Lynn Jacobson has two college-age sons of her own, so she understands when anxious parents call the MBNA Career Services Center (CSC) to ask about career placement.

Jacobson, a coordinator at CSC, helps parents navigate the center’s web pages [www.udel.edu/CSC/] to find the information most helpful to their students—career fair listings, companies’ campus interview dates, resumé-writing instruction, job-search strategies and how to arrange a mock interview.

“If they know that information, they can drop it into conversations with their students,’’ she says.

Despite parents’ prodding and the center’s outreach, Jacobson says there is always a trickle of graduates who enter the center doors for the first time after graduation day.

“We always say ‘Start early!’’’ she says, “but every year, right after graduation, we have a tiny influx of students who say, ‘O.K., I just graduated. What do I do now?’”

Unfortunately for them, Jacobson says, the job listings are depleted, the companies aren’t coming to campus over the summer and the career fairs don’t start for months.

“The students who don’t get started early are going to have to do a lot of legwork on their own,’’ she says. “We have workshops during the summer though, and we can help them with resumé writing and pre-interviewing and job-search strategies.”

The best time for a senior to start looking for a job is as soon as school opens in September, Jacobson says. Job fairs and company interviews begin in the fall and continue into spring. Many companies vie for fall interview slots so they can snag the best and most prepared candidates.

Parents can browse internship listings, check out the free courses and workshops available, use the web to determine if there’s an alumnus who would be willing to host their offspring in the day-long job shadowing program and check calendars for upcoming job fairs and campus interview dates.

Jacobson says not all departments require graduating seniors to complete an internship, but students who complete internships have a leg up in the job market.

“A company wants to see that they have experience in their field,’’ she says. “Say, for example, I’m an accounting major and all my jobs have been at the beach and I’ve never worked in an office environment. On the other hand, you have the same degree and have worked in an office.  Who are they going to hire if everything else is equal?”

This year, about 10 percent of the Class of 2005 took advantage of the center’s free mock interviews, where students are videotaped in an interview situation. The mock interview makes students aware of any hair-twirling or eye-contact problems and helps them develop a winning interview style.

For more information for your students about workshops on interview preparation, job search strategies and other career–related subjects, call the MBNA Career Services Center at (302) 831-2391.

Jacobson’s short list of most helpful services includes career assessment tests for students who aren’t sure what they want to do and resumé-writing instruction, interview preparation and job-search strategies for all students.

“Once you have the basics, it’s going to take you anywhere, no matter whether you’re an engineer or an art major,” she says.

“The idea is to have a job offer by Christmas time so you can sit back and enjoy the holidays.”