As seniors prepare to be handed their degrees they also prepare for their careers and futures after leaving Waynesburg. Director of Career Services and Placement Marie Coffman has helped many students prepare for that process. According to her, the most important thing is to have a resume.

“Resume is key,” said Coffman. “You have to have a good resume before you can start applying, so we’ve looked at a lot of resumes this semester and we are still looking at them and students are still making appointments to come in.”

Senior sports management major John Babos found an internship with the University of Cincinnati football strength and condition coaching staff and has only been meeting with Coffman in the past year. He took her Professional Development Workshop [WBE 405] class where Coffman looked over his resume and references. That in classroom experience helped Babos prepare for the real world.

“Pretty much everything she expects us to have are what jobs are looking for, so that was a big help,” said Babos.

After taking the class and receiving real world interview experience, Babos has been able to prepare for multiple types of interviews.

“It helped me a lot – she had a probation officer come in and go over questions,” said Babos. “I haven’t been through a face to face interview for a job yet just because mine have been over the phone.”

For Babos, career progression is typically built through personal connections. However, he does know that starting to build a resume earlier could have helped. “I wish I would have  it would have helped but I guess I did a lot of that stuff a lot of my own,” Babos, “but probably starting my resume would have helped.”

John Babos has an identical twin who is also a senior criminal justice major Justin Babos who has been going to career services since his sophomore year when he transferred to Waynesburg.He was going with the need to make a resume because he was applying for internship where one was needed.

“I was going to go do an internship and they needed a resume and for that and other things I needed help,” said Justin Babos.

Justin Babos would eventually land that internship, and after graduation he will be a police officer when he heads home.

“[Coffman] sat down with me what I needed to fix on my resume but make it stick out more to the HR department that was doing the hiring,” said Justin, “[Coffman] really had a huge impact on my career here kind of help and help me get a job even doing an internship, every time I went up to her and needed something done getting something notarized for the police department or just scan the paper.”

Even late into the semester Coffman still is making meetings with students to work on resumes and help prepare them for the future.

“If they don’t have their resume they need to come see me next week or during finals week before they leave,” said Coffman, “defiantly need to come or email me what they have and give them any suggestions we have.”