As the weather teases us into thinking about the Spring, the semester has kicked off with its usual buzz here in the Undergraduate School. There are new FME businesses to purchase from, traditional and first-time campus events to attend, and boatloads of activity around career development for our seniors.

As I’ve said to many in the Babson community already, we’ve all seen the headlines. It’s a tough job market out there but Babson is prepared to help our graduates find employment in these tough economic times. The Center for Career Development (CCD) is proactively working with seniors in a number of ways – old and new - geared towards helping them “find a job in today’s economy.”

One concern I have is that some students will choose to sit on the sidelines rather than take an active role in securing employment. In past years, it was often as easy as submitting a resume to find a job. That is definitely not the case this year. I recently sent out an email to the seniors asking those who have not yet secured employment to let me know. The CCD staff will be meeting one-on-one with these students to help them develop personalized job search strategies for these tough times. However, we won’t be able to do that if students don’t come forward for this assistance. We find the biggest problem is that students don’t take advantage of the resources we have to offer. We appreciate any encouragement that helps spur a student to come in to our CCD office for assistance. There’s a lot we can do, but not if someone sits on the sidelines!

This holds true for non-seniors as well. In addition to the many programs designed for those seeking summer employment, our annual Internship Fair that was held this afternoon in Knight Auditorium was lively and well-attended. More information on all of CCD’s programs can be found at www.babson.edu/ug/ccd or on their Babson Career Connections blog.