Graduating seniors prepare for the challenge of finding post-grad employment
By Anne Davey, Opinion Editor//
The Class of 2016 is set to graduate and walk the Commencement stage on Roberts Hall Lawn on May 7. Many of the graduates will go on to full-time jobs, internships or graduate schools, and even more will continue to navigate the post-grad job market and figure out where the next phase of life will take them. It’s a journey that the university aids with and prepares students for over the course of their four years here and beyond.
While statistics on job placement and graduate school acceptances won’t be compiled for the class until late December, the outlooks for the Class of 2016 reflect a strong job market, a technology reliant recruiting process and a variety of opportunities.
The world of post-undergraduate employment has changed according to the experts. LinkedIn applications, recorded interviews, Skype conferences and the changing landscape of the workplace as a whole present challenges and new opportunities to college graduates. The traditional pipelines process of internship to job is not as common as it once was. Today’s graduates are far more likely to seek post-graduate internships or hands-on experience in their field before finding full-time employment.
The 2007 economic recession changed the job market in the United States and across the globe. Some industries, like accounting and finance, recruit in a strict cyclical manner and present job opportunities earlier for graduating students.
This year, High Point University’s accounting “Meet the Firms” event, where most students in that department secure jobs and internships with prestigious firms, was held on Sept. 10, 2015. The recession has created an environment where in most industries, employers are less likely to hold full-time jobs until someone graduates, and are more inclined to fill them in a “just in time hiring” type of situation.
Bridget Holcombe, director of HPU’s Office of Career and Professional Development, says that the job market is promising overall, but “employers have gotten more savvy about the millennial generation’s tendency to job hop and move along quickly.” This she says, results in a more intense hiring process, with additional screenings and more reliance on technology, to better vet candidates with less time and cost to the employer.
This shift in hiring practices combined with the less long-term nature of millennial career goals has also shifted the skills and qualities employers value most. Firms are working hard to do more with less; hiring fewer, more skilled employees that demonstrate an ability to work across departments, strong teamwork capacity, with an ability to collaborate and work with increased efficiency.
According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, these skills, along with leadership, critical thinking, communication and work ethic, trump the list for employers looking to hire new college graduates. As the hiring practices and work environment shift, so does the job timeline for graduates. Most students will not have a full-time position, be it with an employer or in a graduate school program, when they walk across the stage at graduation. This is the norm at most colleges and universities, and is why final outlook reporting isn’t done until the end of the year. The job search is a process that is ever evolving, and takes time.
According the HPU’s 2015 data on graduates, of the 79 percent of students the university was able to contact regarding post-graduate plans, 97.7 percent of those students were employed, operating their own company, or in a graduate program by December 2015.
HPU’s Career and Professional Development staff actively work with recent graduates throughout the summer to provide the same services to students during the year; working on resumes, cover letters and even helping avoid major role acceptance mistakes like handling salary, location, and juggling multiple job offers professionally.
While many students will graduate with full-time positions or graduate school plans, it is more common for students to continue looking after graduation and work the “just in time hiring” process to their advantage by maintaing contacts with professors, reaching out to professional networks and using LinkedIn to comb the internet for good fit positions.
The Class of 2016 is emerging into the job market at an exciting but challenging time, and HPU stands behind them having built a strong academic platform and providing the assistance students need to find success in their future endeavors.