UMaine Career Center employees, salutatorian featured in WABI report on job market
Employees of the University of Maine Career Center, as well as the UMaine Class of 2016 salutatorian were featured in a two-part WABI (Channel 5) report on Maine’s job market. “Most people think, ‘Well there are no jobs in Maine and everybody needs to leave the state,’ and that is really not what our data is indicating, and that is for in-state and out-of-state students combined,” said Crisanne Blackie, director of the Career Center. “So I think the in-state students is probably like 60–65 percent stay in Maine and out-of-state students is probably 25 or 30 percent of those students stay in Maine.” This year’s salutatorian, Connor Smart of Lincoln, is about to graduate with a 4.0 grade point average and a degree in business administration with a focus on accounting and finance, according to the report. He has already found a job at a firm in Portland, which he applied to through the Career Center. “I hope it’s an upward trend that continues and we can help the students be successful ultimately and then help the employers find the talent that they are looking for,” said Kate Axelsen Foster, the assistant director for employer relations at the Career Center. In Part 2 of the report, Blackie spoke about how the center helps students find and land jobs and the tools they use, including Career Link, an online job listing service.