Trends show dwindling job market for graduates
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Interviewing for jobs can be disheartening, especially when there are more candidates than positions, marketing senior Justen Morrow said.
“They’re interviewing 50 people for two spots and then you (have) to interview three or four times for the same job,” he said. “It’s hard to keep a positive mind-set on things.”
The job market decreased by about 40 percent in the past year, making the job search for students much more difficult, according to MSU’s latest Recruiting Trends survey.
“All you can do right now is interview with as many places as you’re interested in,” Morrow said.
The survey’s results will be presented Friday at a recruiting conference in Chicago by Phil Gardner, director of the MSU Collegiate Employment Research Institute. The survey of more than 2,500 companies and institutions showed that hiring levels are the lowest they’ve been in decades.
Students’ abilities to work outside of their majors and be flexible in the job market are important, Gardner said.
“You’re not just going to be plopped in your discipline,” he said. “You might be the wiz at your major, but if you can’t cross boundaries it will be hard.”
Gardner said the job market might gain some momentum in 2011-12, but students should not be discouraged by the dismal market.
“The important thing is that students can’t sit and say, ‘Oh, there’s nothing for me out there,’” he said. “Employers are not going to post (job opportunities) on job boards … they’re going to go to their networks.”
Networking is critical for students who are searching for jobs, said Kelley Bishop, executive director of MSU’s Career Services Network.
“You want to become known to those people in that field,” he said.
Students who are passionate about the jobs they are applying for will be more attractive to potential employers, Bishop said.
“You need to figure out what you really want to do,” he said. “It’s really easy to see the pathways when it’s something you really like.”
International relations junior Alex Cook could graduate as soon as this summer, but he is not confident he’ll find a job. Cook wants to move to China and intern at a consulate before going to graduate school.
“I’m expecting to go abroad and test the job market out there,” he said. “The well’s dry here.”
Smaller companies could be more poised to hire in these times, Gardner said.
“You have to tap into those … change your mind-set,” he said.
Students should be active in job searches, Gardner said.
“You need to build your networks … be engaged in the community,” he said.
“It’s not going to be waiting for somebody to show up and interview on campus.”
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GPM
(11/18/09 11:58pm)Report
Networking doesn’t work quite as well anymore. It’s pretty sad to feel out your network and find that many are unemployed and the employed don’t really have any leads/are just happy to have jobs.
Anon
(11/19/09 9:04am)Report
I can tell you from personal experience that getting a job right now is extremely difficult.
I was applying for entry level positions that require a B.S. and was up against people with PhDs (read: entry level). People aren’t afraid to take a step down in pay to at least have a job. Luckily after five months of persistance I finally got a good benefits, enjoyable, quality paying job.
lol
(11/19/09 3:18pm)Report
getting a job right now is not just extremely difficult, its almost impossible. It took me 3 months to find a job, even Best Buy wouldn’t hire me. Considering that most places go out of business right now, its not surprising. Oh well, this is the Great America isn’t it? The Land of dreams.. yeah, my ass.
Trey
(11/19/09 7:57pm)Report
I’m so sick about hearing about networking. what do they think we are doing sitting in our rooms? our networks are unemployed and we are fighting people with 20 years work experience for entry level jobs in the mail room. I was unemployed for 9 months and applied to literally thousands of jobs and went on hundreds of interviews before funding the craptastic one i have now on a job board. The people giving this advise are employed… they shouldn’t be.
Self-motivation
(11/19/09 9:57pm)Report
pure laziness…people expect jobs to be handed to them because they have a degree. wake up! get out and look around, the jobs are out there! if you spent the past 4 years of your life pursuing some worthless major then that’s your own damn fault. don’t follow the typical, american lifestyle and settle for less than mediocre. get out and push yourself, if you have any motivation and determination you will find a job.
America
(11/19/09 11:19pm)Report
Self-motivation, you can’t force a company to hire you when they’re laying off people. If only the absolute cream of the crop get jobs, well, where the heck does that leave everyone else? Last time I checked, the winners of the Super Bowl aren’t the only football players to have a job.
Thing is, that’s how it is for both your average blue- and white-collar workers. Unless you’re number one in your field for making car doors or selling services business-to-business, you don’t have many career opportunities. Again, where does that leave everyone else. Everyone can’t be number one. What do we do with numbers two through infinity? Take ‘em out back and shoot ‘em?
Personally, I’ve actually turned down two well-paying jobs — in Michigan, to boot! Does that make me an arrogant prick who says things like, “Just push harder. You’ll pay your mortgage with some elbow grease!” No, because I live in reality, where America has a 10 % unemployment rate and we’ve been losing, not adding, jobs for quite a while.
Oh, that’s right. If I take some college buddies or the neighbors out to coffee, they’ll tell me info about a hot job.
Idiots.
Dr. Simon
(11/19/09 11:41pm)Report
You can see me snarling in the background because Jenny isn’t talking the right line of propaganda we were briefed the day before by Democratic Party headquarters. She was supposed to highly propagandized “jobs created or saved” numbers to help bolster midterm elections.
Lord only knows our liberal professors receive most of their money from liberal presidents who increase taxes to pay for their research on people playing Wii Fit and Isaac Asimov style robotics science fiction.