The CCE offers a lot of services, as anyone who receives its incessant weekly e-mails knows. It will pretend to interview you for a job and try to make you crack. It will describe the career options for your major and try to make you cry. It will even give you tips on resume scents if you ask nicely. But its most important task is to find you a job. And employment, as you may or may not be aware, is kind of thin on the ground right now.

The CCE wants you to know it’s trying really, really hard. It wants you to know so badly, in fact, that it e-mailed your parents (they who pay the bills) telling them so. This morning, a message landed in parental inboxes across the country describing its response to the recession, the “Hire Columbians” initiative, in which the CCE promotes connections between student/graduate employees and alumni/affiliate employers.

It might have been easier to write, “It’s the economy, stupid,” and leave it at that, but then we wouldn’t know about “Columbia Champions,” who are constant and fearless, and will rescue you from ROUS’s if you’re wearing light blue.

The point is, the CCE is keeping up the fight. On one hand, it’s nice that you’re getting off the hook for not filling out a dozen job applications over spring break. On the other, anything that prompts a mental comparison between the CCE and the Little Engine That Could is a little worrying. Click for the full e-mail.

Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:43:00 AM

Subject: Hire Columbians – an initiative from the career center at Columbia University

Dear Columbia Parent,

At this difficult economic time, you can make a difference by assisting Columbia students and alumni looking for jobs and internships. The Columbia University Center for Career Education (CCE) is pleased to announce ‘Hire Columbians’, a new initiative designed to facilitate the hiring of Columbians. Listed below are several different ways you can get involved.

Post a Position

If your firm is hiring, ensure that CCE is aware of openings at your organization. Assist Columbians by posting positions exclusively for Columbia students and alumni on CCE’s job database LionSHARE.

Become a Columbia Champion

Make sure your colleagues know the benefits a Columbian will bring to an organization. CCE can work with you to turn your contacts into potential employers of Columbia students and alumni.

Offer your Industry Expertise

As CCE looks to find new opportunities, those who can speak as authorities within their field are a vital resource. As a Columbia Parent you can work with CCE to share trends within your field, provide industry contacts and help to expand the number of positions available to Columbia students and alumni.

To learn more about all the above contact:

Patrick Smith

Senior Associate Director of Employer Outreach at CCE

Telephone: 212-854 5496

Email: ps2211@columbia.edu

We hope that you are able to join the ‘Hire Columbians’ initiative and help fellow Columbians advance their career goals. Even a small amount of your time can make an enormous positive impact, both on job-seekers and on the firms that hire them.

Thank you for your consideration,

Kavita Sharma

Dean, Center for Career Education