By Julie FrenchThe Daily Northwestern
This year’s college seniors face better odds for landing a job than those who graduated just one year ago, according to the Job Outlook 2007 report conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Nearly 60 percent of the surveyed employers said they planned to hire an average of 17.4 percent more new graduates than they did last year.
This translates into more employers visiting campus, multiple job offers and higher starting salaries for Northwestern students, said Lonnie Dunlap, director of University Career Services.
“We’re very strong in gradually improving year to year, but it hasn’t been a 20 percent increase,” Dunlap said. “Some employers increased hiring last year and leveled off this year.”
The most noticeable trend was the increased interest in undergraduates by business services, engineering and information technology companies, she said.
Those three sectors are also expected to hire the most graduates nationwide, according to the report.
Robert Mork, CEO of Mason Concepts, a recruiting firm for Silicon Valley start-ups, said his clients are hiring recent graduates at a significantly higher rate than they were a few years ago.
“Hiring is absolutely up across the board,” he said. “Large and small companies are looking to hire.”
When hiring less experienced employees, Mork said his clients look for students who come from high-quality computer science programs and who have solid GPAs. But above all, employers seek enthusiastic recruits, he said.
McCormick senior Jonathan Adams was able to prove his enthusiasm and skills at Intel last year through the co-op internship program run by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. He said he knew his employers were pleased with his performance, but they weren’t hiring then.
“The only question (this year) was whether they were going to have enough spots open to hire,” Adams said. Then hiring picked up, and he accepted a job offer last October.
Students like Adams secure jobs earlier in the school year because engineering, finance and business services hire the bulk of their new employees in the fall or winter, Dunlap said. Other industries follow very different hiring patterns, which means many students are still job hunting.
For example, music students looking for teaching jobs generally don’t get hired until very late in the year, said Dorothy Wyandt, a placement assistant for career services in the School of Music. And for most musicians, the job search is even less regulated.
“It’s not as easy to pinpoint as some fields,” Wyandt said. Tracking employment trends in music “is almost not relevant unless you’re talking about … not planning to go into music.”
Music majors must often be more entrepreneurial than most fields, earning income from a part-time job combined with opening a private studio, teaching lessons or playing in a quartet, she said.
Media, marketing and communication are other areas that tend to hire employees in the spring and after graduation. According to Loraine Hasebe, director of the Medill School of Journalism’s career services office, interest in Medill students has diversified, with increasing numbers of marketing and communication firms attending the annual career fair.
“It goes to reflect how much companies across all industries value the journalism training – writing, research and communicating in a clear and concise manner,” Hasebe said.
For students who have yet to find a job, Hasebe’s advice is to continue building their network, but with a targeted approach. Students often forget that the career services office is open throughout the summer, she said, and that there are always employers looking to hire.
Reach Julie French at [email protected].
