The Shift from Glee to Gloom

During the recent boom years, graduates were confident they would land creative, challenging jobs with an accelerated career path, top dollars, and generous benefits. “With companies cutting back and more job applicants crowding the market, the days of shopping around for the ‘perfect job’ are fading fast,” writes Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Staff Reporter, Rachel Emma Silverman.

The 5.5+% unemployment rates underscore the continuing weakness in the national job market. But, these numbers hardly depict the tough time facing coming college graduates. Employers will cut hiring by 20% this year from 2001 levels, according to a recent report from National Association of Colleges and Employers, (NACE) Bethlehem, PA.

Many recent college graduates have had job offers delayed or rescinded as companies try to cut cost. In particular, jobs at consulting firms are scarcer, according to a survey of more than 90 schools by the NACE, www.NACEWEB.org. While consulting firms ranked first in job offers in early 2001, they fell to 11^th place in 2002, and the average salary offered decreased to $43,070 from $47,893.

All Is Not Gloom and Doom

Where are the most promising job prospects in economic slum? According to NACE, employers with the most job offers were accounting, computer science, marketing, finance and engineering. The federal government is also high on the list and is expected to remain there as more of its work force retires.

“Hiring of any kind is good news in an incredibly tight job market,” says Marilyn F. Mackes, NACE executive director. “The flip side is that many graduates are receiving salary offers that are not much higher-or are considerably lower—than they were last year at this time.”

Victor Godinez in the Dallas Morning News, April 7, 2002, reports on the healthy employment future for nursing and allied health gradates. Godinez sites Bureau of Labor Statistics job growth predictions through 2010 for several positions. For example, national average for all jobs 10% to 20% compared to 21% to 35% for registered nurses, pharmacists, and radiologic technicians.

College Career Service Directors Are Seeking Innovative Methods to Get Their Graduates Hired.

Given the numerous employers who have all but halted their recruitment (Stanford University’s business school reports that 40% fewer recruiters showed up this year), college career service directors are seeking innovative methods to get their graduates hired.

Washington University in St. Louis has created a Web-based database covering many of the school’s 310 full-time M.B.A. students. The so-called ePortfolio makes it easier for corporate recruiter to shop for candidates online. The school e-mailed the database to more than 4,000 corporate recruiters. – WSJ, February 26, 2002

New York University (NYU), assistant dean Gary Fraser and his team are scouring NYU alumni networks for possible job openings. They have paid outside consultants to come, give student job-search tips. – WSJ, April 9, 2002

How are students dealing with limited job choices?

Joyce Lain Kennedy (jlk@sunfeatures.com) says that educators tell her “The heavily pruned job market is spooking this year’s grads, driving them in droves to advanced study. Many are stunned by the quick change in the hiring environment…no wonder so many are considering riding out the economic difficulties in the shelter of advanced study.” Kennedy offers this insight, “The college class of 1993 didn’t graduate to a bountiful job market. But within six months, 84% had found jobs.”

Now, students are hustling more in the classroom and preparing more intensively for job interviews. Holding out for their dream job with a lucrative signing bonus is a fast fading illusion for many grads. Reality has set in; at business schools around the country, students are attending job conferences, and networking groups where members share “war stories” and leads just as their predecessors learned to do.