As students, you work hard in school to plan for future success. But what happens when your graduation date approaches and the job search begins?
MATC’s JOBshop wants you to know you’re not alone. We have an incredible, but often unutilized, employment service offered to current and graduating students, as well as alumni, seeking employment in their field.
The JOBshop office is located at the Milwaukee campus in room S114 near the main entrance, across from the welcome center. Although there is only one office, services are available to all students at any campus. It is open year-round, even when school is not in session, with the exception of major holidays. All services are free and include resume writing assistance, interview skill training, workshops, job fairs, and access to employers seeking to hire.
Employment specialists are available to assist you in the preparation and job hunting process via email, phone, or by-appointment in person consulting. Jenny McGilligan is an employment specialist at JOBshop and explains, “Our mission here at JOBshop is to help students connect with employers.” Continuing she notes, “We facilitate the relationship between our job seekers and employers who want to hire new people.”
The biggest way JOBshop connects employers to students is through Wisconsin TechConnect, an exclusive technical college job-search engine. Available to Wisconsin’s 16 technical colleges, it matches job openings with students and alumni in over 300 career areas. It incorporates the job seeker’s program, desired location and job type to ensure the best chance of success. All kinds of jobs and opportunities can be found here; full time, part time, seasonal, entry level, internships, etc. “Every single day there are jobs on this system you will not see any place else,” McGilligan comments. “It is very similar to MilwaukeeJobs, the difference is that the only people who can look at these jobs are technical college students and graduates.” This makes it less competitive and more likely  you will snag a great job. All you have to do is access the site, register and upload your resume.
Yet, with all these great resources at our disposal, there seems to be one major concern. “We have a big group of people getting ready to graduate and we have employers posting a lot of jobs,” McGilligan elaborates, “They (employers) keep calling us, they fully support our job system, they are putting jobs online but they don’t have candidates applying for the jobs.” The main reason this resource is being neglected by students she says, “They just don’t seem to know about us!” insists McGilligan. “They learn about the services and they’re happy they made that connection.” She explains that most students want assistance but just don’t know how to get it. “What that says to us is that we have to do a better job of making sure that our students, graduates and alumni know about our services.”
This issue is at the forefront of JOBshop’s agenda and they are continuing to take steps to spread the word.
Advertising for JOBshop includes emails, event posting on MATC homepage, flyers, and more recently social media. Another way it is trying to get students’ attention is through traveling road shows and job fairs. “We schedule time, advertise, tell teachers to bring their classes, tell students; we get them registered on the system and answer questions.” McGilligan states, “We travel to all four campuses, move it around so people can come meet us.” She adds, “We will be at graduation, a whole team of us, to look for those graduates who are actively seeking employment.” Keep your eye out for them, as well as dates, times and locations of future events.
McGilligan has some suggestions to make the process easier. When registering for the TechConnect she advises students to use their personal email, however, make sure it is professional and appropriate. Once you are registered on the site, you will receive an email anytime a job is posted in your field.
Also, make sure to only upload a resume if you are actively seeking employment. This will prevent employers from wasting time and keep the system moving. In addition, these are legitimate jobs; any red flags should be reported to JOBshop immediately. All businesses on the site are registered through MATC; it does not allow any posts from businesses that require a buy-in fee.
“We spent years getting the employers excited about this system; they are on board and posting jobs.” In closing McGilligan adds, “Now it’s our mission to get our student body, we want them using this site and seeking employment.” For more information please visit www.matc.edu/student/resources/JOBshop or call the JOBshop office at 414-297-6244.