According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 1.4 million college educated individuals will enter the labor force this year. Unemployment is at its highest level in 16 years and is likely to increase. So will a college degree alone get you a job in a brutal economy?
Dr. Robert Reid, Dean of the Business School at James Madison University, notified an alumni audience last week that recruitment visits on campus are scheduled to be down 40% this semester. He added this is the worst job market for graduating seniors he has ever seen in his career.
Two years ago, USA Today reported that helicopter parents were extending their involvement from the college admission office to the workplace. Parents were not only showing up a job fairs with their children, they were negotiating salary and benefits on their behalf. What can we expect this year?
With those sobering facts, what advice do you have for college students?
If you are a student, what strategies are you using to get hired?
graduated in 07 and didn't know what I wanted to do when I graduated. So I moved home to save up and worked in retail for a year. I decided to move to NYC in September of 08 to find a job in the fashion/event planning industry. Although these industries are already very competitive, its virtually impossible to find a job now. These two industries are taking the lbiggest hits with regards to the economy. People arent buying clothes, fashionweek has seen designers drop out, retail stores are closing, and people aren't doing big parties anymore. Luckily I got a paid internship 3 days a week at a fashion company (which pays the bills) and am interning for free at a PR agency. Right now I'm hoping interning will increase my experience on my resume until I can find a full time job. My motto is to shoot for the stars and take the risk. If I didn't believe it I wouldn't have moved to New York. My finances are tight but because of my savings I am getting by, You can definitely live in the big city on a budget and still have fun. I'm using this time to figure out what I want to do and what kind of company I want to work for.
ReplyDeleteThe following response was posted to my same question in LinkedIn:
ReplyDeleteThere will be jobs for the Class of 2009, but the job search will take longer and expectations for the first job will have to be tailored to the economic environment after graduation. In fact, I believe that new graduates will have an easier time securing employment than more experienced workers who have been laid off from their positions. For one thing, new graduates do not cost as much.
Secondly, they have nothing to "unlearn" about the way business was done in their previous positions, so the new grad can concentrate on learning the corporate culture, policies, procedures with an unbiased approach.
Finally, new graduates may not leave their first position as quickly as a more experienced worker when the economy opens up again. That being said, I am confident that there are jobs available for qualified workers at all levels.
You just have to know how to tap into the hidden job market and exercise patience in the process. Along with the patience, you might have to take a position that is lateral or even unrelated to your career goals to support your job search. However, no employer down the road is going to hold anyone to the same litmus tests (no employment gaps; each job builds on the last up the corporate ladder) for this economic period in our history.
The following response was posted to my same question in LinkedIn:
ReplyDeleteIn terms of your question, "will a college degree alone get you a job in a brutal economy," I would advocate that a college degree and *a plan* will ease the process for the Class of 2009. As there have been deep job cuts across industry sectors, I recommend that the following for the class of 2009:
1. Consider broadening the focus of your search parameter but narrow your focus (i.e. pick a functional area you'd like to work in, but be flexible in geographical location or industry sector).
2. Be a great candidate: Educate yourself about the industry in which you want to work, gain experience through internships, conduct informational interviews to assess what employers are looking for, and research organizational needs (Google News Alerts are great for this).
3. Be a hawk in managing your reputation. Stats show up to 77% of employers will Google you before making a job offer, 35% have rescinded job offers based on what they have found online. Monitor what people may find.
4. Use your networks: alumni networks, friends, and friends of friends are invaluable. Join LinkedIn, there are countless stories of people who have found their jobs through the application.
5. Stay in touch with former employers and friends in your life and let them know you are looking--and be specific about what you are looking for.
In other words, the degree alone is not enough: It will need to be combined with effort.
The following response was posted to my same question in LinkedIn:
ReplyDeleteGreat question. There will be jobs, but the competition for those jobs will be fierce. Candidates fresh out of school will be competing for the same jobs as people with 2+ years of experience.
I have many recommendations for college grads, but Ill be brief. Having coached and presented on this subject, I tell anyone getting ready to enter the real world to:
1) Get some real experience. You wll be competing with people that definitely have experience. You need to get some. Volunteer, talk to neighbors, friends, your friends' parents, business owners, churches, etc, and ask to do something. Better yet...FIND a solution to a problem someone is having (ie. I recruit for IT folks and recently hired a 'green' candidate. The client chose him because he developed a pretty saavy database for his church that helped them streamline their membership, send out updates/emails, increase pledges/offerings, etc.
2) Taking the same example...Be flexible. My candidate was easy to work with. He didnt ask about vacation or try and negotiate his rate. He just wanted to get in and prove himself. New grads that want to be on the network support/admin side, you must be flexible to start out in Helpdesk/Desktop positions, and be flexible to work any shift available. Folks with experience typically do not like 2nd or 3rd shifts. Be flexible.
3) If you have a year left or a summer left, work for free at your college's helpdesk support center. That is the very best way to leave college and immediately get either a contract or perm position troubleshooting.
4) Attitude is everything. In this market there are a lot of "the glass is half empty" candidates. They have gone on numerous interviews and each one leaves them less and less optimistic. Be the ray of sunlight that the hiring manager has been waiting for. You might be surprised how many candidates in front of you just cant hide their negative emotions.
In summary, competition amongst the entry level jobs will be compeitive at least for the remainder of 2009. You have to show what you can offer than others cant, be flexible with what the company wants you do to, at their pay, and on their hours. Being flexible for that, and having a great attitude can help you land your first job.
Logan Bragg
Udig Technologies
I accept all LinkedIn requests http://www.linkedin.com/in/loganbragg (I accept all requests)
The following response was posted to my same question in LinkedIn:
ReplyDeleteBrent,
In 2009, the college degree may not be sufficient to get a job. The reason is very simple. As the job market gets tougher, industry always look for minimum experince with qualified professional skills. Therefore, it is necessary for some one from college to get practical experince and professional certification before they get out of the college.
There are only two areas where there will be job growth. One is Healthcare industry and another is IT industry. It is important for college graduates to work toward professional certifications and experience in job growth area and also look out of the box especially beyond college degree.
The following response was posted to my same question in LinkedIn:
ReplyDeleteDarn right there will. There are ALWAYS jobs for the hard working, well educated, hungry, much less expensive, new entries into the workforce. The ones that will have a hard time are the older ones who are used to making good dollars, especially the ones who joined the workforce in the late nineties with outrageous salaries right out of college.
If you are one of those and recently lost your job you need to get hungry and excited again and come at this job market with fresh attitudes and new ideas.
The following response was posted to my same question in LinkedIn:
ReplyDeleteI met with a group of current College of Business seniors just this past Monday afternoon. They did not expect their searches to be fruitful, but they all possessed that young optimism. One kid laughed and said that he decided to go to law school once the economy tanked.
The following response was posted to my same question in LinkedIn:
ReplyDeleteYes, jobs are harder to come by, especially for new graduates. Some fields with higher than average job demand include health care and business consulting http://wetfeet.com/Undergrad/Finding-the-job/Articles/Who-s-Hiring-Now--America-s-Most-Wanted-Workers.aspx.
The feeling of entitlement and thinking that "I can work smart so I don't have to work hard," which seems common in my generation, are crumbling down. Job hunters are getting more innovative (http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/pf/0901/gallery.unconventional_job_searches/7.html) and creative (http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2009/01/jeff-hicks-alex-bogusky-career.html). Which I, as a December '08 graduate and job hunter myself, think we need to be.
I agree with Andy that in the long run everything will work itself out. No matter how dire it might seem right now, the [job] market will stabilize and new leaders will emerge in the next tide of economic growth. These are exciting times!
There will always be jobs out there, whether you get hired by someone or create them your self through entrepreneurship.
ReplyDeleteWe must adapt to the market's needs & wants. The question really should be How will adapt to the job/career market?
Look an the slew of job sites out there. You might have to move, you might have to do something outside your major (but who does something inside their major anyways) and how can I stand out?