Commencement is right around the corner for SUNY Buffalo State seniors. While some are likely to fear the working world, the Career Development Center can help.

The center, Cleveland Hall 306, has multiple resources for students. These range from resumé and cover letter review, career planning, interview advice, job listings and even a FOCUS assessment designed to help students see which career their personality would best suit.

Cate Vivacqua, a career counselor at Buffalo State, says that the office tends to about 10 students per day looking for resumé help, depending on the day of the week.

Students can speak with career counselors for advice on which companies and jobs would best suit their major.

For Vivacqua, helping students with job searching is a three-step process.

“One is to go on ORCA, where employers post jobs in the area, two is to make a list of companies that they might be interested in working for, and finally, telling the students to network,” she said. “Eighty percent of jobs are found through networking.”

The advice Vivacqua would give to graduating seniors is to be creative; don’t use one method in a job search. Despite the rising popularity of job search engines like Indeed.com and others, the internet is not the most effective method.

In Vivacqua’s words, searching for jobs “takes a little bit of risk and a little bit of research.”

Graduation can be scary, with only 27 percent of college graduates getting jobs related to their major, according to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Even with these odds, the Career Development Center works in depth with students to aid them in the processes that lead to their life after they receive their degree.

[email protected]