More than anything else, Ellis Ott wanted to move back to his hometown of Fairbanks, Alaska, after graduating with a Ph.D. with majors in statistics and curriculum and instruction from Iowa State.

He knew because of the limited amount of job opportunities for Ph.D.s in Fairbanks, he had to make every opportunity count.

So he sought professional help - help he received from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Office of Career Services.

"I talked with Steve (Kravinsky, director of LAS career services) and he helped me polish my resume," Ellis said. "It was important to me to optimize my chances. I needed to take advantage of every opportunity to make this job possible."

Ellis says Kravinsky and the rest of the LAS career services staff helped him in a variety of ways in getting that first job. Not only did they help Ellis with his resume, they suggested writing thank you notes at every stage of the interview process.

"That was a great suggestion," he said. "That made the people I interviewed with remember who I was."

Ellis also attended a LAS career services' seminar on the interview process. Another great choice according to Ellis.

"They (LAS career services) identified potential questions in an interview that I did not expect," he said. "Because I had attended the seminar, I had really good answers prepared for the most difficult of questions.

"Steve mentioned that I should also sell myself - something I'm not used to doing," Ellis continued.

So at the conclusion of his phone interview, Ellis sold himself to his prospective employer.

"I told them ‘I had an unique set of skills you won't find in any other candidate,'" he said.

The suggestions all worked for Ellis. He is scheduled to begin a new job this summer with the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District as a testing coordinator.

There he will conduct statistical surveys of testing and tell the schools in the district if they are meeting the No Child Left Behind requirements.

This was made possible, Ellis thinks, in part because of the advice he received from LAS career services.

"Because it was that much more important for me to do everything just right in this job search, I had to get the right advice," he said. "LAS career services made a significant difference. I had no expertise in this area so I had to rely on theirs."