Students focus on skill sets to land jobs - AmericaNowNews.com

Louisiana State University Senior Jonathan Heidt wants to land a job by the time he graduates. The business major from Houston, Texas knows he has his work cut out for him.

"It's pretty dismal right now," he says. "But I've sent out a lot of applications and resumes already, because I thought I should start early."

In LSU's smart lab,a simulated interactive trading floor, Heidt can watch real-time what's happening in the stock market and get pertinent information at his fingertips.

"I try to keep up on current events, read The Wall Street Journal  and try to broaden my horizons," he says.

Dek Terrell teaches economics at LSU. He says job hunters should target who is hiring and what career is hot and arm themselves with what it takes to compete.

"I think that's the challenge, is to go out and look for a niche where you know there is growth," he explains.

Terrell says the focus should be to exhaust every resource to get back to work. Most people out of work are simply trying to stay afloat until they start making money again. Terrell says unless you're independently wealthy, don't concern yourself with saving now, but with surviving and planning when you can save again.

"I think the most important thing to do would be to really access your own skill set and your own goals as far as to where you see yourself working in the future," he says. "And to try to take a hard look at it - at whether this is a realistic assessment of where you're going to be able to go."

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