page, Kester said it has limited offerings.

"A lot of this stuff you can find somewhere else," he said.

To help students "surf" the net, Career Services has two computers available for students.

The Career Services office is on the first floor of Old Main.