Some students find jobs before final semester ends

Graduation is now a few days away. Students, who were once freshman on campus, will be graduating in their respective fields and heading into the work force.

When it comes to lining up jobs for after graduation, several students in the Waynesburg University Class of 2017 are ahead of the game.Senior sports broadcasting/sports information major and Illinois native Austin Anderson found out earlier this month that he was hired by the Gary Southshore Railcats, a minor league baseball team located in Gary, Indiana.

Anderson was hired as the Broadcast and Media Relations Assistant for the season. Anderson said he found out about the job through the Sportscasters Talent Agency of America, which is a program that allows for those in the broadcasting field to learn about job opportunities, get tips in the field and grow as they continue in the field. He said the program was definitely worth becoming a part of. Had he not become invested in the program, he said he wouldn’t have found his position with the Railcats. While Waynesburg is very good with the Pittsburgh market when it comes to getting students getting started in their respective fields, Anderson said, he had a different situation. Being from out of the state and wanting to slowly start working his way back home, the university’s Pittsburgh connection didn’t benefit him much.

Once he found the STAA, he was able to look for job more opportunities. Although the university wasn’t able to assist as much with the initial net-working, Anderson said that the basic principles he learned at Waynesburg specific to his major will help him no matter what city he goes to work in or no matter what sport he goes to announce, because the things he learned are universal.

“Being able to be as well-rounded of a communicator as possible…I’m more marketable because of the experiences of Waynesburg,” said Anderson.

The organization re-leased a press release on April 13, that announced the Director of Broadcasting & Media Relations and also mentioned Anderson, which he said was eye-opening.

“That was kind of the first time it hit home, in a sense that, this is happening, and it’s exciting,” said Anderson. “And even though it is chaotic in this time of life, I came to Waynesburg with the desire of going to play-by-play and sure enough God’s blessed me with a position.”

He gave more advice for those younger students whose graduation will be coming closer than they know.

“Whatever you’ve worked on, start compiling demos,” said Anderson. “And a lot of the times in your courses, in communications or [in your respective field], there’s things, projects, that you do that can be good portfolio items.”

Anderson said to start working on a personal portfo-lio because the sooner work is prepared, the easier the pro-cess goes. He said the demo he created was a crucial tool during his job search.

“I would suggest right away, as soon as you can, cre-ating a demo,” said Anderson. “If I didn’t have that demo, I know that I wouldn’t have been able to get into those finalists positions.”

Senior nursing major Katie Latimer also has a job lined up in her field upon graduation. Latimer has been hired at the Ruby Memorial Hospital, located in Morgantown, West Virginia. She was hired specially in the new Women’s Health Unit. The three part interview process was in-depth, and it required lots of driving to Morgantown. Like Anderson, Latimer believes the Nursing Depart-ment at Waynesburg did an excellent job preparing her for the next step. Latimer, who did her clinicals at Ruby, said she believes she was hired because of the fact that the Nursing Department is always represented well.

“The Nursing Department does have a good reputation wherever we go; we are usu-ally really professional,” she said. “They like Waynesburg students: they like that we work hard when we go to clinical. And I think [our professors] really prepared us in that aspect, to be really professional when we need to be. So I think that’s a big help going into this whole job process.”

Getting that initial job didn’t seem to be much at the time, but now Latimer said having it already done is a great feeling.Her hard work in the class-room, at clinicals and studying has paid off.“I didn’t think it would be that much of a weight off my shoulders,” she said.

“But looking back now, I feel like I’m a lot less stressed than I would’ve been if I didn’t have a job. I’m glad that I have this already lined up: it’s one less thing to worry about this time of the year.”

Although Latimer has her job lined up, her work isn’t done when she graduates. She will need to take her nursing certification test, the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). She said the test is to test how safe an individual going into the field would be. Latimer said nursing students usually take their NCLEX one or two months following graduation. She plans on taking her test the third week in June if possible. If she passes, which will take a couple of weeks to find out, she plans on starting at Ruby sometime around July. Latimer gave advice of her own, to seniors who don’t have that initial job in the field yet.“I would tell people not to worry,” she said.

“A lot of people are seeing people get-ting jobs and it seems like they’re behind because they don’t already have a job but in actuality people are just ahead, so it’s not anything to be worried about.”

She continued to say not to settle with something just to get a first job.

“Keep waiting for what you want,” she said. “Don’t just settle because you feel like you need to have a job already.”