Editorial by Carolyn Wright

 Anyone looking for a job nowadays knows exactly how hard it is to land one during these hard economic times.   People who are out of a job are scrambling to find one, and students are having a particularly difficult time.

New Mexico State University claims to be concerned about student employment, but its online student employment service, Ventana, does not make finding a job any easier. 

Ventana is an online employment system intended for students who do not qualify for work-study.   After logging into the Ventana system, students can apply for a number of job postings and upload a resume. 

According to the site, Ventana aims to “help defray the of a college education.”  But how can Ventana achieve this if students are never hired?

The idea behind an online student employment system seems great, right?  The only problem is, Ventana does not seem to be getting very many students jobs.

Personally, I have applied for more than 20 jobs on Ventana, and I haven’t received feedback on any of them.  Now, I’m not trying to talk myself up, but my resume isn’t lacking in experience.

The problem with the Ventana system is the fact that there is no confirmation after the student has applied.  Because of this, I have been worried that the employers have not actually received my application.  There is also no contact information for the employers, so there is no way to contact them directly in order to find out if the application has been reviewed.

If New Mexico State University wants to help students find employment, it should revise its online student employment system.