There's no denying it: college ends and the real world begins. The university provides a resource center, Career Services, to help prepare students for the job world. Laura Kestner, director of Holthusen Hall, says Career Services serves every student on campus, communicating with a database of 3,000 employers, offering resume critiques and coordinating career fairs just to name a few of the numerous services offered.

Career Services operates as the hub of career preparation for Marquette students. However, each discipline brings its own nuances. While Career Services can tailor its services to a student's specifications, each college staffs individuals familiar with real world application of the specific education they offer. Many have been, or even still are, in the job market and can offer first-hand experience.

Both the College of Engineering and the College of Business Administration require its students to complete courses geared toward the development of career goals and job search strategies. These classes may not excite students, but there's no denying their long-range utility – a practicality translatable to students in the College of Communications and the College of Arts & Sciences as well. If anything, these classes can force students to take notice of the resources available to them sooner rather than later.

If not a required class, then department career assistance should be offered through each college's Web site at the behest of the dean. Instead of waiting for students to ask, professors could pass along information in a blog-like fashion. Hopefully, this would encourage professors in-the-know to post helpful links, more specialized and ergo more helpful, than a monster.com.

Nearby Northwestern University and University of Wisconsin-Madison maintain career resources pages within individual colleges. Our own College of Business Administration actually offers a similar Internet service, available only from the computer labs in Straz Hall.

There's no denying the wealth of career resources already available to students, but some receive it in a more effective way than others. Marquette can do even more within its colleges, especially on the Web site – if only to keep pace with our peers.