The new Virginia Tech Career Services Building will hold a Grand Opening Celebration and Open House for the university and area community from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 22.

Tours will be available for the building's expanded interview space, classroom space, and conference rooms, which will be just a few of the advantages of the new building. The open house will provide Virginia Tech employees and the community an opportunity to become acquainted with the facility and the help Career Services offers.

Career Services' mission is to prepare Virginia Tech students to make optimal use of their knowledge, skills, and abilities to explore successfully and choose academic majors and career options, obtain career-related experience, and develop and pursue post-graduation career plans, including graduate and professional school and employment.

The new 22,000-square-foot building located on the corner of Washington Street and West Campus Drive will be dedicated solely to the career development and employment needs of students and employers. It offers several advantages over the old quarters: 32 interview rooms; conference rooms and seminar space for workshops, meetings, classes, and employer receptions and information sessions; a high-tech computer lab; a career-resource center; and air conditioning.

Hundreds of employers will conduct interviews in the building, and students can receive résumé critiques and advice about their career decisions and job searches and take part in mock interviews. The building provides opportunities for students and employers to meet in a professional setting with an observation room to facilitate mock interview feedback and facilities and lockers for students to change into interview attire.

Also, the new classroom space will allow for the teaching of four sections of a career decision-making class.

People from various companies and career fields will visit the building to talk to students about career options and job opportunities. Students can receive instruction in dining etiquette for interviews and ways to get into the job market.

Recruitment by companies will be easier in the new $4.3-million building. One of Career Services' functions is to help employers meet their recruitment and staffing needs by identifying Virginia Tech resources that complement their college-relations efforts. "Over the years, we have had up to 700 different companies annually who interview through our operation," said the center's director, Donna Cassell Ratcliffe. "With a few slow years behind us, we have new staff in place to encourage an increase in the number of companies coming to campus to recruit Virginia Tech students."

Students do not have to wait until they are seniors to benefit from Career Services, Ratcliffe said. Other students can get help with deciding their majors, making career plans, and finding career-related experience through internships, externships, and cooperative-education opportunities. On July 1, Career Services became an auxiliary operation supported by student fees. "They should take advantage of the services we offer," she said.

Light refreshments will be served during the tours. For further information, call (540) 231-6241.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become among the largest universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.

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