Editor's note: This is the second in a weeklong series of stories forecasting the future and providing tips for soon-to-be college graduates.
Good news for Ohio University seniors searching for jobs, especially those who are engineering majors ' the market looks good.
Most seniors entered college in 2002, a year after the Sept. 11 attacks and watched as upperclassman struggled to find jobs relevant to their careers.
Grads from 2002 faced a market where hiring was down by almost 20 percent compared with 2001, according to an article in the Baltimore-based Daily Record in May 2005. Hiring went up in 2004, and employers hired 13 percent more graduates in 2005 compared to the previous year. Salaries were up by almost 4 percent.
And according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, this year employers said they plan to hire 14.5 percent more graduates than last year. Starting salaries are up again, too.
The market is up significantly this year compared to two years ago. But even in a better or good economy
many areas are still competitive said Thomas Korvas, director of OU's Career Services.
Seniors already should have started looking for a job.
Don't wait until Spring Quarter. The job search is a job in itself and you certainly want to start early
Korvas said, adding that there are some exceptions, such as education majors who should start in January.
Senior marketing major Joslyn Abner had her job lined up with Cardinal Health by the end of winter break. She fell in love with the company based in Dublin; it was the only job she really wanted.
She credits the College of Business and the Sales Centre for bringing several companies to OU, giving business majors and others relevant training and helping them find jobs.
Carla Marseilles, a fifth-year senior civil engineering major, said she's finding it difficult to fit in job-search time and balance school work, being president of the Society of Women Engineers, participating in other student organizations and working her three on-campus jobs.
She did most of her searching during spring break, she said. Many of her friends have found jobs already, mostly in Ohio, through their co-ops and connections in the university.
But she's not too worried. She receives e-mails everyday about job openings specifically in civil engineering ' she has 13 saved to look over in her inbox. And employers in engineering fields are looking to hire women, a minority in the field, she said.
Amanda King, a senior mechanical engineering major, isn't sure if she's going to grad school or getting a job upon graduation. It just depends on the offers she gets. She shouldn't be nervous though about finding a job ' a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers said that the top majors in demand are mechanical engineering majors.
In 2005, health-care workers, particularly nurses, and those in finance, marketing and accounting were also in high demand, according to an April 17, 2005, article in The Providence Journal.
According to a survey distributed by OU's Office of Institutional Research to undergraduates one year after graduation that had a 43 percent response rate from 2003 grads, in 2003, business and engineering and technology majors were the most employed majors at OU. Eighty-four percent of engineering and technology majors were employed, 14 percent were not employed but in school and only 2 percent, the lowest of all majors, were not employed and not in school. Eighty-nine percent of business majors were employed and only 5 percent were not employed and not in school, compared with 14 percent of education majors who weren't employed and not in school.
And they are typically the highest paid. In 2003, engineering and technology majors had an average starting salary of more than $45,000 and business majors averaged $40,000. The next highest average was communication majors, who started on average making about $31,000 a year.
Lindsey Alexander, who graduated from OU in 2005 in telecommunications, said it took her months to find a job she wanted.
You go to school for four years
and you have this idea that you're going to graduate and get the job you want
and it's not like that
Alexander said.
She graduated in June, but it took her until December to find a job that fit her interests. She had other offers but none she really wanted.
She landed a job in Dayton at a CBS affiliate, where she produces the 7 a.m. show.
I didn't think I would be (producing) that soon after college
which makes me glad I waited
she said. I would definitely recommend holding out because I think you'll be a lot happier in the long run.
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