Crucial Decisions

By Yvonne Champana

Daily Bruin Contributor

very Friday morning, arriving as early as 7:00 a.m., students
flock to UCLA’s Career Center, taking numbers and lining up to get
an appointment for the coveted counseling appointments the center
provides.

Marian Wang, a recent UCLA graduate, went to great lengths at
the center to make sure she got the right job. In the end, she was
not thrilled about the job she finally landed: a $5 per hour, six
days per week sales job. Wang quit shortly thereafter, but
continued to get counseling on her next career move.

The Career Center’s free services, which range from personality
tests to mock interviews, provide students with in-depth, personal
counseling on finding a suitable career. Current UCLA students are
eligible, but the service is also available for free to students up
to three months after graduation. After that, the center charges a
fee for its services.

Recently, a study conducted by the Higher Education Research
Institute at UCLA’s Graduate School of Information and Education
Studies found that this year’s UCLA freshman class is more stressed
out about the future than any class in recorded UCLA history.

Al Aubin, Career Center coordinator said he sees the results of
this study regularly at the Career Center. He is concerned about
students not using the Career Center, he said, since a lot of
people are anxious about their future.

"We want to show people it’s a natural process," Aubin said,
explaining that overwhelmed students make unwise choices in
life.

"The traditional undergraduate 22-year old is not ready to
decide what they want to do for the next 40 years, and think they
need to make a decision today for the rest of their life," Aubin
said.

Wang still has not decided what she "wants to be" even after
having taken a year off before graduating from UCLA, she said. She
regrets not having gone in for career counseling until the end of
her senior year at UCLA, but claims she felt too busy at the
time.

Aubin stresses that it is never too soon to plan your career and
to prepare yourself to reach your immediate, intermediate and long
term goals. To illustrate this point, Aubin’s office is generously
spotted with giraffe paraphernalia ­ from giraffe pencil heads
to statue collections ­ which he said represents to him that
"there is nothing too high to reach."

"UCLA trains the leaders and managers in the world," Aubin said.
"It’s not just counselling we offer," he said, "but reality-based
information and there are jobs out there … There are 12,000 job
titles listed in the dictionary of job titles."

Making a decision is the hardest part, and Aubin reports that
people make as many as seven to 10 job changes in life, requiring
flexibility from life-long career dreams.

"Who says when they’re a child that they want to be a logistics
manager?" he said.

However, Aubin was careful to note that student shouldn’t over
use the service, adding that "some students don’t need anything
more than drop in counseling," which lasts from 15 to 20 minutes
and is available to students at any time. Students are required to
attend at least one drop-in appointment prior to signing up for
more in-depth counseling.

Students, however, have mixed feelings about the center’s
effectiveness. Tracy Barnard, a fourth-year sociology student, is
currently signed up for counseling, but said the assessment tests,
which include personality, interest and skills tests, "can tell you
you should be a bus driver or a coffin maker."

Barnard, whose boyfriend went through the five appointment
program after graduating explains, "they don’t exactly hold your
hand, but they want to see you get the job you want."

Other students signing up for the program came with such
problems as income versus happiness and requested career options in
certain fields.

Wang did not have to be as concerned about money as some
students have to be , she said, because she has been able to live
with her parents. She took advantage of all of the center’s
resources, and even kept in touch with her career counselor after
the counselor stopped working for UCLA.

After interviewing with about five companies at a UCLA job fair,
Wong decided to work for American Express. She then went on to
obtain three licenses for the job and was trained to be a
"financial advisor." However, after all her efforts, Wang found
herself in a job that she hated.

She quit after two-and-a-half weeks and has now applied to
graduate school to get her master’s degree in International
Affairs. Wang does not blame any of this on the Career Center
however and said she can’t wait to use it again, citing rather the
company’s own transition and incorrect job information that she got
from people who had worked in the field.

The problem of the career not meeting with a student’s
expectations is not new to counselor Stahl who said he sees "about
two lawyers a week.

"They complain of law’s adversarial nature and how 80 hours a
week is a short week ­ and they want to spend time with their
families," Stahl said. He sees a regular stream of unsatisfied
professionals, he said.

You may have to try on many hats before you find the right one,
Aubin said. "There is a difference between a job and a career," he
said, "some people aren’t ready for the whole career thing yet and
just want to think."

February is career month at UCLA. Numerous seminars geared
toward graduating seniors will kick off Jan. 25 at the Senior
Career Conference.

JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin

Students enter the Career Center as it opens. Because of the
popularity of the center, students usually line up early in the
morning to arrange an appointment.JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin

Al Aubin, Career Center coordinator, collects giraffes to remind
students they can reach any goal.