Take advantage, grads

UTRGV departments and Workforce Solution Cameron advise graduating students on resources they can take advantage of as they transition into their careers.

Tony Leandro, assistant director of Career Education at the Career Center, said the center offers several resources for students, such as the career closet, IRIS booths, Forage, Coursera, Stepping Blocks and the VMock platform.

“Our career closet, which helps for those that are graduating, [gives them] access [to] free professional clothing that they get to keep,” Leandro said. “… Our IRIS booth, which is professional headshots, is completely free for students.”

He said Forage is a job-simulation-training platform that allows students to get certifications they can list on their LinkedIn. Stepping Blocks is an online platform to help students understand the skills they need as they transition into their careers. Coursera allows them to get industry-career certificates.

“Those courses are free,” Leandro said. “Typically, they would be charged but, because they are UTRGV students or alumni, they have access to free certification via Coursera.”

He added Handshake allows students to have access to job expos or events on campus and students who graduated can still have access to the platform by submitting a form on the Career Center website to transition their student profile to an alumni profile.

Leandro said, every year, the center hosts the Hispanic-Serving Institutions career fair, which is a partnership with 13 other institutions to host a virtual fair for students to interact with employers.

Career and job hunting is a “grueling process,” he said.

“But, understanding that it’s step by step, it is gonna be a long process but, in the long run, it will be worth it, and our department is here to help [in] any shape, shift or form,” Leandro said. 

Manuel Morales, community engagement and communication manager at Workforce Solutions Cameron, said the company’s mission is for the community to achieve economic prosperity.

Morales said the organization offers a 26-week career training program with internship, which “can assist youth … with work opportunities that are flexible and allows them to earn a paycheck.”

The program, sponsored by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, is “designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s website.

He added if students are in the position where they apply for a job and have “unfortunately” not been able to hear back from the employer, they should follow up.

“There’s nothing wrong in giving a follow-up email or a follow-up phone call just to see where they are in the application process,” Morales said. “However, our recommendation is to do this at least seven days after your interview.”

 Jerome Wiggins, career advisor at the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship, said students should take advantage of the resources available at the university.

“Because professional development never ends, we have a lot of students that commute back and forth and they don’t have to do internships,” Wiggins said.

He said it is important to give students another “avenue” to make themselves more marketable and valuable to an employer as internships and any kind of experiential learning can relieve some of the hurdles students can find when stepping into the job market.

“A survey that we documented from this, which is the National Association of Colleges and Employers … said 91% of all employers that were surveyed prefer students to have some kind of internship in their degree field,” Wiggins said.

He believes UTRGV students are “extremely” competitive in the job market, which is saturated with experienced individuals, but some are graduating without experience. Wiggins also encourages students to stay in touch with the Career Center.

“We’re very much devoted to making sure that our students are working in the industries they want to work, and they’re having the opportunities to work in those industries,” he said.For more information, visit utrgv.edu/careercenter and wfscameron.org.