We are thrilled to connect our students with our Employer Advisory Council. This council serves as a bridge between academia and the professional world, offering invaluable networking and job prospects to students like you. As a key resource, the council provides real-world insights, industry trends, and guidance, ensuring that your academic pursuits align with the demands of the ever-evolving job market. This partnership forges connections that could open doors to internships, cooperative experiences, and even full-time positions.
Log in to Handshake to learn more about each company and see their jobs and internships!
Scam "job opportunities" often take the form of "personal or office assistants" and frequently ask an individual to purchase items for their business, deposit checks for the business, or negotiate sales between a vendor and a business. What the scam is attempting to do is get the individual to deposit a fraudulent check (that will bounce in a few days/weeks) and purchase items or send personal checks with their own money. They are also attempting to collect personal information that could be used in future identity theft (address, SS#, bank information, etc.).
If you are a current student and believe you have been contacted by a job scam, please forward all email correspondence to the Career Center at careercenter@stcloudstate.edu or call 320-308-2151 to discuss the situation. The Career Center is available to talk with students about any job posting prior to responding to an inquiry. Please talk with a trusted advisor before responding to any job posting. Additionally, you can research the company on the Better Business Bureau.
We encourage you to:
- Never provide any personal information by email to an employer.
- Use a different strong password for each online account.
- Change passwords more frequently for accounts with access to confidential data.
- Never share passwords with others.
- Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, Google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online.
- Consult the Career Center or a trusted advisor if you have questions about any job posting that seems “fishy” or too good to be true.
Job Posting Guidelines and Common Job Scams to Avoid:
Email Phishing Scams
Online scammers are becoming much more sophisticated in their attempts to lure victims, especially using email links to false websites. It is increasingly difficult to tell the difference between legitimate and counterfeit online sites. There has been a recent uptick in phishing attacks at institutions across the country.
Over Payment Scams
Over payment scams are designed to entice you with quick money in advance of doing any work. They are typically advertised as personal assistant, administrative assistant, or book-keeping positions needed to assist with processing checks and orders for supplies, or mystery/secret shopping. The new employee is instructed to deposit the check into the bank, take out their salary and wire the remaining money to their agents. These fraudulent checks will quickly bounce and leave the new employee out thousands of dollars and facing criminal charges.
Be cautious if the email or job posting
- Does not list a company name or the job advertisement is vague about the position and requirements.
- Comes from an email address that doesn’t match the company name (most legitimate companies will use the company domain instead of a Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail account).
- The job posting says “no experience required”, or the employer is not interested in your work history or skills.
- Information about a job is not on company letterhead or uses bad grammar or punctuation in communications. The company sends multiple recruitment letters and are sometimes identical letters from people with different names but the same job title.
- Offers to pay a large amount of money for almost no work.
- A job is offered without the submission of a resume, or after a brief or no interview.
- Asks you to pay an application fee.
- Up-front payment is requested to get the job. For example: a software program needed to work from home, or training materials, credit or background check fees, a work visa, or travel expenses.
- Wants you to transfer money from one account to another.
- Offers to send you a check before you do any work.
- Asks you to give your credit card or bank account numbers.
- A request is made by phone, text, or e-mail for personal information (social security number, date of birth, driver’s license number, credit card information, or bank account information) so that paychecks can be directly deposited.
- Says you must send payment by wire service or courier.
- Offers you a large payment for allowing the use of your bank account – often for depositing checks or transferring money.
- Sends you an unexpectedly large check.
- The recruiter requests you to recruit others for the same position.
- The recruiter pressures you to accept the job.
- A person high up the corporate ladder (CEO, company owner, or HR Director) is recruiting you.
- A company approaches you about a job for which you didn’t apply.
- The job opportunity looks too good to be true. Examples of this are easy work with high pay, high starting salary for an entry-level job, or wages way above the typical pay for a similar job.
No legitimate employer will send payment in advance and ask the employee to send a portion of it back. DO NOT provide any personal information especially social security numbers or financial information.
Direct contact is the key to getting noticed by an employer. Most resumes posted online with companies are never seen. Get the advantage by connecting with employers who attend job or career fairs.
- Private College Job Fair — Use the site to identify job and internship postings and employer contacts.
- Most Job and Internship Fairs hosted on St. Cloud State University's campus will have the employer lists available in Handshake a month before the event.
- Career Center also lists and links to job and internship fairs.
Many employers use Google to advertise their job or internship openings and many others design their job posting websites so their positions will show up on the first page of a Google search.
- Try different job titles and locations. Example: Nursing jobs in Minneapolis; Nursing jobs in Twin Cities.
- If you need some ideas for job titles, remember to view the Post Graduation Outcomes.
Make sure you work ONLY with agencies that are 100 percent free to candidates.
- Employment agencies most active in recruiting new college grads include:
- Pro Staff, Aerotek, GradStaff, Robert Half/Accountemps, and Career Professionals.
- To find the agencies with specialties that fit your interests, research Employment Agencies online.
