Mark Matthes, career services director, described May as freak out time for seniors.
Graduating seniors will enter one of the worst job markets in the past 25 years, according to January statistics from the Labor Department. Unemployment numbers in L.A. County peaked at 9.5% in December and aren’t expected to get much better before the big day in May.
“In May, we get flooded with desperate seniors,” said Matthes. “Parents are on them about loans being due and they think they can just work in a few weeks because they have gotten summer work fairly easily. But getting a permanent job is another story.”
That’s where Matthes and six other full-time staff members in career services come in. Career services helps students package themselves for the job hunt through mock interviews, resume and cover letter advice, personality assessments, and negotiating techniques.
Clint Rothell, a second-year Talbot student, said he has consulted career services around 20 times throughout his hunt for a philosophy teaching job.
“Sometimes I’ll call and see if they have any openings to see if they can give me pointers on an interview for that weekend,” Rothell said.
Matthes has what he calls a guerilla technique. In addition to checking job boards like craigslist and CareerBuilder and networking with contacts (and parents’ contacts), Matthes says that creating a hit list of 15 target companies is a good strategy. The idea is to track down the names of the hiring managers and ask for a 20-30 minute appointment to talk about their hiring plans in the future and put a face to your resume. Matthes said this plan has been a successful tactic because no one else really uses it.
“There is personality behind this method, as opposed to a resume you send into a black hole on a Web site,” Matthes said. “You need to do something to make yourself stand out from the stack of resumes.”
But this year’s graduating class isn’t the only class who faces the worsening job market. Last year’s alumni are struggling, and from the looks of the economy, they still have a rough road ahead.
Lisa Carpenter, a 2008 journalism alumna, was able to land a short stint at a bank through a temp agency, but now that it’s ended, is again scouring Internet job boards for full-time work. Carpenter looked at Biola LINK, a job board specifically recruiting Biola students and grads, but with no luck.
“There are a lot more ministry jobs on there,” Carpenter said. The hardest part, she said, was knowing where to begin.
Just in case recent grads can’t find jobs, Matthes recommended they sign up for as many temp agencies as they can as a backup plan, and stressed the need for humility with jobs college grads could see as beneath them.
“In a bad economy like this, it is important to have a willingness to accept a job that may not be ideal, but that can pay the bills,” he said. “You can’t be afraid to do food service or manual labor jobs.”
The economic forecast may seem like a venerable monster, but now may be the time for Biola students to step out and do something they may never have done otherwise. Instead of feeding the 401k and getting permanently locked into cog-in-the-wheel status, some students are looking for more creative sustenance after graduation. Be forewarned, however, that many of these options require a lot of foresight and planning.
Bradley Clarke, a 2008 alumnus, has thought about leaving the country to teach English – a viable option because the cost of living is dramatically lower abroad and compensation is usually high for the standard of living there.
“It’s a great way to make my money stretch farther while getting a wonderful experience,” he said.
The Peace Corps and Teach for America are other options many students consider right out of school. Both organizations allow recent college grads to commit a few years to serving others while taking care of expenses and delaying loans.
Whether in freshman or senior status, students shouldn’t be forlorn about the upcoming job hunt, but rather face the sun and think creatively.
And talk to career services. Like, now.
