<p>How is your soon-to-be-graduated senior going about his/her job search? Are you happy with the resources their college provides? Are there lots of companies recruiting on your kid’s campus?</p>
<p>It’s going very slow, but there is some movement. D1 attends school out east, in a program that is nationally respected, but for some reason, only draws recruiters from out east. She wants to move back to the Chicago area, where we’re at, so she hasn’t really had the opportunity to follow up on the applications she has put in, other than phone calls. She can’t schedule any interviews yet.</p>
<p>That being said, we did get a letter back in December from her university’s college that she is part of, letting parents know that students graduating from this program, take on average 3-6 months to get a job in their field, if they restrict themselves to the field. The letter also said typical jobs in this area have a very short lead time… meaning companies advertise for these positions when they realize a position will be opening up in 2-3 weeks. It’s not like a lot of jobs where kids are getting job offers several months out prior to graduation. They encouraged parents to support the student as they watch their friends entering other fields with solid job offers upon graduation, and feel frustrated with their own job search. </p>
<p>So yea, companies are recruiting, but mostly for jobs out east. D’s school alumni network in her area is very strong, but again, for jobs out east. But I know she’ll find something… Chicago is a great place and has lots of opportunities; she just needs to be here for more than a few days to get the job search underway in earnest.</p>
<p>He’s not casting a big enough net and the net he is using has net spacings too big. IOW he’s picky. </p>
<p>We are afraid that he will get another internship or pursue another degree. Its still early yet and he has plans for the next two-three months finishing up his current contract and then do some traveling.</p>
<p>When it came to finding internships and summer jobs, our D liked to put all of her eggs in one teeny, tiny, precariously-statistically-unlikely-to-succeed basket. Looks like she is going about finding post graduate opportunities the same way.</p>
<p>sigh…expect her home for a while…</p>
<p>it was easy. There were lots of companies recruiting on campus, career services set up shop in the campus center and read resumes, and the career services website is pretty good. I ended up getting a job with a major consulting firm (one of the top three) before deciding that I wanted to go to grad school instead.</p>
<p>I cannot report on my daughter’s job search since she is continuing her education (and could well not have a real job for years :o). Many of her Columbia friends who graduated last year and did not go straight on to grad school took “starter” jobs in fields that they will possibly continue studying down the road. They work in publishing, architecture, as paralegals and a couple are working in labs. All plan on going to grad school in a year or two. There were a few that went straight into business and are doing very well right out of the gate. The kids with starter jobs are barely pulling it off financially but seem quite happy living in their little places in Astoria and Williamsburg. Fortunately, there is a lot to do in NYC if you are on a budget.</p>
<p>My daughter is still at the stage where she is looking for summer jobs. This year, my friends, she hopes to compliment her public health studies by working on an organic farm. If her plans pan out (finish graduate degree - move on to med school) she won’t be in the work force in a real way for some time. I love the kid and am immensely proud of her but I have to laugh - she approaches life in her own interesting way.</p>
<p>SO, to those parents who actually have children coming close to beginning their grown up lives…congrats.</p>
<p>To answer the OP:
- Not yet applicable.
- The med school advising has seemed excellent thus far…talk to me in a year. My daughter has reported that career advising at Columbia is good if you have a very clear idea of what you want. For those that want help sorting their future out - not so much.
- As reported to me - yes.</p>
<p>This thread just goes to show you how much I know about my daughter…</p>
<p>So today, in the lengthiest conversation we’ve had since our slight fallout a week ago, she told me she’s seriously considering law school. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to take communication law until this semester, her last semester in college. She loves it, and is doing incredibly well in the class… A’s and A+'s. But if she does it, she wants to still work a year or two before going. She also commented on a dual MBA and law degree that Northwestern offers. So who knows what the next year will look like… it may include a lot of LSAT studying.</p>
<p>LSAT doesn’t require any more prep than the SAT–it’s not like you need to know anything about the law.</p>
<p>I don’t have any experience with the GMAT…</p>
<p>wow… shows you what I know. Thankfully both my kids are good test takers and did well on the SAT. But if she’s out of school for a while before taking it, she might need to refresh test-taking skills. Her college tests certainly haven’t been like the SAT.</p>
<p>Y’all had better hope that S will find something other than a academic position. If he does another academic internship or another degree, I will continue with the cheese.</p>
<p>poetsheart - I must thank you for starting this thread. We’ve had more movement in the job search/post-college plans since your original post than leading up to it. D is trying to make a liar out of me!</p>
<p>D called today to report that a Chicago-based specialty physicians professional organization called and wants an interview with her. When they realized she wouldn’t be home until after graduation, they told her they want to try to pull together a phone interview instead of waiting until mid-May. I told her if they seem hesitant to do so, let us know, and we’ll fly her home for an overnighter IF she’s serious about the job. She has actually already researched flights and it can be done fairly reasonably. Go figure.</p>
<p>However, I will say, this was a job opening she found on her own… not through her school’s career center.</p>
<p>His job search is going poorly. He had poor guidance at the office at his school. He is an English major and wants to write, but somehow they are not addressing the reality that for many this means jobs as copy editors or in other related positions, until he becomes Dave Barry that is. He is only applying for journalism positions at big newspapers and magazines. He is incredibly easy going by nature and he is just not getting anything that resembles true guidance about the next phase of life from the college he is attending. </p>
<p>Truth be told, he loves the college he attends and it was a great fit for him 4 years ago, but if we had to do it over I would only let HIM go to schools which insisted on Internships for liberal arts majors…</p>
<p>If he were forced to do them, he would have. As it is, he has had a fun and engaging college experience, but no preparation for life. We did as much as we could to encourage meaningful summer explorations, but he did not always show initiative.</p>
<p>This is perhaps an issue specific to my child, but maybe it isn’t…so this is a bit of cautionary tale for others…</p>
<p>Well, this was us last year. My S did not actively pursue a post-grad job until he was finally out of the running for a post-grad fellowship. Since he had made it to finalist status, that meant he did not really start a job search in earnest until early April 2007. He was a Sociology major with ultimate designs on some sort of grad school, but no real direction. He found a job posting, applied, was flown to LA for interviews and got a job in probably a 2 week period in May. I think he was so focused on GETTING a job, any job, that he did not think about whether this real estate industry job which required relocating to the other side of the country was a good idea. Long story short, he graduated, moved and started work in August. The real estate industry tanked, he got laid off in November (very impressive company though…he had been there only 4 months and they gave him a lovely severance package), packed up his car, drove 3,000 miles home and spent 2 1/2 months working at getting another job. He did get a policy research assistant job in DC and moved out again in February.</p>
<p>We talked a lot while he was living at home and his take on the experience was that he wished he had started looking sooner, and though he learned a lot in a short period of time, professionally and personally, he should have
been less willing to jump at “any” job and considered what it would mean to relocate across the country to a place where the culture is car-based and he knew very few people. All his friends had gotten jobs, or post-grad fellowships so he felt a need to get something.</p>
<p>Now he is very happy in DC and we’re off to visit and bring him the rest of his belongings this afternoon. Sometimes this job thing takes a few meandering twists and turns. We found that being a port in the storm and providing more parental support, both emotionally and by brainstorming ideas, we strengthened our relationship with our son and allowed him to flounder just a bit while finding his place. </p>
<p>There sometimes needs to be a little creative brainstorming if one is to find employment in this economic environment. He learned a lot about networking and finally came to the conclusion that it was more than ok to ask everyone and anyone who and what they knew. In many cases this led to informational meetings where person A would say, I don’t have anything available, but you know, I know B and you should give him a call and he may be able to help you. In the end that is not how he found his job, but within a week of accepting the position he has now, he received 4 job/internship offers from his 3 months of networking. More lessons learned! And btw, he still plans on grad school…eventually.</p>
<p>^^runnersmom, your post is very valuable. Thank you! My son is still a year out from graduating from college, but my intuition says his path might look like your son’s in some way. I’m glad to hear that he is happy and that your relationship with him is stronger. Good luck with the moving of stuff (does THAT ever end??). :)</p>
<p>Thanks. The car is packed and we’re heading to DC…about a 4 hour drive. And no, I’m beginning to think the relocation of belongings will never end! As we speak my other 2 (at Wash U and Chicago) are figuring out what to do with stuff over the summer and how to get it all from place A to place B…All in a lifetime’s worth of learning experiences. Good luck to all on the post-grad plans this year. I’ll be back in the hunt next year as S2 will be graduating. Lucky me, I could have 2 applying to grad school simultaneously…from a distance!</p>
<p>Oh, wow. I can’t imagine being unmotivated to get a job…! As a rising college junior in engineering, I applied to twenty different internships in Houston, figuring for certain that it would be enough to get <em>something</em>! After all, I was a civil engineering major at Rice, and it was a great program, but there were only ten of us in it… I figured we’d be coveted around Houston. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I didn’t even get a nibble. I doubled my efforts the next year and barely managed to find something in a field I didn’t really want to go into.</p>
<p>This lit the fire under my rear for finding a real job upon my impending graduation from UIUC with my masters degree in structural engineering. My very tolerant then-fiance/now-DH was very sweet about indulging my temporary insanity. I figured that in order to find a job I actually wanted, that I would need to send out at LEAST a hundred resumes, and that they’d have to be GOOD. Those things were SO professional-looking, sleek and polished and on blue-gray granite paper, with personalized cover letters to each company, outlining exactly why it was crucial to their existence as a firm that they hire me, the greatest thing since sliced bread. I did it-- I sent out a hundred and fifteen resumes, to the greatest-of-the-greats to the tiniest-of-the-unknowns.</p>
<p>I hadn’t really counted on many responses, but that was because I hadn’t really realized that I’d been trying to find an internship in <em>Houston</em> during the big Enron crash and that NOBODY was building ANYTHING… (Why would anybody be hiring a drippy-nosed little college kid like me?) After I got my masters, I had <em>two</em> good degrees as opposed to the <em>zero</em> degrees I’d had while trying to find an internship, and everyone was turning up the gas on new construction because the economy was good again… I gave myself walking pneumonia flying to interviews in Tampa, Milwaukee, Dallas, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Shotgun approach works, though! I learned that you can always turn down jobs you apply for but ultimately don’t want… If you don’t apply for a few less-than-awesome jobs, though, you might end up with nothing, especially in the current economic climate… But probably best not to go quite as nuts as I went… Particularly if you have a reasonably marketable degree like structural engineering…</p>
<p>DD decided not to attend the Rice Fall career fair :eek:, but was offered a nonprofit job after a presentation/interviews sometime after the Spring career Fair. She turned it down for a post-grad travel scholarship to study at a university in another country. I call her the “queen of free travel”, since she has now been to numerous countries and places for free. Support services from the Rice career center are excellent, with staff available for career counseling and to review resumes, practice interviews, etc, and lots of companies recruiting on campus. (the Enron debacle is now ancient history) It will likely be a long time until she has a “real” job - seems grad school in the future, hopefully with financial support through FLAS or other Critical Languages Initiative funding.</p>