Saturday’s Student Conference forum on “The Job Market” offered advice on what job hunters can expect in their career pursuits, and a clear theme of the discussion was the difference between employment in the private and public sectors. Trisha Palmer of the NWS Forecast Office in Peachtree City, Georgia, delineated many of the pros and cons of public sector work, noting the security, geographical flexibility, and benefits as some of the most positive aspects. Robert Baron, founder of Baron Services in Huntsville, Alabama, talked about some of the qualities that can lead to success in the private sector.
Additionally, Ryan Boyles of North Carolina State University noted that a new peril of job-hunting in the high-tech world is the plethora of personal information floating around the internet. Boyles recommended that students be very careful about putting personal pictures and other information online that could later be used against them in their job search.
Ultimately, all the speakers could agree that perhaps the most important advice they could give to the students is “do your best.”