Finding a job just got easier – thanks to Jobs4Jays, the online career management system launched by the Creighton Career Center on June 1.

The interactive system allows Creighton students and alumni to publish profiles, upload résumés and other career-related materials, search a database of more than 800 employers and apply for jobs and internships online. They can also schedule on-campus interviews, RSVP for events and manage a personal calendar.

Jobs4Jays is an effective way for students to make the most of their job searches, said Jim Bretl, director of the Creighton Career Center.

“Employers are using online schemes in advertising for college grads,” Bretl said. “They’re using campus interviews, they’re using career fairs. They wouldn’t keep coming back if they weren’t hiring people,” Bretl said.

All undergraduates, pharmacy, physical therapy and occupational therapy students are able to use Jobs4Jays, associate director of the Creighton Career Center Jeremy Fisher said. He specializes in business career programs, designed the Web site and said the Career Center hopes law and nursing students will eventually be able to use Jobs4Jays, too.

“Probably within the next year or two, all of the colleges and departments at Creighton will be using Jobs4Jays,” Fisher said. “In the past, it wasn’t one universal system for the university, and now we have one universal system.”

This year, the Ratio Studiorum Program is incorporating information about Jobs4Jays into the freshman curriculum. Arts & Sciences junior Adam Karnik is a decurion who will be teaching the freshmen about the Career Center’s resources. He said the best part of the program is the potential for student-alumni interaction.

“Creighton has an awesome network of alumni who love to meet, and hire, recent students,” he said. “I expect that Jobs4Jays will be a fantastic facilitator between them.”

Karnik said he thinks it’s important that freshmen learn about the opportunities Jobs4Jays has to offer.

“Although it may not seem like it to a freshman, it’s always best to start career planning early. In addition to job opportunities, the program also handles summer internships, which are a great way to begin thinking about careers during your time at Creighton.”

Karnik, who has his own Jobs4Jays profile, said it was very easy to set up his account because the Career Center has already done most of the work. Students’ basic information, including Net ID, e-mail and local or permanent address, is pre-loaded in the Jobs4Jays database. To finalize registration, students and alumni need to complete their personal profile and submit it to the Career Center for approval. Once a profile and résumé is approved, students and alumni can begin applying for jobs.

“What’s cool is even if you think you have a basic résumé and you don’t want to upload it, you can always change it,” Bretl said. “Don’t be shy about putting something on there – just get it up there so we can get it online and see what it looks like.”

To get the best results from the Jobs4Jays system, Bretl said students and alumni should upload different versions of their résumés, pay attention to companies visiting campus and sign up for e-mail alerts when new jobs or internships are posted.

Although most employers who visit campus are from business-related companies, many of the positions don’t require a business major. Bretl said his goal is for more Arts and Sciences students to get active and interview.

“We really would like more Arts and Sciences students to come in here and at least take a chance,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with interviews and experience.”

“Get active. Get used to this thing,” Bretl said. “A lot of people are saying the economy is not as good as it used to be, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start looking for jobs very early.”

Last year, the Career Center had more than 28,000 full-time jobs and more than 3,000 internships using their old system, Fisher said. He said he expects employers, who can post positions on Jobs4Jays for free, to submit twice as many this year.

“I really don’t see why a Creighton student would not want to register for Jobs4Jays – I think it’d be crazy not to,” Fisher said. “It doesn’t cost anything to students at all, but over the course of the year and the semester there will be literally thousands and thousands of internships, nationally and locally, and full-time jobs.”

Register for Jobs4Jays at http://www2.creighton.edu/careercenter/jobs4jayslogin.