Market looks promising for new college grads
NPR All Things Considered segment: College Graduates Welcomed by Job Market
Back when I graduated from college, we had to write cover letters and print them out at Kinko's and take jobs we didn't like, just to pay the bills (remember the recession in 1991? Wasn't it fun?). OK, OK, I was a little unfocused and didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. But I did print my resume at Kinko's. Sounds like things are much better for today's new college grads
Comments
- Anonymous
June 07, 2005
True... although this time is a little different than what was experienced by the grads of the late 90's... when companies were throwing money at grads, everyone was getting extremely nice bonuses, and "we'll throw in a foosball table too."
I'm curious if grads should create a portfolio of work? I know artists have one... in order to show off their style and creativity. Do you think grads should do that too, no matter what major you were in? How do you, as an HR person view that? - Anonymous
June 07, 2005
People in recruiting generally prefer a resume, though I don't want to speak for everyone. My preference is a chronological resume format. THough I suspect that if I was recruiting in a field related to design, a portfolio would be preferred. But as far as someone coming out with a business degree or CS or something like that, resume please. - Anonymous
June 07, 2005
Heather, I hear you on the early 90s job scene right out of college. It was pathetic! Remember the movie Reality Bites? I got a p/t barista job at Starbucks... and felt lucky. My wife reminds me that I had spaghetti with toast every night for dinner in those days. Sometimes it's all about timing.. These grads are fortunate. - Anonymous
June 07, 2005
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
June 07, 2005
Mark-you could afford spaghetti AND toast? I was still doing the PB and J back then. And I found that powerbars did actually work as meal substitutes if you drank a bunch of water with them. Gross. - Anonymous
June 10, 2005
I am a recent college grad, and I would not say that things are that easy for the current college grads. I graduated from an Ivy League with a double-major in CS and economics with GPA higher than 3.6, with 4 years of work experience (FT in the summer/PT rest of the year), and I did find a job in IT at a top-notch company but that was after going through a huge number of interviews and a lot of stress. I only had one offer because of my lack of experience specifically in development (I worked in a college library first 3 years, and as a BA in IT the last year in college). If I didn't get this job, I would have a lot of difficulties finding jobs in small companies because small companies don't hire developers with 0 years of full-time experience.
I love my job and I consider myself fortunate, because many of my friends both in IT and business, many from other colleges or with GPAs closer to 3.0, could not find jobs at all. They had to take whatever they could find: jobs in other fields, temp positions, working as valets or bartenders. It seems that the companies here (I am in NYC) are picking people who had 4.0 GPAs AND worked in the specific field where they are hiring (e.g. not just IT, but DBA experience). The vast majority of those that found jobs went this route: get a job through someone you know or hold an unpair internship (not an option for many) during first 3 years of college, land an internship at a top-notch company and get hired by the same company.
Of course, if you compare our experience with the people that graduated 2-3 years ago, we are all fortunate. 2-3 years ago people had their offers revoked(!) or deferred, people could not find any jobs at all, and settled for something completely different after year or two of searching. So I am certainly not complaining, just wanted to note that things are not as great as they might seem.