CSI Career Center Propels Grads into Prestige Positions

February 26, 2008

Once college students jump over all of the hurdles required to get a degree and graduate, they then face the daunting task of launching their careers. The Career and Scholarship Center at the College of Staten Island is not only helping CSI grads to find jobs, it is finding them at prestige firms and organizations, thanks to the Center’s efforts.

The Center has announced that four CSI alumni (Theshin Angulugaha, Salvatore Mazzone, Vishal Shah, Natalia Messineo) have accepted positions with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) as auditors and accountants with beginning salaries of $55,000. In addition, three other CSI graduates (Lauren Macaluso, Ilyia deMuri, and Nitasha Kapoor) have recently received job offers from Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Theshan Angulugaha comments, “From writing resumes to finding solutions to various complications with employers, the Career and Scholarship Center helped me throughout my senior year at collage. I just finished my internship at Merrill Lynch and now I have a job offer from FINRA. [The Center] provided me with excellent individual career counseling, which raised my confidence to achieve my goals. They always believed in me and my capabilities.”

Nitasha Kappor added, “…the Career and Scholarship Center helped me create a professional looking resume and gave me some great tips for the interview regarding attire, possible questions, and how to present myself. It was a great help and I’m very grateful.”

CSI students, when conducting their active job searches, are met with a team of professionals in the Center that help them with career direction, articulation of their skills, writing their resumes and cover letters, learning the techniques of interviewing, researching of companies, how to dress, and how to proceed after the interview with follow-up thank you letters, and phone calls. The Center also provides resources for finding jobs, and hosts seminars, workshops, and job fairs.

Caryl Watkins, the Center’s director, says that the addition of Tom Dibblee, the Center’s new job developer, has increased the number of CSI grads who have signed on with prestige companies.

“The reason we’re seeing such a difference is because [Tom] does nothing but make phone call after phone call [to employers] or make visits. Then, we start getting the response. We promise employers a 24-hour turn-around to get resumes to them. So, after we get the call-back from the company we then get all the good resumes together that they’re looking for, we email them, and then we start more negotiations to either set up on-campus interviews or interviews on their site. Just something that gets the students in front of them.”

Dibblee says that he is very happy to help. "There is nothing more rewarding than having a student stop by our office and thank you for helping them get their first job. It definitely makes all the cold calling and visits worthwhile."

Besides these recent successes, Watkins notes that other CSI students have gotten jobs at companies such as Goldman Sachs, Con Edison, Lockheed Martin, Bears Stearns, Infinity Broadcasting, JPMorgan Chase, the U.S. Customs, and Forbes, to name just a few.

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By Terry Mares