Last Lesson for College Grads: How to Find a Job in a Recession
EDUCATION: Career Services Offers Encouragement to Those Reticent About Sending Resumes
by Connie Lewis
originally posted August 17, 2009 at San Diego Business Journal
The number of people joining the ranks of the unemployed has softened, but the job outlook for students fresh out of universities is still grim.
According to a recent report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, only 19.7 percent of the nation’s 2009 graduates who applied for jobs had them as of May.
On the home front, San Diego State University, the county’s largest institution of higher learning, conducted its own survey to find out what recent graduates were doing. The response rate alone told the story — not much.
Of the 6,200 who received questionnaires, a mere 18 percent responded, down from 54 percent among 2,300 who graduated in December.
The reason for the lackluster response rate for the most recent survey was readily apparent to at least one academic official.
Dwindling employment opportunities were discouraging job seekers, said James Tarbox, San Diego State’s career services director.
But he didn’t need the numbers to know how bad it is.
“When you talked to staff and students, especially the ones graduating, you’d hear that they weren’t starting the job search process,” he said.
SDSU’s spring career fair also took a hit.
“We usually have about 1,400 employers, and this time there were about 25 percent less,” he said.
Motivating Sessions
To help graduates find renewed energy, a series of workshops throughout June bore such catchy titles as: “Move On! Job Search Beyond San Diego.” While most Southern California college graduates are reluctant to move out of the area, the message there was: The road that takes you away can also bring you back, and with some employment experience under your belt.
Down economy aside, two factors stood out among the groups attending the workshops. Nearly half were the first members of their families to graduate from college and they didn’t know how to conduct a job search. The rest had gotten a late start.
Throughout July, a series of two-hour sessions called “Alumni Thursdays” kept the momentum going by providing recent graduates the opportunity to talk to career counselors, use on-campus computer stations, investigate other resources, network and coffee klatch with other job seekers.
Craig Schmidt, associate director of the Career Services Center at UC San Diego, said he gives much of the same early-bird-gets-the-worm type of advice to coeds as San Diego State’s Tarbox.
“If they’re graduating in June 2010, they should start their job search in the fall of ’09,” Schmidt said.
For those suffering an approach-avoidance complex, UC San Diego also offers a series of workshops on how to write a resume, how to interview effectively and how to track down employment.
“Some know how, but often kids become immersed in academics and put it off, and when the economy is challenging they sometimes have a tendency to avoid something that’s difficult to do, or they perceive as being difficult to do,” he said.
And for everything else there’s graduate school.
“Graduate school is more popular now,” he said. “Students can take a year or two to wait out tough times and gain a graduate degree that gives them a better skill set.”
There aren’t any numbers as yet on the employment rate of UC San Diego’s June graduating class. However, 62 percent of summer graduates in 2008 went directly into the work force and 38 percent were admitted to graduate school, Schmidt added.
“I think the rate will be about the same as the economy picks up,” he said.
During the 2008-09 academic year, UC San Diego saw 30 percent fewer recruiters visit the campus or post jobs on its online site than during the earlier year — a factor he said fueled students’ frustrations.
Those who’d prepared to enter the fields of science, technology or engineering or who were open to working for the federal government felt at ease though.
“Certainly when students are looking for jobs they should look at the federal government,” he said. “They hire for just about anything you can imagine.”
From procurement specialists to accountants, engineers and researchers, federal agencies have openings, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the IRS, FBI and CIA.
Even in the midst of the recession, high-tech jobs are hot. Computer software developers and engineers are in demand, and the fields of environmental science ecology are opening up, Schmidt said.
“There’s a wide range of basic research positions, such as work in recycling and green architecture,” he said. “I see it expanding over the next five years as more organizations go green.”
Michael Bevis, chairman of the school of business at the University of Phoenix, San Diego campus said that while it tailors some workshops to specific fields as well as resume writing, it also offers generalized career workshops that are open to all students.
Friends and family are also welcome to attend.
“We did two workshops in the last 12 months that we called ‘economic summits,’ ” he said. “That was a way for individuals to come in and get information from industry experts on the federal stimulus package, what it means, and how to find a job in a tough economy.”
He said he didn’t have statistics on how many graduates secured jobs upon graduating this year. Formal ceremonies are held annually between May and June. Unlike public universities, however, students take classes back-to-back until they finish their programs and many already have full-time jobs.
“A stereotypical student currently works in lower- to mid-management and once they graduate are often promoted to the next level,” he said.
Layoffs took many enrollees’ jobs this year, but some who felt they were in a rut took it lightly.
“They kind of looked at it as a blessing because they wanted to get out of that industry,” he added.
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