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MARQUETTE -- Monday was a big night at Northern Michigan University...a night of new frontiers.

The NMU Alumni Association and Student Alumni Association hosted their first ever professional networking panel.

Even with a college degree, it's tough to get a job during these tough economic times.  The goal of the networking panel was to introduce nursing students to what opportunities are available to them once they graduate and teach them how to go after them.

From internships to passing the NCLEX exams, nursing students at NMU were full of questions for the panel.

"What kind of experience before you go onto ICU because eventually I would like to do ICU," asked Tanya Landosky, a nursing student at NMU.

"The process of getting into different departments at the hospital, how competitive it's going to be," said Ben Fladung, also an NMU nursing student.

The event was an opportunity for current NMU nursing students to reach out to alums working in the field.

"I think they'll be able to have contacts with other nurses and they'll say, oh wait, I talked to you at that panel," said Faith Edwards, an Assistant Professor of Nursing at NMU.

And although a variety of topics were discussed, the hot topic was how to find a job.

The alums offered advice from what to wear to a job interview.

"Not to wear high heels during the tour of the hospital because that's going to be so annoying with the floors they have when you're walking on the hospital tours," said Alison Silk, an NMU student and President of the Student Alumni Association.

To how to impress employers...

"To be proactive, to learn as much as possible in school, become proficient at skills of nursing, and work really hard," said Mike Phillips, a panelist at the event.

NMU's nursing program boasts a 100 percent job placement rate, but the panelists warn students that the jobs they get may not be their dream jobs.  Still, they encourage students to get all the experience they can to reach their goals.  And students really seemed to appreciate their words of wisdom.

"It's nice to get their input because they're there, they're doing it every day.  It's good to hear what they have to say," Tanya stated.

"It's great to actually get to see where these people have come from, to know that these people have been in our shoes.  I'm getting ready to go through the same thing they've been through," Ben added.

After the panel discussion, students had the chance to mingle with the alums.

Reps from the Student Alumni Association say they're looking forward to more successful panels in the future.