Higher Ed Utah

It’s commencement time at Utah’s colleges and universities, and between now and the end of May, we’ll see students graduate from Logan all the way down to St. George. I always look forward to attending the ceremonies and, as Commissioner, the annual “pomp and circumstance” always fills me with a sense of pride for our schools.

I ran across an article in the paper on Monday that made me stop and think about those soon-to-be-recent graduates out there. The article, entitled “Grads can get an edge in the job market,” made me stop and think about how quickly life sets in for new grads. Here we are just about a year into making our big goal of achieving 66% of Utah’s workforce with post-secondary education by the year 2020, and already we have a new group of graduates to fill available jobs.

Fortunately, career advice is available at the click of a mouse for today’s recent grads. At the risk of dating myself, I wish that the internet’s vast pool of resources existed to aid me in my selection of graduate schools and ultimately with a job search when I finished my education.   While Mankato State University and Michigan State University both had career placement centers, they did not compare to what is available online today.

I urge students to take some time to really visit some of the websites in that article, as well as meet with Career Services reps from their institutions. Also, Utah’s own Department of Workforce Services can provide new grads with a starting place for job hunting.

Congratulations to those who will soon take their final steps off of the campuses where they’ve spent the last few years learning, and I look forward to hearing about all of the wonderful things our new graduates will do as they move forward in their careers.

Here are links to Career Services at our eight colleges and universities:

University of Utah Career Services

Utah State University Career Services

Snow College Career Services

Weber State University Career Services

Southern Utah University Career Services

Dixie State College Career Services

Utah Valley University Career Development Center

Salt Lake Community College Career Advising