It is important to be aware of the pressure that people may feel to have had incredibly productive or life-changing breaks, and of the significant barriers to these experiences.

Through my own experiences this year, work-study has provided me with minimal opportunities to work on campus. The website touts the program as a possibility to build your resume, but often these jobs are focused only in certain areas, such as working in a lab. While this may be beneficial for some, it leaves many students out. This has only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Many aspects of the Washington University undergraduate academic experience are pre-professional, such as pre-med students studying to become doctors or business students learning about investment banking. However, the humanities majors within the College of Arts & Sciences often have a less defined path in relation to their job outcome.

Washington University tour guides are the people that can help them to fall in love with the school, give them an idea about what life is like at the University and share with them all the wonderful things that Wash. U. has to offer. Given the major impact that these tour guides can have on potential Wash. U. students, it is only right that they receive monetary compensation for the work they are doing.

With the new school year comes a number of changes, one of which might be particularly exciting to students: Washington University’s winter break has been extended to one month and three days, eight days longer than last year’s three-week-and-five-day winter break. A longer winter break opens up a number of previously unrealistic opportunities for students, but the University has yet to add resources to coincide with our lengthened free time.

I have been surprised by the responses written in response to a Green Action protest, an event authors perceived as embarrassing and harmful to student’s “career interests.” As a recent graduate, I am not proud to have attended the same institution which has produced such an unthinking and hypocritical response to an act of social protest.

You’re in the waiting room about to see the hiring manager. You strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to you. He may be wearing a more expensive suit and may have a slightly more confident posture, but he holds practically the same credentials that you do. His interview ends with a pat on the shoulder and an offer while you were sent to the door.

Washington University’s Career Center has stepped up its efforts to help students obtain the jobs they want. This initiative is a reaction to students’ worries about finding jobs in the current economic climate.

In a recent column in the Huffington Post, Amanda Terkel wrote about America’s “Brain Drain,” how graduates in scientific fields work in finance rather than continuing with research. Instead of continuing with scientific research and development, technical majors often end up in the world of finance, working for a Wall Street investment bank.

Washington University prides itself on its career center and the career services it provides for its students. The prestigious jobs its students are offered every year, the clout those students hold in the working world, and the substantial alumni network that we have are all indicators that a lot of things are going well.