New RésuméBank service aids students in job search process

by Todd Pringle

News Reporter

University of Houston students and alumni can now take advantage of a newly created service that makes their résumé available to companies seeking new job recruits.

RésuméBank is the newest addition to resources available from the UH Career Planning and Placement Center.

"(RésuméBank) is a paperless system. All relevant student employment information is organized on a database for employers," said David B. Small, UH assistant vice president for Student Services. "This service is unique to the other résumé services offered at other Texas universities."

UH students and alumni need only drop off their résumé at the UH Student Services Building and register for the service. Counselors then scan the résumés into the database. No typing is required.

Small said companies looking for new employees can ask a CPPC counselor to access likely candidates. Employers supply the criteria for likely interviewees and the counselor matches that criteria using a keyword search of the database. CPPC will then supply employers with a list of students available to interview.

Keywords, for example, can be specific majors, grade-point averages, special skills, internships, part-time employment or graduation dates.

"We already have close to 300 student résumés in the database now," said Kathy Lust, a computer assistant at CPPC.

Calvin Chen, associate director of CPPC, estimates the database will contain close to 3,000 résumés by Fall 1996. By then, the program will be available on the UH computer network.

"UH employment faculty, employers and (CPPC) counselors will have access to RésuméBank by user ID and a password," Chen said.

Lust said (CPPC) also offers access to the Internet résumé service Monster Board, but with RésuméBank, students can specify whom they would like to have access to their résumés.

"On the (Monster Board)," she said, "there is no control of who sees them."

Monster Board is a Web site that operates much like an employment agency in which job-seekers can advertise their credentials on the Internet, Lust said.

Small said to protect the confidentiality of students' résumés, students may choose from four "authorization options."

Students can allow employers recruiting on campus or those that have job lists at CPPC to access their résumé. Also, students can allow access to UH faculty and staff responsible for employment. Employment search firms, placement organizations and employment agencies can also be given access.

Chen said students must re-register their résumés on RésuméBank every semester or they will be erased from the system.

RésuméBank was programmed by Chen; Phi Nguyen, a UH management information systems major; and Scott Suen, a UH computer science graduate student.