My job search as a graduating college student was a guidebook on how not to find the right career. Although I did have two job offers upon graduation, the one I accepted was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Looking back now, I realize that one of the many challenges I faced was my “non-traditional” background as a student. Unlike many of my peers in college, I was much older (27 when I graduated), had several years of work experience, and already had management experience in my young career. Rather than using previous experiences and background to my advantage, I tried going the “traditional” route of finding a job. Although my skills were appreciated, once in the organization, I was adrift in a corporate management program with little motivation or direction. It was a disaster. Today, non-traditional is a term that still describes Hispanic college students. While non-traditional students differ in many respects, one area of significant difference is the job choices they make. Read more…
Business Week has a great article on the on-going challenges college graduates are having finding jobs in this current economic environment. This paragraph captures the stunning reality:
Only 46% of people aged 16-24 had jobs in September, the lowest since the government began counting in 1948. The crisis is even hitting recent college graduates. “I’ve applied for a whole lot of restaurant jobs, but even those, nobody calls me back,” says Dan Schmitz, 25, a University of Wisconsin graduate with a bachelor’s degree in English who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. “Every morning I wake up thinking today’s going to be the day I get a job. I’ve not had a job for months, and it’s getting really frustrating.”
Via the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a list presenting the types of jobs 2009 college graduates were most likely to be offered. Teaching positions topped the list, according to a new report published by NACE’s Fall 2009 Salary Survey report lists teaching, management trainee, financial/treasury analysis, consulting, and sales positions as the top five jobs offered to 2009 graduates.
Teaching – $35,496
Management Trainee – $41,353
Financial/Treasury Analysis - $52,043
Consulting – $56,472
Sales – $41,577
Accounting (Public) – $49,437
Accounting (Private) – $45,859
Software Design & Development – $63,798
Registered Nursing – $45,229
Project Engineering – $58,570
The under-representation of Hispanic Americans in the Federal workforce has been an issue for a few decades. Almost 40 years ago, President Nixon supported a “Sixteen Point Program” intended to assure equal Federal government opportunities for Hispanic Americans. The plan not only emphasized recruitment but upward mobility opportunities. Unfortunately, an increased representation of Hispanics in Federal government has not kept pace with the increasing Hispanic population. Several challenges have attributed to this gap: geographic concentration of Hispanics, qualifications, education, and citizenship requirements.
Jorge E. Ponce has been a long advocate for increasing Hispanic representation in the Federal workforce. He has penned a great commentary on the issue and shares some personal experiences. In order to address the discrepancy found in the Federal workforce, government agencies must continue to aggressively increase the hiring of Hispanic Americans annually. Implementing effective training and career advancement programs that will retain AND promote more Hispanic Americans need to be either reviewed or implemented. Finally, agencies must be held responsible for employing these strategies aimed at increasing Hispanic representation.
The last 15 years have seen significant changes in the recruitment advertising area. When I first began in the recruiting field, print ads dominated the industry. By 2000, job seekers jumped online to websites like Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs. As we near the end of the first decade of the 21st century, another transition has occurred. Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Craigslist are emerging as strong competitors to traditional online job boards. That’s why it’s not surprising that job board postings and revenues have dropped significantly over the last few years. Yes, much of it can be attributed to the economy, however, a lot more can be attributed to the declining benefits of online board experiences. Whether it’s the excess of advertising, quality of job listings, or registration requirements, job seekers are disenchanted by their overall experience. Employers are now skeptical as well. As a former director of recruiting, job boards produced less than significant response rates with the quality of candidates average at best. Many of the candidates I contacted were actively being recruited by other organizations, thus resumes came from a shared pool of candidates. Not effective. Read more…
I usually don’t put too much stock in “lists” of any type since the selection criteria is usually very subjective and the results can be skewed by popularity rather than objective data. Business Week just released its “list” of Top 10 Employers for College Graduates. The Business Week list is based on three criteria: a survey of career center directors, survey information from the companies, and college graduate surveys.
1. Walt Disney
2. Lockheed Martin
3. Deloitte & Touche
4. Goldman, Sachs
5. Enterprise Rent-A-Car
6. U.S. Department of State
7. Raytheon
8. General Electric
9. JPMorgan Investment Bank
10 Abbott Laboratories
Now take a look at a similar list compiled by Hispanic Business Magazine measuring an organizations commitment to Hispanics in the workplace. This list is based on an in-depth analysis of 30 critical statistics, examining how companies reach Hispanics in recruitment, promotion, retention, procurement, community support, and consumer marketing. Quite a different list.
1. McDonalds
2. Bank of America
3. SBC Communications
4. Washington Mutual
5. Verizon
6. Sodexho
7. Wells Fargo
8. Darden Restaurants
9. Citigroup
10. Marriott
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) salary survey, recent college graduates saw fewer job offers and also took salary hits. Those who graduated with bachelor’s degrees in 2009 received a $48,633 average starting salary offer, down 1.2% from last year, according to a survey of college and university career services offices. This contrasts 2008 when the average starting salary was 7.6% higher than those offered to the class of 2007. Engineering and computer science graduates still fared the best in 2009 and saw increases in their average starting salaries. Average offers fell among business and liberal arts graduates.
I’m a big fan of Seth Godin. I’ve read many of his books and have been a “lurker” on his site for few years now. In fact, his books and blog are one of the reasons I started my own business and started to blog myself. Seth comments about unpaid internships and how they can be misused. A lost opportunity. Having worked on both sides of this topic (campus and corporate), I can attest that many organizations usually do a bad job of making internships productive. On the other hand, many students are more interested in padding their resume than gaining invaluable experience. Given current economic conditions, unpaid internships, if done right, are a win-win opportunity for both employer and student.
A few articles from the last few days provide a snapshot of how the current recession is still impacting college recruiting. Business Week has a report on NACE’s salary report indicating wages remaining stagnant for new hires but not decreasing as compared to 2008. NACE reports less than 20 percent of 2009 grads who have applied for a job actually have one in hand. Despite the lack of jobs, most respondents say they expect to enter the job market. Perhaps so but similar to previous economic downturns, college graduates are either accepting whatever job they can get or entering grad school to ride out the recession. Both are obviously not the choices newly degreed professionals want to make. On the other hand, PayScale reports on the college graduates that are finding jobs – not surprising. Finally, a trend I’m seeing in my own neighborhood here in Cincinnati – graduates returning home to live with their parents.
