<p>And I am speculating that the 10% who got jobs were via close contacts (family, friends, etc.).</p>
<p>I heard a couple of good areas of law now are in patent law and bankruptcies.</p>
<p>What irks me is hearing parents who want their kids at Ivy League schools because they are into the prestige factor and think they will get better contacts for the job after graduation. I am no longer sure this is the case. Someone who graduates as a nurse from the local community college will probably get more job offers than a liberal arts degree from a high prestige university.</p>
<p>I’m going to be a freshmen and I was wondering when I should start doing all these things (I have no idea how the economy will be when I graduate). I’ve been told its never too early (and to go to the Career Center on campus during the first semester), but, realistically - for someone who doesn’t have a set career direction? And things like linkedin…should I set those up now, while I have free time, or is it too early?</p>
<p>Well, mdcissp, my kid has a liberal arts degree from a prestigious university and did well in the job market. He feels that, going forward, the contacts he made at his university will be of great value. In fact, my daughter (also a grad of a prestigious university) also did well in the job market after graduation. Maybe there’s something TO this thing other than prestige-seeking parents!</p>
<p>Congratulations MomofWildChild on your childrens’ wonderful success at finding jobs.</p>
<p>It’s not about my kids- or me. As I said above, there are a LOT of factors that can come into play in getting a job in this kind of market.</p>
<p>Also, I read an article recently saying that the nursing grads are also having trouble finding jobs because a lot of experienced nurses are working more hours or re-entering the work force due to things like layoffs of spouses and tanking of retirement funds.</p>
<p>Pandora, one of my nieces got a job as a research assistant first semester freshman year. She has done research every year and every summer (this is her third summer) and she is published. This is all stuff that looks good on a resume.</p>
<p>That said, landing a job in your field as a first-semester freshman can be quite difficult as you don’t have any professors that can provide recommendations.</p>
<p>A friend’s daughter just graduated from nursing school last December…no job yet despite intense networking and applying.</p>
<p>MOWC is right; my friend, a nurse who works at a huge city hospital said most of the nurses eligible for retirement are still working to help family out.</p>
<p>Send the nurses our way - their are tons of jobs! (My wife, three years out of nursing school with an AA degree, makes well more than I do - and never sets foot in a hospital or doctors’ office.)</p>
<p>It seems like the class of '09 may have had an even a more difficult time finding work than the class of '10. I know several '09ers that are still unemployed. That said, another way to get into the job market is to start by taking something part time, temporary, low pay. I know several young people who took these kinds of jobs and then were offered full time jobs with decent salaries with benefits after only a few months. The jobs they got were never advertised and they got them because they were willing to take anything to get their foot in the door.</p>
<p>
You can be gaining experience to build skills that will help later on in the job market – and explore different types of work to get a sense of where you might want to go for a career. If you need a campus job or qualify for work-study, try to get jobs where you will be gaining relevant skills. If you don’t need to earn money, look at volunteer opportunities. </p>
<p>Fore example, do you think you might want to teach? Then you could be taking work as a tutor. Maybe you will like the work, maybe not. But you will learn something about yourself, and you will gain a marketable skill. </p>
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<p>Yes, absolutely, set it up now. Your profile will be bare bones, but you can always update it, and it’s surprising over time who will ask to link to you, thus building up your network without much work on your behalf. In theory, you are only supposed to link to people you actually know in real life - but in practice I’ve found that all sorts of people I’ve never met ask to link to me. If I can’t figure out why they want to link then I just decline the invitation, but very often its a friend-of-a-friend kind of thing, and I can tell from their occupation and credentials why they want the connection --so I welcome them.</p>
<p>Nurses are having trouble around here. Hospitals are laying off employees and, in some cases, closing. </p>
<p>New grad teachers are having a very difficult time landing a job. </p>
<p>The grads WE know who are finding good paying jobs around here are mostly engineers and accountants. </p>
<p>This downturn has been one of the longest on record, since the depression. I think I read that only 25% of new grads have a job lined up at graduation. </p>
<p>Regarding Ivies. They’re handing out SO much financial aid (even to well-to-do folks) these days that I’m not sure why someone who could get in would look the other way, unless it was a bad fit or didn’t have the right program. A couple of them offer degrees in business or engineering. The liberal arts programs are top-notch. It’s a good education at a great price, and having the name can be helpful. That said, I’m not sure it makes sense to shell out full freight for a top-name private school, with the thought that it will buy a better job opportunity. That’s a LOT of money - perhaps there is an ROI…but IMO, it’s questionable. Some will see the return, others won’t. </p>
<p>Certainly, there are lots of other completely valid reasons to spend big money on education, but to lock up a good first job? Well, I think it’s pretty hard to lock up anything these days. My neighbor’s D, a graduate from a private top 20 with lots of debt and no job would agree. And yes, she’s doing all the right stuff as far as I can tell.</p>
<p>There may be no country on the planet more vulnerable to a massive cyberattack than the United States, where financial, transportation, telecommunications and even military operations are now deeply dependent on data networking.</p>
<p>What’s worse: U.S. security officials say the country’s cyberdefenses are not up to the challenge. In part, it’s due to a severe shortage of computer security specialists and engineers with the skills and knowledge necessary to do battle against would-be adversaries. The protection of U.S. computer systems essentially requires an army of cyberwarriors, but the recruitment of that force is suffering.</p>
<p>“We don’t have sufficiently bright people moving into this field to support those national security objectives as we move forward in time,” says James Gosler, a veteran cybersecurity specialist who has worked at the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Energy Department. </p>
<p>[Cyberwarrior</a> Shortage Threatens U.S. Security : NPR](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128574055]Cyberwarrior”>Cyberwarrior Shortage Threatens U.S. Security : NPR)</p>
<p>I do not know more secure job than any MEDICALLY RELATED. All kids of my friends and some adults who switching, finding jobs very easily in our very economically depressed city. It includes (in my crowd) Pharmacy, Nursing, Physician Assistant (got snatched before result of her license test), MDs, Nuclear Medicine Technician… None of these are talking about looking for a job. They simply has one right away. Non-medically related looks very gloomy, but it has always been this way here, so we are very used to it, with me more than others, having my job #9.</p>
<p>Child just graduated from a top ten university and landed a reasonable job in her area. Yes, the university she attended made a difference. They guided her while in college to internships in the city that gave her contacts and experience in her field, which was a social science type major. Prior to graduation they counseled her and using their connections got her interviews in similar type jobs to her internship, one of which she landed. So, it is not always about prestige to want to send your child to a top university, but about contacts and a good job/employment/career/alumnae contact program and office at the university. Of course grades and extracurriculars related to desired employment are a necessary component to making contacts and getting a job.</p>
<p>Things which limit a college grad:</p>
<p>-an unmarketable degree
-a marketable degree with which the market is already flooded (law, f’instance)
-limiting yourself to your town/state/country/hemisphere
-limiting yourself to a particular industry or industries
-lack of entrepreneurship
-not doing internships relevant to getting a job/having nothing to show but your grades</p>
<p>^Lack of job opportunities in certain areas of country, which have been down for decades way before economic downturn.</p>
<p>We have our fingers crossed that our son’s prestige university will lead to job offers. It has been expensive and it has also been challenging for him to stand out amidst so many brilliant students.</p>
<p>We also know several parents whose nursing student kids are not finding jobs. They say many hospitals have unionized nurses and seniority rules.</p>
<p>Similarly, I seem to know a good many parents of kids who went into engineering and are graduating without jobs.</p>
<p>The '09ers got screwed. I was without a job after graduation for like 5 and a half months before I eventually found work in NY, where I am now. It’s a really tough market. I still know plenty of '09ers without work, and a handful of '10ers as well. We’re all Ivy League grads, too, with very marketable degrees. </p>
<p>It’s a really difficult market. I had to spend almost every waking moment fine-tuning my resume, networking, asking around, and applying for jobs before I found a good fit.</p>
<p>I’ve been trying to get in with the federal government since I graduated in 2008. I worked a year with AmeriCorps (so now I have excellent professional references). I took a couple graduate classes this spring, and I’m going back to school for a graduate degree starting in the fall. Still trying to get into the federal government. Have started my search for internships for summer 2011 (ideally a government one, but also looking at think tanks and private sector). I’ve got 35 places so far… hopefully I can add some more on my own, add some from my graduate program, and have 50+ to apply to.</p>