By Ellen Emily Lau

With the help of the University’s Career Center, students can attain the internship of their dreams.

The Career Center sponsored a job and internship fair yesterday, giving students the opportunity to meet with more than 80 possible employers.

An internship is a tool for students to gain experience within their chosen career field, Marvin Reed, the director of the Career Center said.

“Internships and part-time jobs help students make really good decisions in their studies and career choices,” he said.

There are three types of internships a student can participate. They can have a paid internship with financial compensation. Others can receive academic credit instead of receiving a weekly pay check. Students can also volunteer for an internship, where no financial or academic compensation will be given, but they will gain experience within their chosen career field.

The Career Center is available to students Monday through Friday to help find internships and offers career counseling, workshops and sponsored events such as the job and internship fair.

“We are very eager to reach students in the first year and be able to work with them for four years,” Reed said.

The chance of an individual receiving a job offer according to Reed depends mainly on interpersonal chemistry and also the individual’s expectations. To make a resume stand out he suggests that one make it so that the individual would seem like an interesting person to meet.

“A mistake that many students make is that they don’t get in touch with the Career Center,” Reed said. “Many employers turn primarily to the school’s Career Center to reach graduating students.”

However finding the time to visit the Career Center is often a difficult task for a number of students including Melissa Chauvin, a current senior and psychology major.

“I really haven’t had time to visit the Career Center,” she said. “I’ve had other jobs and internships, but just not within my field of major so I figured I could get a job on my own.”

Reed does understand that a number of students have a rather busy schedule.

“We have a student body that likes to be working, some working too much in my opinion,” he said.

For all those that are seeking career employment he advises them to use a number of resources and not to simply rely on one source such as the Internet or the newspaper classifieds.

Reed said job searching is “a process.”