IT'S GOING ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD. Landing a job starts on Day 1 of college. Methinks this is a bit too much.

Focusing on your career, starting to market yourself and learning how to land your first professional job has to start the first day of your college life.

At the University of Dayton, here is what that means:

And that's why, on their first day of college in August, the class of 2008 was alerted to the fact that their job search was beginning.

All incoming students were told they must develop personal Web sites with a resume and picture in their first year. The first-year students also were encouraged to make video resumes.

As if incoming students have any idea what their aptitudes are. It matters not that some of these incoming students might be adults with a work history. College-as-retraining simply indicates dissatisfaction with what those people are currently doing; it is not a magic ticket to a dream job. The story illustrates how far some universities have drifted from the idea of the first two years as an opportunity to engage Big Ideas without fear of the consequence, while discovering strengths and weaknesses that might have nothing to do with vocational talents.

There is a flip side to this public posting of credentials: employers have additional information useful in making background checks.

If you have even the slightest misdemeanor in your background, it could cost you the job you're applying for, as some job seekers have found out the hard way.

It seems very petty to be denied employment because, as one reader has complained, a search of your criminal background shows you may have been fined for not keeping your dog on a leash and you forgot to mention it in your job interview.

To job applicants, digging up trivia such as this that allows a potential employer to withdraw a job offer is devastating and unfair.

On the other hand, that universities, nay, the common schools, have abandoned character education does not mean that a good character is not still valuable.