Artur Savyolov, the director of the Moscow Student Center (MSC), has worked there since its foundation in 2000. The mayor of Moscow officially approved the center in 1999 and it is part of a program called Student Initiative at Institutes of Higher Education. Its purpose is to help young graduates make the leap from study halls to offices.

The Leader: Before joining MSC, you worked at the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Expertise (IAESTE). What is the relationship between MSC and IAESTE?

Mr. Savyolov: We are honest partners. But from a financial point of view we are completely separate organizations. MSC is a government organization and IAESTE is an international non-profit organization with a student and career orientation.

The Leader: What is the main goal of MSC?

Mr. Savyolov: Our main goal is to really help any student or graduate who comes to us in search of assistance. We are meant for all students, not just those studying at state institutions. We also deal with psychological problems — if someone has been unsuccessful in finding work, he may need help in getting out of a depression. We are also like a bridge between students and companies.

The Leader: What does MSC do?

Mr. Savyolov: We help students get connections with employers and we organize corporate presentations, conferences and seminars on how to get a job. MSC is also the founder of the student and youth newspaper Vertikal, which was launched recently.

We organize presentations with companies and career days and we help companies in a way a bit like direct recruitment. On the 17th, British American Tobacco is meeting up with Plekhanov students and then with a number of other students.

Such a center was needed because it’s not very profitable for recruitment agencies to work with students and graduates. Also, companies themselves often say they aren’t interested in young people, and that they want people with experience. It’s a vicious circle. We try to show that a young person without work experience is not a bad worker and help young people show this themselves.

The Leader: What are MSC’s plans for the future?

Mr. Savyolov: Next year there will be regular training programs and seminars on how to find a job. They will be designed to help students to integrate into the labor market and will be for both those who are still studying and graduates.

The Leader: What are the main difficulties that students face adapting to the world of work?

Mr. Savyolov: A red diploma (the most prestigious undergraduate diploma) isn’t necessarily a ticket to instant success. An excellent student can’t always compete with another good student who is more energetic and charismatic. The decisive factor in getting a job is not the university you graduated from or your grades, but how you present yourself.

For most students the first difficulty is deciding how to set about looking for a job and knowing what kind of work would suit them. In one job you may need to be an energetic generator of ideas, somewhere else you may need to be the opposite, if you are an accountant for instance.

In Moscow, most students don’t get a job in their area of specialization. We have done research that shows that 30 percent of students regret having studied what they did because it hasn’t offered them the career prospects they had hoped for.

An obvious problem is that it’s hard to get a well-paid job after graduation. There are a lot of jobs advertised in technology, for example, but they’re not well-paid. This is just the economic situation in the country.

Also, people don’t know enough about the labor market; for example, they don’t know what kind of salary to expect. They need to look at average salaries on the labor market for the same position.

If an individual still hasn’t found work six months after graduation, it becomes a kind of illness. It is a hard blow to the psyche if you don’t make the right first step.

The Leader: What kind of salaries can graduates expect?

Mr. Savyolov: $1,500 was the largest salary on offer for a graduate at the career forum held in April. But the average graduate can expect 4,500 to 6,000 rubles a month. Not all companies will pay $300 or $400! There are about 50,000 graduates a year and there are obviously not enough jobs for all of them in international companies.

The Leader: Do you think that the Moscow government does enough to improve the situation for graduates?

Mr. Savyolov: I can honestly say that it does a lot. Above all, it finances MSC, and we founded the newspaper Vertikal and run career forums in conjunction with the government of Moscow. The government also runs scientific and technical conferences and we run training programs, seminars and conferences.

We are also planning an Internet site. It will be a huge Internet base with thousands of students and employers. There’ll also be articles on the site and online career consultation. Site users will ask questions and experts in the relevant fields will answer them online.

The Leader: To what extent do you look to models in other countries for inspiration?

Mr. Savyolov: Our system of education is becoming more internationalized, so it is logical that our system for looking for work should too. Of course we look at how things are done abroad. I personally took a course in the U.K. through the British Council, where I traveled all around the U.K and saw how they organize career centers. Russia shouldn’t be a closed country!