Editor’s Note: This is the first in a four-part series about the current job market.
As graduating seniors begin celebrating their final quarter in Athens, many remain uncertain about their next step.
Students are entering a job market which Thomas Korvas, director of Ohio University Career Services, calls one of “the worst in a generation.” There are reasons for optimism, though, particularly for graduates in technical fields.
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ Job Outlook 2011 study, 47.7 percent of employers plan to increase the number of workers they hire in 2011, compared to only 16.9 percent in 2010.
Furthermore, in 2010, 39.7 percent of businesses planned to hire fewer workers than they had the year before. That number fell to 12.2 percent this year.
“There’s some slight improvement this year,” Korvas said. “… It’s still bad, but it’s better that it was last year. The trend is: Things are getting better. Slowly, but they’re getting better.”
The faltering job market led to many students altering their plans after graduation and heading immediately to graduate school. While there could be several motivations for this trend, Korvas said the primary one is the poor job market, which led people who would normally attend graduate school later in their careers to do so immediately.
“I think there’s some that realize it’s going to be necessary from a career development standpoint to eventually get that graduate degree, and the market’s tight, so they’ll do it now,” Korvas said.
He added that people following career paths such as psychiatry or law will be more inclined to attend graduate school immediately, as it is a logical step in their long-term plans.
Undergraduates who attempt to enter technical fields, engineering, business and health professions may have more luck finding jobs than others. According to the Job Outlook survey, 79.1 percent of companies were hiring those studying business, 73.3 were looking for people with engineering degrees and 57 percent wanted to hire people studying computer science.
Those students, however, are not the only ones with cause for optimism. Korvas stressed that he believes students who execute a concise job search will find opportunities, no matter their major.
“Students just really have to learn how to conduct a job search, and a job search is a job itself. And you have to devote that time to it,” Korvas said.
As part of their search, students should research the company to which they are applying and be familiar with what qualities the company emphasizes.
Diane Borhani, U.S. campus recruiting leader for Deloitte, a “Big Four” public accounting firm that plans to hire 5,400 people during this school year, said the firm focuses on attributes such as analytical skills, business acumen, communication skills, ethics, involvement in the community, leadership and teamwork skills.
“(We are interested in) students that … can show well-roundedness where they have academic achievement, where they perhaps also work — showing that work ethic — in addition to their having done some sort of community work or involvement and certainly having an internship,” said Borhani. She added that a graduate capable of describing why they went to work at a company would be viewed in better light than others.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers asked a group of businesses to grade a list of attributes on a scale from one to five, and its findings backed Borhani’s statements. The businesses responded by giving verbal communications an average of 4.65, work ethic a 4.61, teamwork a 4.59, analytical skills a 4.56 and initiative 4.5.
Knowing about the job market within a given industry is only one element of the job search, though. Korvas said the job hunt should begin with a graduate’s knowledge of himself or herself.
“You have to know your skills, your interests, your values and you have to be able to express that to a potential employer,” he said.
Korvas went on to say that graduates should spend four to five hours a day conducting their job search and that he believes the people who do so will find jobs.
“Those individuals who make that commitment, treat it as a full-time job, refine their skills, work at it,” he said. “ … I think those individuals will be successful.”
@ThePostCulture
