It was the graduate students and their big, puppy-dog
eyes that really got to Graduate School Interim Dean Deb
deLaski-Smith.
They'd come into Eastern Michigan's Graduate School at
the beginning of the semester, looking for help finding
graduate assistant positions. With no central clearinghouse
for job postings, applications or resumes, all deLaski-Smith
and her staff could do was let them know which departments
had traditionally hired GAs and send them on their way.
 |
NO MORE DOOR TO DOOR: Graduate student
Rachel
Foshag looks at the EMU job listings online,
which
now includes positions for graduate assistants.
Last
November, the Graduate School introduced the
new
application process, which cuts out graduate
students
having to go office to office looking
for graduate
assistantships. |
"I always hated the beginning of the semester when we
had our graduate students walking all over campus, going
door to door," she said. "That's an awful way to treat
your grad students."
So, in November, the graduate school introduced a new
application process that cuts out the middlemen, the pavement
pounding, the puppy-dog eyes and hopefully much of the
frustration of GA job searches.
The process uses People Admin, the same program that EMU
already uses for hiring staff and faculty. Graduate students
can now entirely run their GA job search through EMUjobs.com.
They can see what jobs are available, apply if they're
interested, fill out a profile, and upload their resume'.
They can apply early, and from home. Potential employers
cannot only check out resumes online, but they can customize
their applications to narrow down the best pool of candidates.
The system went online in time for departments to post
winter openings, which are usually light. The system will
receive its first big test in the next few months as the
rush for fall positions begins. Even in the short time
it's been in use, students have commented on how nice it
is to be able to look for jobs in a single place, deLaski-Smith
said.
Though the vast majority of EMU's graduate students are
adults with full-time jobs, there still aren't enough jobs
to go around with about 400 GA positions available and
5,000 graduate students.
Meanwhile, departments had no way of knowing initially
which of those 5,000 graduate students was even interested
in a GA position. International students were at an even
bigger disadvantage, arriving on campus just days before
the semester started.
"It puts students directly in connection with where they're
sending their resumes," deLaski-Smith said.
The Graduate School Web site offers a list of departments
that aren't using the new system so students know to contact
those departments directly.
Biology, for example, includes a question about interest
in GA work as part of its graduate school application.
Those names automatically go into the applicant pool for
biology GA jobs.
"All of our GA positions are teaching positions, and the
candidate must have an undergrad degree in biology," said
Allen Kurta, a biology professor/graduate coordinator. "We
almost always give them only to people in our own department,
because we know who's coming in. We see their (graduate
school) applications."
Though that works fine for some departments, deLaski-Smith
worries that if students don't see listings, they'll assume
there are no jobs out there. So, she and Jon Margerum-Leys,
a graduate school faculty associate, have been going door-to-door
themselves, training people on the new system.
"It really is easy," deLaski-Smith said. "Jon has posted
a position, while talking, in four minutes. We didn't require
(that everyone use) it, but I think it's moving in that
direction. It's better for the students, whether they're
applying from India or Indiana, or across the street."
