Our S20 is graduating from a top-ten school in June. He wanted an opportunity with one of the big consulting firms. Among his several dozen friends who are graduating with him, only a few have secured jobs. Of the five consulting firms that came on campus to recruit, not one offer was given. The only interviews he got were through being hooked. It seems especially tough in consulting and finance. He hears that graduating seniors are taking internships that Juniors would generally have filled.
To our son’s credit for persevering and knowing someone who knows someone, he secured a job in a small consulting firm. From what we are experiencing and hearing the job market for finance and consulting is especially challenging.
I’m wondering about the “internship” part - because I’ve looked at some for my daughter’s BF and they all show for someone going back to school or graduating - say May 25 or later, etc.
How do they get around that? I’ve read in years past graduates taking internships.
The companies that I’ve seen that will allow that do it by putting the “already graduated interns” on a short-term contract (i.e. 1099, not W2) which has a clear beginning, middle and end date.
It is a little bit risky- the IRS has a very clear definition of a 1099 employee/contractor, and some of the “internships” I’ve seen of kids who have Bachelor’s degrees don’t really qualify (but I’m not a tax expert. They seem shady but whatever).
But if the 12 week post-grad experience puts a kid on track for a fulltime offer- it’s all good. It’s when one 12 week role then turns into ANOTHER 12 week role, etc. etc. with no benefits and no hope of getting a fulltime job- then it starts to be squishy IMHO.
The two people he heard about that situation had tried to get internships with those firms as Juniors. I can try to get more specific info for you. The one person he spoke to accepted it because of a high percentage of getting hired full-time.
OK, now I get the situation. I’ve never seen an “internship” posted for anyone other than a student that will be returning to school (undergrad or grad) following the internship.
However, I don’t know of any employer that actually checks student status. Misrepresenting your status sounds like desperation. I wouldn’t think its that bad out there…yet
There is a national clearinghouse (most colleges are on it; a couple of specialty grad programs are not) and it takes under three minutes to verify that a student is EITHER enrolled (i.e. not graduated yet) OR graduated.
I don’t know any large company which does not verify. It’s not like the old days where a human had to get the registrar of Ohio State on the phone; spell the name, wait ten minutes, and have the person come back with “been enrolled for 6 consecutive semesters” or “graduated in May”.
Just like the old days when verifying someone’s immigration status and social security number took forever… it’s now automated. The last thing a company needs is an employee with a stolen identity, on the FBI’s most wanted list, etc. It is very quick to verify. A college grad misrepresenting themself as a junior- that’s a new one for me. It’s usually the other way around! Kid runs out of money for college but resume states that they’ve graduated with a BS…
I know of two that don’t. And then there are all the smaller companies and startups that probably don’t, so it’s probably a mix.
Evidently, and anecdotally, it appears that some graduated students are taking “internship” positions, so either the companies don’t care or don’t check.
Don’t care, don’t check, or they had success last go-round (2009/2010/2011) with converting post-grad interns into fulltime employees- at which point they’ll do the full onboarding (checking immigration status is not optional-it’s a federal requirement) and check it then along with everything else!
I have no clue on that. But, I’m hearing about an employment environment that sounds much tighter than in previous years, so I doubt employers are worried about converting interns.
The concerns I’m hearing more and more of are the availability of full time employment for graduates and the availability of internships for enrolled students.
Some of it will be good for some aspects of the economy.
Your company is pioneering a type of environmentally friendly ink for package labels. Not a swishy unicorn with a billion dollar valuation- just a really cool technology which can help solve a tricky environmental problem. It’s been very hard to hire people-- try competing with the big guns on salary, stock options, etc. Plus you are located in Western PA (makes sense for product distribution to your customers, but on nobody’s top 5 metro areas to move to as a 23 year old).
Your company is developing a better socket for hip replacements. No, not robotics (or robotic adjacent). No, not a wearable- just an old fashioned surgical device which gets implanted. Companies like this have had trouble recruiting and retaining- not a sexy business model.
It’s going to be a lot easier for certain companies to meet their growth targets if everyone and their brother isn’t heading to Tesla, Google, etc. Our economy needs the unsexy companies too.
Small companies, unicorn or other, aren’t going to move the needle very much. Companies that typically higher in large numbers are the ones to watch. Will numbers go down? Will they hire students with graduate degrees over newly minted bachelors degrees? Willthere be a flight to perceived quality by hiring primarily from “top tier” schools?
Interesting. Was that information from the college administrators or students?
We heard about strong outcomes as well.
Asking seniors in a respectful manner (“Where do you see yourself in a few months?” or something like that) has resulted in more pertinent information from the actual source.
And this is not to be contrarian. Just to get a sense of what’s happening out there this year (while also not trying to make students feel self-conscious or uncomfortable).