With the assistance of several online resources, students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences can now look for jobs quicker and more efficiently than ever before.

Mike Gaul, career services director of career placement for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, helps students every day with building their resumes, preparing for interviews and searching for jobs or internships.

“We help students with anything to do with careers,” Gaul said. “We see a lot of students, which is good.”

Many students visit his office because they need help searching for jobs. When this occurs, Gaul always asks students if they have visited ISU Career Management System, the online database that helps users connect with employers.

ISU CMS is available for current students and alumni. The system enables its users to create profiles, upload resumes, search for jobs and schedule interviews. The system also helps students by sending e-mails notifying its users whenever new listings are posted.

“You’re nuts not to use it,” Gaul said. “It’s right at your fingertips.”

The database also has a search feature that allows users to narrow down the results by majors or concentrations. For instance, if users are interested in agricultural business, they can narrow their search results to just jobs involving agricultural business.

Once users find a job they are interested in, all they have to do is click on the listing and then click another link to send their resume. The database currently has thousands of job and interview listings. Gaul said more than 13,000 companies use the database.

“Our problem is not with the companies [using ISU CMS], it’s with the students,” Gaul said. “It’s a push to get students to use it.”

If students cannot find suitable job listings on ISU CMS, or are not interested in using ISU CMS, Gaul recommends using Agcareers.com. The site works similarly to ISU CMS in that it allows its users to search for job listings and upload resumes.

However, Agcareers.com is just for agricultural jobs. The website also allows companies to search through resumes to find appropriate applicants.

“[Agcareers.com] lets companies search for applicants, which is something ISU CMS doesn’t do,” Gaul said.

Usajobs.com is a useful site for students interested in working for the government, Gaul said. The website enables its users to search for jobs in a specific location.

Gaul also recommends for students in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences to visit company websites.

“A lot of companies list jobs on their websites,” Gaul said.

Whichever tool students prefer to use, Gaul stresses the importance of using these resources to find jobs.

“Just because you have a degree, doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to a job,” Gaul said. “You’ve got to get out there.”