Job market woes?

Graduating soon and hunting for the perfect career? Check out these pointers

Hello, real world.

For some students, the comfort of campus soon will give way to a stressful and indecisive blur of interviews, cover letters and résumés.

Commencement is – and should be – a celebratory time for accomplished students. But it’s also a reminder of the impending real world, which consequently happens to be suffering from an economic downturn. Yikes.

Soon-to-be grads, here’s a few tips on how to snag the job during your upcoming search.

 Make your résumé perfect. Employers have little leisure time. They’ll spend a few minutes at most scanning, not reading, your résumé. Get several family members and professors to proofread it carefully before you hit print.

 Take every interview possible. Even if you don’t plan on taking the job, become familiar with nerve-racking interviews. With enough practice, the nerves will diminish and you’ll be able to nail the interview for the job you truly want. Be prepared for oddball questions.

 Know who you are. Most students don’t have their lives totally figured out by graduation. But at least have an idea of what you want. Put your strengths forward with confidence and fake it till you make it.

 Don’t sell yourself short. Times may be tough, but you shouldn’t have to settle for less after working arduously for four (or five) years.

The University Career Center at Clark Howell Hall offers mock interviews, résumé help and more. Good luck, grads!

- Jennifer Paxton for the editorial board

Plastic payments

It’s easy to lose sight of how much you spend with credit cards, so be careful

The U.S. economy is facing significant downturns, and individuals are struggling too.

Americans are dealing with layoffs and a cascading stock market, and many turn to credit cards as a way to buy the things they need and want. Many University students also purchase with plastic.

As student loan money dries up and our parents’ investments plummet, many at the University are seeing fewer dollars in their bank accounts. Convenient, quick and shiny, these little rectangular strips make it easy for us to eat, shop and play in Athens.

Though credit cards have benefits, such as allowing us to go weeks without hitting the ATM, they are risky. It’s easy to spend $20 one day and $30 the next, and before you know it, you owe Visa $1,200 – and you can’t afford to pay it off. We’ve all heard our parents’ (and Freecreditreport.com’s commercials’) warnings that credit card debt is bad.

But this economic climate makes credit card debt especially serious. Loan money is decreasing, and students graduating with credit card debt run the risk of not qualifying for loans for important purchases they want to make – think new cars and houses.

Debt now could mean years of doing without in the future. Though not fun and against our attempts to live in the moment, students should work to avoid getting into trouble and eliminate their debt as soon as possible.

Even if it’s a temporary downer, please consider what your credit score means before you buy the cool new jacket or a case of fancy beer.

- Kristen Coulter for the editorial board