The end of a semester doesn’t just bring about a break from schoolwork.

For some students, it also means graduation and their first foray into the job market.

This December, more 1,000 students are set to graduate from SIUC. Many will enter graduate school while others could benefit from a trip to the Career Services center in Woody Hall to plan their futures.

“The job outlook is fabulous,” said Cindy Jenkins, assistant director of career services at SIUC.

Jenkins said students seeking assistance could go to room 204 on the second floor of Woody Hall to set up mock interviews, get help on their resumes and learn how to land internships.

Jenkins said some majors are more in demand than others in today’s job market.

“Engineering is a hot commodity,” she said. “Two hundred thousand new jobs will be available for engineers across the board by 2014.”

Besides engineering majors, business, healthcare and computer science majors have really good luck at getting jobs right away, Jenkins said.

Jonathan Fesler, a senior from Barry set to graduate in December with a double major in electrical engineering and physics, already has a job waiting for him in Las Vegas.

At JT3 LLC, a company subcontracted by the U.S. Air Force to provide engineering and technical support for fighter planes, Fesler will work with radar technology.

After applying for a summer internship at JT3, Fesler was turned down but later was offered the full-time job by coincidence.

“They had someone retiring at the same time as I was graduating,” Fesler said. “For this job I seemed to fit pretty well.”

Fesler said Chris Pearson, a researcher in the College of Engineering, referred him to the job.

Jenkins said students looking for jobs on their own could attend the job fairs offered throughout the year.

In 2005, Jenkins said the number of recruiters at the job fairs almost doubled, going from 25 in the spring semester to 47 in the fall, with several of them scheduled to come back for the following semesters.

Among the new companies coming to the job fairs in the next year are Jim’s Formal Wear, looking for business graduates, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, looking for pharmaceutical representatives, and Manheim Computer Repair, looking for computer science majors.

“Our students are getting jobs,” Jenkins said.

Dan Farber, a senior from Buffalo Grove set to graduate with a finance degree, said it took him four and a half years to earn his degree.

“All of the kids in my classes who are graduating in December are landing jobs,” Farber said.

Farber is going back to Chicago to pursue a career in real estate.

Farber said the College of Business and Administration offered students hundreds of possible interviews to attend, but he did not use any of them.

Still, Farber maintained a good outlook.

“I’m the kind of person that if I want something, I go out and look for it myself,” he said.

David Lopez can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 273 or [email protected].