New services provided by the recently opened Raisbeck Career Services will strive to give business students a more competitive edge in the job market.

Students and faculty said the new career service will provide students with specialized advising and new recruiting facilities that were not available in the past.

With the recent opening of the Gerdin Business Building, the College of Business received the opportunity to expand its career services.

The College of Business used to share a career services office with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said Kim Stirred, program coordinator for the College of Business. “Business got big and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is really big,” she said.

As a result of the two colleges getting larger, LAS career services wasn’t big enough to accommodate the two. The business college needed its own career services center in order to provide professional services in a very competitive job market, said Kathy Wieland, program coordinator for business career services.

With the opening of the new Gerdin Business Building, the College of Business had the ability to expand career services and begin offering specialized advising and an enhanced recruiting facility. By being able to expand these services in a new career services center, the college has been able to provide opportunities to business students that Carver Hall could not.

The office is more focused on business majors, said Bryan Muilenbur, senior in marketing.

Heidi Pilloud, junior in accounting, had her first appointment with Raisbeck Career Services Center at 11 a.m. Thursday.

“They have a specific career adviser for accounting — that’s a plus,” Pilloud said.

For students, the most visible aspect of the new service is the additional staff that was hired to identify a wider array of jobs and internships and more specialized advising for business students, Wieland said.

David and Ellen Raisbeck provided 60 percent of the original funding for Raisbeck Career Services Center. They have since provided additional funding for furniture and resources the career center will need, Schroeder said.

David Raisbeck, who graduated from Iowa State in 1971 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial administration, is now the vice-chairman of Cargill.