The Career Services will teach students to navigate their new Panther Recruiting platform on Wednesday.

From noon to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Career Services will offer a workshop on how to use the new Panther Recruiting system.

The events will take place in the Career Services Office in the Human Services Building.

Linda Moore, the director of Career Services, described Panther Recruiting as an online system that allows students to put out their resume and get in touch with employers while still attending college.

“We have had some kind of system like this since 1994,” Moore said. “We wanted a new version to allow students to do more on the go like schedule appointments through the mobile app and link it to their Facebook and LinkedIn.”

Traditionally, the membership service has been $30, a fee that still stands but is now for Panther Recruiting Plus.

Panther Recruit Plus connects students to employers and internships for a one-time fee and allows students to use it through Aug. 31 of their graduating year.

It also allows them to attend any Career Services workshops that require a fee for free.

Many of the new features are free without the membership and are designed to make students’ visit to Career Services easier, she said.

“Student’s can schedule an appointment online or from their cell phone even when it is not business hours,” Moore said. “It is very green.”

In order to help eliminate the data entry process, the program is linked to PAWS so it already has all of the student’s information including contact information.

This was one of the things Moore and her team began looking for a new system about a year ago.

“We had to research the major vendors and make sure their products were compatible with Banner,” Moore said. “We also had to look at the systems’ new features, if it was in our price range, and whether or not it could handle a university of our size.”

After the multiple months of research were completed, the system had to be installed.

“It usually takes 12 weeks, but (IT specialists) did it in six weeks instead,” Moore said.

Moore said the service cost them $15,000 originally and $12,000 for every additional year they choose to use it.

“We understand how hard it is to search and find internships and jobs while still going to school full time,” Moore said. “We wanted to make that easier.”

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu