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Jobs picture brightens for new grads

By JUSTIN POPE
Associated Press

CHITOSE SUZUKI / AP Eric Golden, a senior at business-oriented Bentley College near Boston, has been juggling about a dozen interviews with money managers, investment banks and General Electric.

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Recruiters, career counselors and students say the fall recruiting season has been the most active since the dot-com boom.

Accountants are again finding increased demand for their services — thanks to the wave of post-Enron regulations — but theirs is just one of several hot fields.

Technology companies, investment banks and consulting firms appear to be picking up the pace, as are some defense contractors and even smaller businesses that haven't traditionally recruited on campus.

"I haven't been to school in the last three weeks because of my interview schedule," said Eric Golden, a senior at Bentley College, a business-oriented school in Waltham, Mass., outside Boston.

Golden, who says he is lucky to be graduating this year, has been juggling about a dozen interviews with money managers, investment banks and General Electric. Friends with similar credentials who graduated earlier often ended up taking positions that weren't their top choices "just to have a job," he said.

College hiring is expected to rise 13 percent over last year, according to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Seven of 10 employers surveyed said they expected to increase salary offers to new college grads, according to the survey released late last week. The average increase was 3.7 percent.

Four out of five employers called the job market for new grads good, very good or excellent; last year, fewer than two in five did.

Upswing at local schools

Local universities are seeing the same trends.

Susan Terry, director of career services at the University of Washington, said the school expects to see a 15 percent increase in hiring this year.

"There's some nice movement in the market," Terry said.

Recruiting and hiring are up about 5 percent at Pacific Lutheran University, said Alina Urbanec, director of student employment and career development.

The number of companies seeking students at Seattle University has jumped about 12 percent from last year, said Joseph Barrientos, associate director of the school's career-development center.

Michigan State's College Employment Research Institute will release a report Thursday that director Phil Gardner said will show overall campus hiring is up as much as 20 percent this year, depending on the region.

Experts say hiring still isn't approaching the intensity of the late 1990s.

A population boom among college students has tightened competition, and employers remain gun-shy about big bonuses.

Some engineers are still having a tough time, in part because so much manufacturing has moved off shore. And many businesses, notably financial services, learned to get by with leaner staffs during the downturn.

But there is clear momentum. At California State University, Fullerton, the number of companies at a fall career fair was up about 40 percent from last year; at the University of Florida, the number of recruiting companies is up as much as 15 percent.

And at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., interviews are up roughly 30 percent.

The school had to step in, requiring recruiters to allow students to mull job offers until at least Nov. 24. For the first time since the dot-com boom, competition was fierce enough that employers pushed students for immediate decisions on their offers.

Don Brezinski, executive director of corporate relations at Bentley, said, "We're seeing companies that, instead of looking to hire one or two, have openings of a dozen. It's when you have the big companies going really deep, then you know you're hitting stride with employment recovery."

Experts say companies are hiring to handle new work but also making up for years of conservatism and anticipating an exodus of retiring baby boomers.

"We've seen employers that have cut back the last few years looking around the office saying, 'We've got this new work. Who's going to do the job?' " said Lee Svete, Notre Dame's director of career services.

More companies are hiring, but students who are savvy about networking and researching employers and openings are more likely to get hired, Barrientos said.

Students who have done internships also have an advantage.

"There's always the hidden job market," Barrientos said. "Students currently interning are better positioned to get rolled into their companies. There isn't as much need for employers to come on campus to seek out candidates, because they already have one."

Accounting remains one of the best backgrounds for a job-hunting senior. PriceWaterhouseCoopers plans to hire about 3,100 people off college campuses this year, up almost 19 percent from last year. Ernst & Young, another big accounting firm, plans to increase hiring about 30 percent and bring on 4,000 new grads.

Jim Case, director of the career center at Cal State-Fullerton, says regional and local accounting firms are hiring, too.

Finance and — yet again — nursing skills are in demand, and job hunters willing to move have a big advantage. Computer-science jobs are also returning after the tech slump, said Carol Lyons, dean of career services at Boston's Northeastern University. Other fields, like journalism, are still tough.

The hottest fields for UW's undergraduates and graduate students have remained the same for the past few years: business (accounting, finance, marketing and economics) engineering (electrical, mechanical and chemical, to name a few) and computer science.

For PLU students, the most opportunities lie in teaching, nursing, technology and medicine. Urbanec says she's also noticed more students seeking work with nonprofit groups.

"They want to do something that is humanitarian," she said.

Service work

Nonprofit or post-graduate service — such as the Peace Corps, Jesuit Volunteer Corp or Teach for America — can help students who haven't settled on a particular job, Barrientos said.

"After a couple years of service, they can come back with a stronger focus or a better understanding of their skill sets, strengths and passion," Barrientos said.

While some fields have higher demand than others, students of all majors should feel optimistic. "There's tremendous opportunities out there, and students should never limit themselves," Urbanec said.

Liberal-arts majors need not despair, said Wayne Wallace, director of the career resource center at the University of Florida.

" 'Any major' is the No. 1 demand," he said. "We have plenty of employers that say if you are a college grad and want to ... learn our business, we will take you from that point on."

Seattle Times business reporter Blanca Torres contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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