Last June, Danny Fleishman graduated from Northwestern. By August, he was back.
When the School of Education and Social Policy graduate couldn’t find a job in marketing, he responded to a post on CareerCat looking for an assistant director of admissions at NU.College admissions, Fleishman said, was never where he thought he would end up so soon after graduation. But his job, where he travels, runs information sessions and meets with high school students, has opened up a new realm of career possibilities, he said.
“I have found it to be a big asset,” Fleishman said of his recent graduate status. “People coming into info sessions love to hear about the experiences of students.”
Tales of job search struggles are common among recent college graduates. Among NU’s class of 2009, post-graduation employment “decreased significantly” from the previous year, based upon student responses to a University Career Services survey, said Director of Career Services Lonnie Dunlap. About 44 percent of 1,879 graduates surveyed identified themselves as employed at the time of commencement, compared to 54 percent of 1,413 graduates surveyed in 2008.
But there is a flip side to the post-graduate job search.
“For last year’s market it was a huge advantage to think more broadly,” Dunlap said. “We actually talked to students whose first choice job wasn’t available, but they were excited about new things they could qualify for.”
Students need to remember that “nobody ever retires from their first job,” Dunlap said.The expectation that students’ majors will determine their careers was the topic of discussion at Wednesday’s Ask Big Questions forum.
American Studies Prof. William Haarlow, who led the discussion, said students shouldn’t see their college degree as a definite means to one end.
“One of the things that is difficult to appreciate as an undergraduate is that you have the rest of your life to be in the professional world,” Haarlow said. “With education, you can develop an appreciation for things – like a piece of art. You can’t get that anywhere else.”
Dunlap added that most NU graduates face specific challenges when they apply for their first jobs out of college. For example, some students need help refining their career search, while others are too quick to limit themselves to one profession.
“For students who are heavily focused on one area, like I-banking or consulting, they need to expand their search,” Dunlap said. “Students with a general liberal arts degree are more open as a starting point, and the challenge is focusing it more.”
Janna Dons, who graduated from Medill last spring and spent months trying to land work at a magazine, expanded her job search to include public relations, which she said had been her back-up plan since her first day at NU.
The week she graduated, Dons was hired for a paid, three-month web internship at a Chicago non-profit. The pay isn’t great but it is “enough for the bills,” she said.
Dunlap said the percentage of graduates employed includes students who accepted temporary internships, volunteer work or jobs with programs like Teach for America. And while overall employment declined for the class of 2009, she said more graduates found work volunteering, interning or teaching last year than previous years.
Medill ’09 graduate Patrick St. Michel is teaching English in Japan as part of an exchange program, through which he is studying Japanese for the first time. He is contracted for two years and said he is not yet certain what he wants to do afterwards. Many of St. Michel’s friends are also deviating from their original post-graduation plans, he said.
“If you are going to try something off the beaten path, this is the time to do it,” said St. Michel, a former DAILY staffer. “I definitely think the whole job market and economy situation adds a lot of unwanted pressure. It might make the decision better knowing that you are kind of getting away from that.”
