IN SPITE OF ECONOMY, JOBS OUTLOOK FOR CLASS OF 2001 STILL BRIGHT
May 16, 2001
The stock market is stumbling, unemployment is edging up, and many people are beginning to worry about work. But a weakening economy does not necessarily mean bad news for new graduates entering the job market.
"I found the exact job I was looking for," says Ashleigh Blaylock, JW'01, who lined up a position as a legal assistant almost three months before graduation. "My search turned out to be easier than I expected." She plans to work for a few years, and then go to law school.
"Many employers plan to cut back, but they aren't curtailing college hiring," says Marilyn Mackes, executive director of the National Association of Colleges and Employers. "We're still looking at a very positive market for new college graduates."
In August and September 2000, NACE surveyed employers about their hiring intentions for the coming year. In a follow-up survey conducted in March, almost 46 percent of the employers had lowered their hiring projections. Most cited the economy as the reason. However, about 48 percent planned to stick with their original hiring projections, the NACE survey found, and about 6 percent expected more new hires than projected.
Blaylock double-majored in leadership studies and rhetoric and communication. She believes one reason she was able to find a job fairly quickly was because she planned ahead. Back in the fall, she met with Brandy Ewell, a counselor at the University of Richmond's Career Development Center. The mission of the CDC is to educate and support students as they explore career options, make decisions about graduate study, test out employment through internships and summer jobs, and determine what they want to do with their future.
With Ewell's assistance, Blaylock narrowed her job search to positions that would give her practical experience before she entered law school. She received help with writing her resume, and she learned effective interview techniques. She also researched law firms and other companies through Internet links identified by the CDC.
Instead of heading home to Roanoke, Va., after graduation, Blaylock moved to the Washington, D.C., area to work for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. One of the largest law firms in the world, it offers a broad range of legal services to corporate, industrial and financial clients.
"It seems like if you were on the ball and started looking in the fall, you didn't have much trouble getting a job," Blaylock said two weeks before graduation. "But if you waited until the spring, you had more trouble. One of my roommates has no clue what he will be doing."
Andrew Ferguson, director of the CDC, says the number of companies that interviewed on Richmond's campus in the 2000-2001 academic year declined by 5 percent from the previous academic year. In addition, the number of schedule cancellations-on-campus interviews of students-increased by 20 percent.
Jeffrey A. Powell, R'76, is director of the Clemson University Career Center. "There has definitely been a drop off in employer numbers for the spring semester, our first significant drop in several years," he says. "Co-op hiring also has been cut back."
Ferguson says at least one company was in the midst of interviewing on Richmond's campus, but then pulled back offers because of an unexpected hiring freeze. "Many companies have reduced or eliminated internships, which are considered feeding programs to employment," he says. "For example, investment banks have cut their internship programs by half."
"But many companies that traditionally have hired several Richmond students annually are still going strong," Ferguson notes. "And while the financial industry is cautious, mortgage banking is booming."
Ferguson says several 2001 University graduates landed good jobs before graduation, in fields including accounting, banking, computer science, economics, international business, journalism and marketing.
The NACE survey has other good news. Even though almost half the companies surveyed decided to cut college hiring, employers overall reported that they expected to hire almost 19 percent more new college hires in 2000-2001 than they did the previous year.
Additionally, an April survey by NACE found that starting-salary offers to many new graduates are increasing. The most significant increases were realized by civil engineering students, with starting salaries up 10 percent; economics and finance majors, up 8.7 percent, and computer science graduates, up 7.8 percent.
Ferguson says that ideally, students should begin thinking about life after college as soon as they arrive on campus. Counselors in the CDC can help students choose a course of study that supports their career goals, and identify internships and service-learning opportunities that will help them test out options and attain valuable skills.
Nevertheless, students need not panic if they graduate without a clear idea of what they are doing next. "Eventually, everything will be fine," Ferguson says. "It's all a matter of timing."
These are comforting words to Lauren Quaile, BW'01. After graduating in May, she returned to her Philadelphia-area home unemployed. "All the accounting and finance majors got jobs in the fall," says Quaile, who double-majored in business and journalism. "There was this [psychological] pressure to start looking. I thought about interviewing first semester with companies that came to campus, but I felt overwhelmed. My heart wasn't in it, so I stopped." A bout with mononucleosis at the beginning of spring semester hindered her progress.
"I'm trying to figure out what I want to do," says Quaile, who was planning to explore internships in sports marketing. Before graduation, she had utilized the CDC's Alumni Career Network to get in touch with an alumnus who works in sports marketing.
"We had a phone conversion and we talked about the industry, and also about getting out of college and finding a job in general," Quaile recalls. "It was a great inspiration to me, and it calmed some of my fears."
Through University contacts, Quaile also set up two informational interviews. She is not overly anxious about her future. But with student loans to repay and a mother who has jokingly threatened to "rent my room out after six months," Quaile is hopeful she will find something soon.
"Most of my friends have jobs," she said a few weeks before graduation, "but a lot of them don't. So we band together and say, 'You know what? There's nothing that says you have to have a job when you receive your diploma.' We're only 21 years old."
For more information about the Career Development Center, visit http://cdc.richmond.edu.
For more information about the National Association of Colleges and Employers, visit www.naceweb.org.
For more information about job projections and the economy, visit the Bureau of Labor Statistics Web site at http://stats.bls.gov.