College students struggle with tight job market

Recruitment is off 25 to 40%, career counselors say.

If UCI student Sarah Estacio hadn't started her job search two years ago, she could have been in trouble.

Amid what college officials say are 25 to 40 percent declines in campus recruiting activity, Estacio, 22, has managed to find herself among the fortunate ones who will have a job when they graduate this year.

She has interned for Target for the past two years, first in the company's management training program and then in its human resources division. She is the president of the Alliance of Business Students at UCI, an umbrella organization that coordinates the activities of nine business student clubs on campus. She is also the leading peer counselor at UCI's career consulting and advising program.

Target offered her a full-time position in human resources three weeks ago, and even with her resume, she said she feels lucky.

"I feel I am in a better place because I had so much internship experience and such a deep background in that company," Estacio said.

Estacio tried applying for other jobs "to see what's out there," but found very little that was promising. Meanwhile, she's watched corporate sponsorships for career-related activities at her on-campus club fall by half and many of her business-oriented friends struggle to find jobs.

"I've had friends who have had job offers and had them rescinded prior to their start date," Estacio said.

Jim Case, director of the Cal State Fullerton Career Center, said job hunts for new college graduates these days are "pretty challenging," with employers in a wait-and-see mode. Student traffic in his office in the past few months has increased 15 to 20 percent, he said, as students "have gotten the message that there is a difficult market."

The biggest issue he's seen, however, hasn't been with the students who are just graduating: "What I've noticed is there are clearly more people in the pipeline that are being laid off or afraid of being laid off," Case said.

Sean Salomon, 22, a graduate of Chapman University last year, knows that experience all too well.

Salomon filled his resume with impressive internships as a public relations major interested in entertainment marketing. While in college, he interned at the House of Blues' corporate offices in Hollywood, the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, and The Militia Group, a record label.

Then he interned for smartpunk.com, an online music store, and after graduation he was hired as its head of marketing.

"What was cool about it was I dealt with everybody in the entire industry," Salomon said.

But in October, the company eliminated his position. He didn't fall into self-pity, saying he's "just one of the many music industry professionals that were just cut from their jobs."

Instead, he's been sending out at least two – sometimes as many as 10 – resumes a day.

"I'm just trying the blanket theory," he said, guessing he's sent out more than 100 resumes so far.

Yet he's only received about 10 calls back for interviews – and only one of those was for a full-time position. In the meantime, he's been interning part-time at an ad agency, but that's unpaid.

"They're not even doing paid internships because of the economy," Salomon said. "It would be even worse if I had no experience. If I had nothing on my resume, I would be probably trying to do three internships at once."

Kathryn Van Ness, director of UCI's Career Center, said she's seen two primary reactions from young job seekers facing the difficult market.

"I think they're responding with, 'I need to step it up,' or they're putting their head in the sand," she said.

Although he's not really burying his head in the sand, Mark Wolf, who graduated from Chapman in December, has been taking the tight job market in stride.

Helping him is the fact that his dad, the former dean of a psychology master's program at Ryokan College in Los Angeles, is out of a job, too. The younger Wolf said they've been enjoying the down economy together.

"He's like, 'What're you doing? Want to see a movie?' " Wolf said with a smile. "We go see matinees, because neither of us do anything."

Even with full-time internships at the Irvine Co. and marketing firm Brower, Miller and Cole, Wolf said he faces a tough search when he decides to give up movie-going.

"I think the hardest thing for anyone out of college is we don't have the experience they want," he said. "The only positive is they can pay you a lot less because you'll take anything."

Case pointed out another positive that he sees for his students.

"The demographics are in their favor in the long run, even if in the shorter term there are some challenges," he said. "There may not be as many jobs now, but very soon that's going to turn around."

Some tips for young job-seekers:

• Have a focused resume.Adapt every resume to each company you are applying to, placing emphasis on the experience most applicable to the job you are seeking. Being "open to anything" tends to show a lack of focus.

• Be aggressive, and don't get down. UCI Career Center director Kathryn Van Ness takes issue with TV reports that make it seem like there are no jobs out there at all: "We're in Orange County. Orange County is still a good hiring region." Cal State Fullerton Career Center director Jim Case said: "The student needs to understand that it's a tough market, but people are still being hired. Persistence is the key."

• Get work experience.Internships are currency for entry-level applicants; get as much of it as you can. Van Ness said 80 percent of UCI students who intern with a company receive a full-time offer from that company upon graduation. "It's a great test-drive for the student and the employer," Van Ness said.

Liz Wolgemuth examines what college students can do to give themselves an edge in a declining job market.

While college grads scrounge around for advice on how to get recruited, the recruiters themselves turn to Jim Stroud for advice on how to recruit. Stroud writes The Recruiters Lounge blog, where he shares his insight into the evolving job market, new technology, and recruiting news.

Stroud has consulted with some of the country's most favored employers, such as Google and Microsoft. He agreed to share the inside scoop on the recruiting process and details on how you can actually get yourself in front of a recruiter. Excerpts from an interview with U.S. News:

How important is a college major? Does it have to be relevant to the job

?
I don't think so. I know several successful professionals and entrepreneurs who operate outside of what they studied in college. The best benefit of any major is mastering the patience, dedication, and organization it takes to achieve a long-term goal. These traits are transferable across every discipline.

What's the most important thing students can do while they're in college?
The most important thing is to create and maintain a reputable online identity. Savvy recruiters know how to leverage the Internet to find active and passive job seekers. If students are not promoting themselves online, they are missing out on unadvertised opportunities.

For example: Any job posting on Monster could yield several hundred résumés—and even more phone calls and E-mails—from unqualified candidates who hope their résumé will stand out from the crowd. In many instances, a recruiter will glance at a small percentage of résumés received and choose from the first few that catch their attention. From there, it's all gut instinct and interview performance.

However, if a recruiter can perform a search on Google and discover an online résumé, an appealing social network profile, or a well-crafted blog post that proves expertise in a specific area, all the better. The recruiter can save a lot of time dealing with the qualified few, rather than wading through an avalanche of ineligible applicants.

What's your advice to college students who have posted many of their good times online?
The proliferation of information on the Internet is making privacy a fleeting hope. It would be to a student's advantage to have two online identities. Under their real name, they should post their online résumé, write articles, and blog posts about their professional passion.

Conversely, they should create an alias to hide behind when dancing on tabletops in Aruba.

What don't people understand about the recruiting process?
That it is a selling process. The candidate has to sell the recruiter on the idea that they are someone who can do the job. In turn, the recruiter has to sell that idea to a hiring manager. All things being wonderful, the candidate builds on the recommendation from the recruiter to sell himself to the hiring manager.

At every step of this sales process, each person needs to establish a relationship with the customer (i.e., the recruiter), convert an interest into a desire, overcome objections as to why they should hire someone else, and then close the deal. Every job seeker should have an understanding of these basic sales steps.

What are some of the things that make a candidate stand out?
After so many referrals, résumés, and interviews, it's going to come down to know-how and cultural fit. More often than not, there will be several candidates for any given role that can perform the job adequately. When I see a candidate swapping jokes with a hiring manager or sharing a common viewpoint with an existing employee, then I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Fundamentally, people want to work with qualified people that they can identify with in some way. If the interviewee and the hiring manager are already acting like they are working together, chances are that it's a done deal. These are the candidates that are the strongest to me—those that can build a rapport. Unfortunately, none of this can be discerned until well into the recruitment process.

What are some of the major detractors?
Major detractors for me are those candidates who cannot succinctly argue why they are the best person for the job. Sure, their résumé warranted my attention, but credentials can be easily faked without verification. As I said previously, recruiting is all about the sale, and any candidate without that mind-set is doing him- or herself a disservice.

Can a college student rely on on-campus recruiting events? Online job sites?
When it comes to securing employment, no college student should rely on any one thing. Do all of the above and more. In the event those efforts prove unsuccessful, consider starting your own business. My father drummed into my psyche early on that if you can't find a job, you should make one. This bit of uncommon sense should not be lost on anyone seeking work, especially in these interesting times.

Source: http://www.usnews.com

By Peter Bregman
Special to CNN

A friend of mine, a senior leader in a pharmaceutical company, spends all her spare time doing yoga, taking classes in comparative religions, reading about spirituality, speaking with others about their beliefs. Just talking about it energizes her.Which is not how she feels about her day job.

"Why don't you leave your job and do something with this full time?" I asked her."I've thought about it. But I could never make the kind of money I make now."She might be right. But the question isn't whether she could make as much money. Even if she stays in her job she's unlikely to do that in this economy.

The question is far broader and more interesting. What would her life look like -- in every dimension she values -- if she decided to pursue her passion full time?

She needs to consider the contribution she'd make. The relationships she'd foster. The fun she'd have. The feelings she'd carry with her throughout the day. Her engagement in her work. In short, what her life would mean.

And, of course, also the money. Which, as it turns out, might actually be greater if she were more engaged in her work. Gallup has collected data on 5.4 million employees in over 137 countries and concluded that engaged employees are more productive and customer-focused. And more profitable. Which could mean more money for her.

But why are we even having this conversation during the worst downturn this country has seen in the last 70 years? Isn't she lucky simply to have a job?

Yes. And, because of that, she's also stuck. For better and worse, she probably won't leave.

But maybe you're not so lucky -- you've been laid off or might be soon; you're a student coming into the job market; or like several people I know, you've been thinking about a change.

Well, this is your opportunity. You didn't want to risk a change when things were going well. There was too much to lose.But this downturn, this economic mess we're in, could be your chance. When everything was going well, we spent money we didn't have thinking we would make more tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came. It's easy to point a finger at Bernie Madoff (and he deserves the finger), but the truth is, it's not just him. We're all victims of our own little Ponzi Schemes. But now we know.

The life we've been living, the debt we've been incurring, is unsustainable. Maybe the layoff is a favor. You were treated as expendable. But were you, working those long hours to keep a job you didn't love, treating your self as expendable too?

Depressing? Sure. But now that we know, we can do something about it.I don't want to be cavalier; I know food on the table is a necessity. We still need work and money. Here are our new rules for finding it:

Rule #1: Don't spend too much time looking for your next job. As I discuss in my article for Harvard Business, "Need to Find a Job? Stop Looking So Hard," searching for a job more than 1-2 hours a day will actually make it less likely you'll find one.

Rule #2: Focus your time on what you're truly passionate about. Get more training. Expand your comfort zone with new activities, new people. Studies show that 80 percent of jobs are found through networking. Which is what you're doing when you pursue your passion with other people. So do it without guilt. Spend your newfound spare time doing what you enjoy with people whom you enjoy.

Rule #3: Let those people know you want to make your money doing these things. Don't hammer it in. Just mention it. Once.

Successful people are passionate, obsessed. And obsession isn't motivated by money. It's deeper than that. Find your obsession. Let it loose.

Employers want to hire someone who is naturally driven. Self-motivated. You'll work at your obsession all the time because you want to. And that kind of persistence, that kind of focus, is worth a lot of money.

But don't make the mistake of chasing the money. That's what got us into this mess in the first place. Let the money chase you.Most people are afraid to do that. Afraid of the risk. Afraid of the gap in their resume. They try to cover it up. Find ways to explain it away. But my advice to employers is hire for the gap. It's often the most interesting part of a person's life. What does a person do when they don't have anything they have to do? What do they do in their spare time? If you can hire someone for that, you'll find your star.

This isn't the time to be afraid of risk. It's too late. You're already in the risk. You might not have chosen it, but why not take control and act as if you had?

Remember my friend working at the pharmaceutical company -- the one with the job? By staying in work she doesn't love, she's taking a risk too. She's risking her life.Imagine how great she would be, how much she would offer, how much she would gain, if she devoted herself to her passion?

Now how about you?

Let's become a nation of people who love what we do.

The Greendown on Obama’s Stimulus Bill:

There’s been a lot of coverage about the stimulus package the President has recently signed. Most of the talk is regarding whether it should be passed or not. Let’s take a quick look at what some of the environmental issues President Obama is tackling.

High speed rails: Awesome, it looks like southern California is going to actually have some reliable public transportation! $9.5 billion is being allocated towards development

Energy research: About $2.5 Billion will be going to supporting energy efficient research.

Tax credits for energy efficient home improvements: It seems we have $2 billion worth of tax compensation for us to greenify our homes (and cars)!

EPA Cleanup program: $1.2 Billion will be given to the EPA to help clean up some of the less attractive portions of the country.

Beefing up public transit: $8.4 Billion will be going into bringing some of the public transportation up to par, which I actually think is a smart move – as it should motivate more people to use it.

Green job training: $500 million will be going into supporting green collar jobs.

Those are just a few of the highlight’s I thought were most relevant & interesting, but there’s a lot more in the bill! I’m really looking forward to hearing more about the compensation for making green improvements, as well as the high speed rail!

Submitted by Farhan Khalaf, a Rainmaker Network intern and current college student in CA.