<p>My son is hoping that his Arabic (four years including an academic year in Jordan) will count for something. His only other marketable skill is his summer job experience working at Tufts Conference Bureau (aka the Tufts summer hotel).</p>
<p>When I couldn’t get a job in architecture I worked at a library at Tufts - it was a part-time job which gave me plenty of time to look for work when the economy improved. I wouldn’t have gotten that job if I hadn’t spent my college years shelving books.</p>
<p>One of my observations is that college major and career path after college don’t always match up. Have s niece who majored in criminal justice, was thinking about law school, but changed her mind. She tried to find a job in the general field with no luck. She ended coming home to live with no job prospects. Her mother had a good connection at a local bank and was able to help her get a very entry level HR job there. She likes it, has been there 5 years now and moving up the ladder. Another relative graduated last May with major in advertising, could not find employment in the field, and is doing Teach for America. And another family member graduated 3 years ago with a major that had something to do with forensic science, only job he found was waiting tables, came home to live and has turned his passion for working out into a budding career as a personal trainer.</p>
<p>So - my takeaway is to stress versatility and flexibility and not to define yourself in a narrow box based on the major. I think having a double major or 1-2 minors is a good idea, internships help, and network like crazy.</p>
<p>My sons all began preparing for the job market long, long before college graduation. All three of them had jobs at graduation, or right after. For one thing, my H and I always encouraged each of them to take on roles in extracurriculars that helped them develop skills that would help them later in life. </p>
<p>For example, as far back as in high school, they became involved in an organization that helped them hone project/event planning skills. They also volunteered at a nonprofit and on political campaigns–offering their “office” skills and developing sophisticated expertise in Excel and other software packages.</p>
<p>These skills really helped them land those crucial first internships/summer jobs/etc.</p>
<p>In college, we encouraged them to each take some classes that would help them become comfortable making presentations in front of groups–because that is a skill that carries over into all kinds of workplace situations–including interviews.</p>
<p>We also encouraged them to become regulars at the career office at their college. It enabled them to learn more about any opportunities that might be coming up than they would from a line entry on a job board. And while they were in the office, they could get help tweaking their resume to the individual position, and their cover letter as well. This is a good skill to develop as well.</p>
<p>Internships were crucial for each of them to learn about themselves as well as about the world of work. Some internships were valuable in that they revealed that my son did not want to follow a potential career path (one son learned he did not want a career in broadcast journalism; another learned he did not like working in public relations; one learned he did not want a job that kept him at a desk all day, much preferring to be out in public).</p>
<p>We also encouraged our sons to be active in the community outside the campus confines, because that is where networking takes place. One son became active in his fraternity alumni association, one became involved in community programs at a local congregation. When you do a good job, people notice–and are happy to help you with informational interviews, introductions, etc.</p>
<p>My D graduated in 2011, when there were fewer jobs available than there are today. She worked at Starbucks and sent out tons of resumes. After 9 months, she landed a great job. In the meantime, she paid for her own apartment, food, insurance, gas, etc from her minimum wage earnings. She learned to budget. She learned that people make assumptions about those who serve them, and that they can be quite condescending … it was a good life lesson.</p>
<p>S graduates this April. He will find his way just as his sister did. He knows that we expect him to make it on his own, even if he has to take a minimum wage job.</p>
<p>Career Fairs can be a great opportunity to talk to several potential employers in one day. My son hit it off with one of them and that led to two interviews within a week and a job offer. The important thing is to keep an open mind and work your plan.</p>
<p>Be careful about comparing across different schools, due to differences in survey and reporting methodology, although comparing different majors within a school can be of interest. Students in majors where graduates struggle to find jobs need to be even more aggressive at the job hunt (including summer jobs earlier in college). Students in majors with better major-related job prospects still need to be aggressive at looking for jobs.</p>
<p>If the student is considering a career direction where the entry level job is an unpaid internship, the student and parents need to consider very carefully whether that is a financially realistic option.</p>
<p>There are a lot of factors in issue that affect this–one is the field, how well the student did in grades and ECs (including internships, getting to know profs, etc), and how hard the student works at finding a job. S was an engineering major. He got an internship after his soph year from a friend whon he knew from middle school when they were both on Math Counts. He hustled & got another internship after hus JR year and had 3 job offers by Feb of SR year.</p>
<p>D had a part-time job on campus in her field and a summer job in her field but has not been able to get an internship or job in her field to date. Her field is also a LOT more crowded, cinema!</p>
<p>We know many other young people who are having a lot of trouble getting jobs in their fields or even full-time jobs AT ALL! Many are working part-time in retail or as teaching assistants while they fiture out their next steps. Some of the more fortunate ones have gotten jobs with the state government–often not in their field and not IDEAL, but at least a start and they are grateful, especially if it’s full-time and they get benefits.</p>
<p>S did have classmates in engineering who tried staying in school hoping the job market would improve while they got a masters and sadly told us at graduation that they’re just further in debt and still have no job offers. It’s a tough market out there and you have to be persistent and flexible, as well as able to see how a job may turn into something better than it seemed and/or be willing to work your way up.</p>
<p>Over the winter break I went into a store to buy a suit for my son. The salesman who helped us graduated from college this past May and has been unable to find a job in his field. The worst part of the story is that he is 60k in debt and working part-time.</p>
<p>Excellent replies. I was curious because I saw this webpage - [JobEnsure</a> - Job Insurance for Graduates](<a href=“http://signup.jobensure.com/]JobEnsure”>http://signup.jobensure.com/) - and was wondering how hard it was for people’s kids to find a job these days. Mine struggled and didn’t know if that was typical.</p>
<p>Well, gracem7, that’s what CC is all about. You ask a question, and within a day or two, you get almost 30 answers from people with a wide variety of perspectives and stories to share.</p>
<p>I would say getting the degree is only part of the battle. Putting yourself out there - networking, internships and such are the best way to ensure you have a good job upon graduation.</p>
<p>It doesn’t surprise me one bit that kids are graduating and cannot secure good jobs if they haven’t done the above along the way. I say start in HS or at the very least summer after freshman year.</p>
<p>I also should have specified that all 3 of my sons had internships that had a lot to do with them having employment at graduation.</p>
<p>S3, who graduated this past June, had an internship/job every semester after his first, including summers. He worked very hard to develop a broad and deep set of skills. He had a job offer for after graduation from his best internship ever–which disappeared two weeks before graduation due to a large internal shakeup at the organization. But within weeks, he was able to get many other interviews, including an amazing opportunity in California where he was one of the final two candidates for a job that went to someone else with 3 years of experience–and the organization asked to keep his resume on file. </p>
<p>The week after that interview, his current employer found him thru LinkedIn–they had done a search for someone with his particular skill set in a certain area. He began work for a very successful and growing start up on August 1 and has enjoyed every minute of it since then.</p>
<p>Agree STRONGLY with the internship route. S1 (2013 grad) accepted a good job in July after graduation and TODAY, after only 6 months at current job, accepted another job (a total dream job) in his city of choice. </p>
<p>Although he did very well academically in college, it was his internship experience that paved the way for securing 2 jobs less than a year after graduating. And, by the way, he was a liberal arts major-History!!</p>
<p>S '11 went to China to teach ESL for 2 years. He came back this past Labor Day and networked, networked, NETWORKED. He spoke to, met for coffee, emailed, skyped, etc with absolutely everybody and anybody who showed an interest in helping him. It worked for him - he got a job at a NY bank using his language skills and his math-based econ major.</p>
<p>D graduated in '13 and yesterday started her second post-college job - just like dwhite’s S!! Very specialized field but I have never seen a kid advocate for herself like she did. She knew since MS she would never be at the top of the class and asked for help along the way. Learning to speak to people and ask for help helped her in untold ways. She has been working on building her resume since senior year in HS.</p>