Although hiring rates for graduating seniors are up from last year, many of the nearly 650 graduating seniors this May are concerned about what will come — or in many cases, what will not come — after receiving their diplomas from Biola on May 28.

“I am worried about how I’m going to use my major,” said senior art major Alyssa Nakamura, who will be getting married after graduation.

Career Development offers guidance to seeking students

Senior Sara Verschueren, a business management major who works as a receptionist in Career Development, explained that Career Development has been giving many students guidance.

“Seniors have been having one-on-one appointments,” Verschueren said.

Career Development estimates that roughly only 28 perecent of students go to Career Development for guidance by the time of graduation.

Mark Matthes, associate director for Career Development, said students oftentimes underestimate how difficult procuring a full-time job really is, compared to part-time jobs.

“It’s not taken seriously until it hits home,” he said.

Graduating seniors everywhere looking for jobs

In 2009, just 29 percent of seniors nationally had jobs at graduation, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, and about 31.5 percent of Biola seniors had jobs upon graduation.

At the same time, the outlook for hiring college students looks slightly better this year from last. NACE reported that employers said they planned to hire 19.3 percent more graduates in 2010-2011 than they did in 2009-2010. NACE also reported that salary offers for recent college grads were up by 3.5 percent for the class of 2011, the first increase since the economy crashed in 2008.

Career Development creating job-finding resources

Career Development will be conducting a career boot camp in about a month with everything a student needs to know for their future career. The boot camp will include seminars on resume writing, job search skills, interview strategies and more, according to Verschueren.

BiolaLink is another major resource that Career Development has which is useful to current and graduating seniors. This website was created to aid students who are looking for employment.

“The website has been a great tool and is geared toward Biola students,” Verschueren said.

Similar to Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com, employers post job advertisements to the site and those hunting for a job are able to log in and either apply or receive information on how to apply for a job.

This type of resource can be utilized even by current students as statistics have found that new graduates who have had internships are far more likely to land jobs. NACE found that 42.3 percent of seniors in 2010 who had internship experience and applied for a job received at least one job offer, while only 30.7 percent of seniors without internship experience who applied for a job received any offer.

Internships key to making graduates competitive

Matthes said some departments are better than others about making sure students have professional experience pre-graduation. Not all departments have a “concerted effort” to help students be “the most competitive out the gate,” he said. Career Development is of the opinion that every major should require internships. Matthes referenced some universities that actually require students to take six to 12 months off school to work in a professional environment.

“It’s a totally different model of education,” Matthes said.

Career Development is not only open to current students, but also to graduates. Matthes said alumni who have graduated years ago drop in often.

GRE changes will affect students bound for grad school

Not all graduates will jump into the workforce right away. For over 60 years, some college graduates who hope to attend graduate school have been required to take the Graduate Record Examination. The GRE is used to measure college graduates’ readiness for graduate level work.

“The GRE is going to be changing in August,” Verschueren said.

The GRE is computer based, and is taken at different testing locations across the nation. It can be likened to the SAT for graduate school. These new changes made by the Educational Testing Service, the creators of the GRE, vary greatly from tighter and more concise scoring to allowing features in which test takers can change answers and skip questions. The test seems to be getting more strenuous for those who hope to attend graduate school.

For those just stepping into the academic world, Nakamura offered a parting piece of advice to students.

“Work hard, enjoy your college time,” Nakamura said. “And take your Bible classes seriously.”