Challenging Job Market Requires Flexible Approach
An annual survey of Duke’s graduating seniors indicates drop in job placements (Includes PBS video)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Preliminary numbers from an annual survey of Duke University’s graduating seniors indicate a drop of about 10 percent in the number of students who will be leaving Duke with a job in hand.
The survey, taken by Duke’s Career Center, appears to indicate that a drop in offers from the financial and consulting sectors are a major reason for the decline. Final numbers, expected to be available later next week, will show just how significant the decline is from previous years.
“There’s no doubt that this group of seniors is graduating into a tough job market,” said David Lapinski, associate director of Duke’s Career Center. “Numbers are down for new graduate hires not just at Duke, but all across the country, and in industries almost across the board.
“That said, there are jobs available. They just might be in geographic locations, smaller firms or industries graduates weren’t originally considering.”
Dan Klein, a biomedical/electrical engineering double major from Miami Beach, is one student who looked for jobs in his specialty, but ended up with something different. Klein, an honors student, landed a position as a wireline engineer with Schlumberger, an oil company in Graham, Texas.
“I thought I’d be a hot commodity, but not this year,” Klein said. “I applied with all the biomed companies I could find and almost all were on hiring freezes. I’m happy with this company, but it was pretty much the only one that took me for a second interview.”
Networking got Catherine Stanley an interview at The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., the large advertising agency that came up with the UPS, Geico and FreeCreditReport.com commercials.
“I had a really hard time finding a job, although I interviewed for several positions in the marketing/creative/advertising field,” said Stanley, who added she is thrilled and grateful for her account coordinator position. “I've been following Martin’s work for a while and mentioned the agency to my aunt who lives in Virginia. A friend of her friend works at the agency, so I was able to pass my resume directly to her.”
Duke students who sought jobs in the nonprofit world are not having an easy go of it either, because nonprofits are also feeling the pinch, with the exception of some federal government agencies, Lapinski said. Teach for America, for instance, will remain one of Duke's most successful recruiters in 2009, but even it is recruiting smaller numbers.
Amanda Tong, an engineering and economics student, has decided to put off an engineering career to work for AmeriCorps, where she will be helping high school students from disadvantaged families prepare for college. Tong said a semester abroad working with Engineers Without Borders in Peru, where she helped a small community build a water supply line, led her to consider nonprofit work.
“DukeEngage got me thinking of doing service directly out of college,” said Tong, who served as vice president of the Inter-Campus Council and volunteered with Big Brothers/Big Sisters while at Duke.
Others looking for work are taking different approaches to get a foot in the door. Taina Thermidor, who will graduate with a degree in psychology and a minor in visual arts, is now considering an unpaid internship with an events company, even though she would prefer a salaried position.
“I need to find something to pay off my loans and still do something I want to do and enjoy… but I’m changing my thinking about an internship. It’s a step into a company.”
When only one marketing firm came to campus during recruiting season, Cha Goonewardene, a senior interested in marketing, knew finding a job in that field was going to be tough. “Marketing is one of the first places companies tend to cut,” he said.
Goonewardene, an economics major who gained substantial hands-on marketing experience as president of the Duke University Union, now plans to help another young Duke graduate, Rachel Weeks ‘07, market her start-up “ethical fashion” company, which she launched earlier this year. Most of the clothing -- designed for college bookstores -- is made in Goonewardene’s home country of Sri Lanka.
One area that is seeing an increase, not surprisingly, is the number of students going directly to graduate school.
“Graduate schools around the country are seeing a spike in applications, and our early survey numbers for Duke students are bearing that out,” Lapinski said. “A lot of students are opting to pursue advanced degrees now, in hopes the job market will be better down the road.”
One clear example of this is the new Masters of Management Studies: Foundation of Business degree, a one-year program being offered by Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. The new program, designed primarily for recent liberal arts graduates, has 90 openings, and has already attracted about 250 applications.
In the current job climate, modifying expectations and flexibility are key. “The fact is there are jobs and other opportunities out there,” Lapinski said. “Seniors may have to adjust their expectations and consider options they hadn’t considered before, but by searching broadly and being flexible, they will find that the opportunities are there.”
