If you look around campus, you will see students carrying around one thing, and it’s not a pencil or a notebook; it’s a phone. More and more students own smart phones and rely on these devices to perform a variety of tasks. Students read their email, search the Web, text and play games to pass the time between classes.

Smartphones are giving students more opportunities, and employment is one of the areas that the technology is changing rapidly. Upon downloading a variety of applications, students are able to search a career base as well as network and find small jobs suitable for their schedule.

For those searching for employment, there is no shortage of apps available. Career Builder’s application searches over 2 million jobs based upon a resume submitted.

Other apps, such as LunchMeet and Linkup, use smartphones as a vehicle for networking and allow users to meet with individuals in their fields of interest.

For those students who want to make a few extra bucks between class, homework, and club meetings, Gigwalk is an application that presents a list of tasks from a variety of employers, and users can access these tasks based on their proximity.

Virginia Padron, Career Center director at Skyline, expressed how technology has become indispensable for students in search of employment.

“Technology is a tool to (help) students,” Padron said. “Technology is driving the way we do our job search.”

With more and more applications emerging for the smart phones and, more recently, tablet phones, it is critical that a service like the Career Center is updating with technological changes to best serve their students.

Upon the relocation of the Skyline Career Center and its website launch, slated for May 1, a new technology will also be available to students to aid them in the employment process. The program, called “The Perfect Interview,” is a website paid for by the college, which prompts students with interview questions based on a career that they choose, and records the answers for students to critique.

“This is a great feature we offer in the Center because it is a continued practice of technology that is essential for both us and the students,” Padron said.

Even though “The Perfect Interview” has a space available in the new Career Center, it can be accessed from any computer with a camera, and potentially any device that has a built-in camera, such as an iPad or a smart phone.

“Yes, I would totally use these apps to meet with people about helping me find a job,” said Skyline student Victor Wong.

Face-to-face networking is critical for making concrete contacts, but it is also important to use technology with common sense, as emphasized by Skyline Chief of Public Safety John Wells.

“When using applications such as LunchMeet and Gigwalk, students need to be aware of the fact that they are meeting with complete strangers” said Wells.

“I definitely look for jobs on applications for my phone” said Skyline Student Larissa Espada. Espada went on to comment that she would not use a service like Gigwalk, claiming that there was no way to know if it was “legit.”

Technology is a tool that students everywhere use today to further their education their career, and their lives. Even with so much promise, technology must be treated carefully and used with the best judgement.