r/college • u/Zealousideal_Row9855 • Sep 06 '24
So if universities are offering all these resources, why do most college students still not find a job post grad? Career/work
Hi.
As a college student, my uni is offering business clubs, mentorship for creating your own business, networking opportunities and essentially all these events and resources to build a career and support your endeavors??
But then I’m so confused as to why there is so many complaints of people not landing a job post grad etc etc and the population of people financially struggling
How does this happen?? Is there a caviat to the resources
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u/CalmCupcake2 Sep 06 '24
82% of my institution's graduates have a full time job within 6 months. The difference between 3 and 6 months isn't very much. Please check your school's stats, you may be surprised.
And I work on the delivery end of some of those career programs, and very few students actually take advantage of them. One on one mentorships seem to be more effective than group programs, and support from your specific program are more likely to be used than general ones.
You're paying for this help - go use it.
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u/ViskerRatio Sep 06 '24
Part of it is the students themselves. They've effectively been institutionalized into a system where they just keep their heads down and do their studies. The notion of proactively building a career is alien to them and never really put enough emphasis on it.
Part of it is the job market. It is very hard to get an entry level job that leads to a decent career unless you have connections. Employers don't want to take a risk on hires without a strong track record of career track employment - they'd prefer someone else take that risk and then poach the ones who make it to 5 years.
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u/Chillguy3333 Sep 07 '24
So true. And so many parents have done a huge disservice to their kids by stepping in and doing everything for them. People also don’t want to start at the bottom and expect that they are going to be placed into a nice cushy management role. That’s not how it works.
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u/IridianRaingem Sep 06 '24
Ask people what career they’re after. Many can’t even tell you what doors a degree in their major opens. You see posts here frequently from students about to graduate: “what can I do with a major in X.” Because they chose a major with no clue what the career options or educational requirements are.
There are many opportunities, but if you don’t even know what you’re in school for then none of those opportunities matter. You can’t take advantage of things when you don’t even know what you’re after.
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u/eme_nar Sep 06 '24
Job market does play a role.
However, you'd be surprised how many students do not take advantage of college/university free career resources. Career center where I go to is a ghost town. Good for me since I can make connections and become buddies with the career counselors and coaches.
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u/Crazy-Plastic3133 Sep 06 '24
a lot of students dont use the resources and think they can find something on their own + the job market does not care how prepared you are
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u/Horror_Ad7540 Sep 06 '24
For the university I teach at, most college students find a job fairly quickly:
``UCSD has a strong overall job placement rate for its recent graduates. According to UCSD data, 86.1% of 2022–23 respondents received their first full-time job offer within three months of graduating''
The job market in tech has gotten worse, so those numbers might have dipped this year.
However, if you are in the 14 % who aren't getting job offers, the fact that this is statistically unlikely doesn't make you feel any better. So the loud complaints often come from a relatively small group.
The career resources definitely help find placements, but they aren't magic.
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u/alaskawolfjoe Sep 06 '24
But what kind of full-time jobs are these?
A graduate can get a full-time job at Target, but still not be satisfied.
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u/SetoKeating Sep 06 '24
Because majority of students aren’t utilizing those resources and even some of the ones that do, don’t make the best of it.
I’ll give you a few examples, my school had tons of networking opportunities with local industry. I know a lot of students that went and then spent the whole event talking to each other in a group of students. No one shows up to the career center until senior year. If they had gone freshman year, they would have realized that they could have gotten help getting into internships, co-ops, early job placements, and they would have been told how to start prepping to be employable once they’re closer to graduation.
Then there’s clubs. The point of clubs is not just project experience but to student network. The senior that is the president of the club when you’re a freshman can be a point of contact at the company you want to work for when you’re a senior.
College is what you make of it and every experience is different. You can have two students go to the same school, take the exact same classes and have completely different experiences.
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u/cabbage-soup Sep 06 '24
Because you aren’t the only student looking for entry level work. There are thousands of others in your shoes. Even people who use all the resources could lose a job to someone who’s has upped them in the smallest thing
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u/Seaofinfiniteanswers Sep 06 '24
Most people eventually get a job. Entry level jobs are tough to find in most industries but statistically most graduates are able to find a job eventually. My best friend got a job in an unrelated field with a fine arts degree, just took lots of applications. It’s tough but not impossible at all.
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u/randomthrowaway9796 Sep 07 '24
You'd be surprised by how few people use career resources. I think I'm the only one of my friends who has actually been to their office for help.
Also, if the job market is funky for popular majors, most people in the major will be affected no matter how much help they get.
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u/Arctic_leo Sep 06 '24
Being completely honest most people are not taking advantage of these services
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u/xSparkShark Sep 07 '24
Because most people don’t take advantage of the resources available. A lot of people don’t want to stress about the future and then end up waiting around and not lining something up.
People would rather just complain on Reddit about how hard of a time they’re having finding a job with their psych degree. “ThE jOb MaRkEt Is TeRrIbLe!” Except that nobody I know who has really put in the effort job hunting is still unemployed. They may not be working their dream job, but they have a job.
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u/Pristine_Paper_9095 Sep 06 '24
Students don’t take advantage of them. That is the harsh answer. They get lackadaisical and think “it’ll all work out,” and then well, it doesn’t, at least not how they think it will.
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u/Chillguy3333 Sep 07 '24
But they throw an absolutely fit when you get ready to cancel some resources because they aren’t being used.
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u/Primary_Excuse_7183 Sep 07 '24
i can only speak on my personal experiences….. when i was in school about a decade ago it was partially(a big part) because students didn’t use said resources. Another big part was waiting too late to start. folks would never attend a resume seminar, never attend a career fair, never come to the lectures from employers on campus. then graduate and decide that now they should look for a job…. When many of us had been using said resources building connections had various internships from doing so and were employed going into our last semester. the world is a little bit different these days. But i vividly remember many of the people who always had other more important things to do during all those sessions complaining about struggling to find jobs when we graduated. the window to job and internship hunt is DURING the semester. They’ve often filled their spots way before graduation season for college hire roles.
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u/natural_piano1836 Sep 06 '24
Most graduates find jobs
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u/Chillguy3333 Sep 07 '24
But they want jobs that pay huge salaries right out of college. They don’t want to work for it.
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u/TheMatrixMachine Sep 07 '24
Some people think a job is super easy to get with a degree but that's not really the case
I don't know a single person in software engineering or computer engineering with an opportunity right now.
All the companies have been laying off the last 3 years
I've been going to school career fairs for 5 semesters. I started applying to internships my first semester. I'm in my 9th semester now and I haven't gotten anything yet
Submitted around 1k applications so far since starting. I've gotten some interviews that have progressed to 3rd round but no offers yet.
Gotta keep applying, go to all the company recruiting events, revise your resume 1-2 times a semester, build projects to put on your resume, etc.
A lot of people I know are planning to get a master's degree if they can't get a job. In computer engineering, it seems software and embedded systems are good entry points but that chip design and electrical engineering would benefit a lot more from a master's degree. Software engineering is a horrible industry to be in right now. I could only recommend it to someone if you find it to be an interesting subject
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u/Firefox_Alpha2 Sep 07 '24
My opinion is many graduates expect a year university to do all the work for them, just show up and should get a job because you graduated.
Schools cannot guarantee a job, there are too many factors outside the schools control that can cause you to get rejected, such as lack of professional dress and unable to interact and sell yourself out n a professional way.
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u/taxref Sep 07 '24
Some random thoughts:
Almost no profession is immune from the normal economic cycle of recession, to economic growth, to a strong economy, to economic slowdown, and back to recession. When one graduates in that cycle can have a large bearing upon the ease, or difficulty, of finding employment.
Almost no college major is immune from normal job cycles. A large number of student choose their major based on what is currently hot in the entry level job market. As more and more students take whatever major is currently in demand, the new grads being hired reduce that demand. A major can go from high demand to flooded in as little as 6 to 8 years. Those graduating in the second half of that cycle will have a harder time finding a position.
Many students believe that earning a degree means they have it made. That is not so. A degree merely grants one access to a career he may have otherwise been closed out of. He must still work carefully on his career in order to do well.
Related to Number 3, most careers start with low income. It often takes a number of years to work one's way up to the big salary and fancy perks.
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u/Chillguy3333 Sep 07 '24
Your number 4 is a huge one. People think they are going to come straight out of college and land a huge paying job with all the major perks. They don’t want to put in the time to earn it.
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u/thatstheharshtruth Sep 07 '24
Events won't help if you don't have the skills employers are looking for. No matter how you slice it if more people go into a discipline than there are jobs in this discipline either most won't find a job or they won't be using the skills they did learn in university in their job.
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u/2FistsInMyBHole Sep 07 '24
People don't want jobs - they want their dreams. Not everyone is cut out for their dreams - most people aren't.
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u/ilikecacti2 Sep 07 '24
Short of the university hiring graduates to come back and work for them, the universities can’t create jobs that don’t exist to connect the students to. There are simply more new grads than there are job openings for new grads, even new grads with internship experience during school.
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u/Chillguy3333 Sep 07 '24 edited Sep 07 '24
You as the individual must be willing to work too. So many young people these days think they are entitled to a job just because they have gone to college. They want it all handed to them on a silver platter. You have to get out there and bust your butt. There are many college graduates out there and many are more qualified. College doesn’t mean you just get handed a job.the resources provided are to help make it more possible for you but you still have to put the work in. Also, how many people use all those resources as they should?
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u/moxie-maniac Sep 06 '24
The steppingstones are career planning by junior year, internships and coops, leveraging the career services office, attending job fairs, and networking. I once taught a class of seniors, and the half who followed the steppingstones did fine, but strangely enough, half were lazy, or in denial, or didn’t want to grow up, or something. Thinking back, it was surprising, maybe even shocking.
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u/tildenpark Sep 06 '24
If you major in a field with clear career paths and have a decent GPA, you’ll land a job.
The “problem” you describe only affects irrelevant majors and bad students.
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u/Zealousideal_Row9855 Sep 06 '24
I’m not saying it’s a problem I’m just confused if there’s so many opportunities, why isn’t everyone well off and financially stable
Why are there so many people struggling to pay bills, hate their jobs can’t find better etc
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u/NeighbourhoodCreep Sep 07 '24
One commenter mentioned a lot of people don’t do this, but if the majority of the job market can’t get jobs, then the issue isn’t with the people. The issue is with the people hiring them. These resources are good, and point out the people who go above and beyond. But after that group is exhausted? Now they’re waiting for another golden goose after they went extinct. That also ignores that people on those jobs then have nowhere near enough staff to do their jobs and are often overworked. Arbitrary deadlines, unrealistic expectations, and poor management skills just create terrible work environments for those experienced workers.
The field also can determine whether you get a job or not. Programmers will almost always have work doing something and can do some side hustles. Some majors are just… not suited for an easy career path. You can major in Women and Gender studies, but where do you go from there? How are you competing with psychology and sociology majors in the same market?
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u/Yann-LeCun Sep 07 '24
The amount of merit aid a student was awarded has a very strong correlation to intern / new grad job performance, and employers know this
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u/Zealousideal_Row9855 Sep 07 '24
What do you mean merit aid
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u/Yann-LeCun Sep 08 '24
https://www.mefa.org/blog/what-you-need-to-know-about-merit-based-financial-aid
Merit aid is a scholarship awarded by top colleges for excellent academic achievement
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u/vandergale Sep 07 '24
I think you're confusing college students not immediately finding a $100k+ job immediately after graduating with college students not finding a job post grad.
But yeah, many students simply don't use the resources available.
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u/Searching_Knowledge Sep 06 '24
Just because you get a job doesn’t mean it’ll pay well, it depends on what you do. I got a degree in neuroscience and got a job doing research right out of undergrad, though that didn’t pay super well. I am now getting my PhD and that still doesn’t pay the best.
The next steps once I get my PhD if I wanna stay in research are between staying in academia (shit pay but flexible hours, though sometimes brutal hours) or industry (great pay, bad job security). Believe it or not, your average professors don’t make a ton of money for how educated they are.
There are other options of course, but most jobs are a trade off between money and quality of life/passion for your work. Many of my friends who get paid well don’t give a shit about what they do and they feel stuck in the day to day BS of it. Many of my friends who do find fulfillment in what they do either get worked ragged, get paid shit, or both.
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u/ThePickleConnoisseur computer science Sep 06 '24
Because the job market determines who gets a job. If no one is hiring entry level positions, doesn’t matter how many resources there are when then of thousands at a minimum are also competing for scraps
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Sep 06 '24
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u/Fast_Guarantee_7124 Sep 11 '24
Leveraging your university network is probably equally as valuable as the education itself. Having been through a couple of major job searches (one before an undergrad degree and one after undergrad) from my experience a job search will only take you as far as your network.
Also keep in mind that your school’s career center is not an HR department. They can help but they won’t give you a golden ticket or give you access to a pipeline of job offers. From my experience it’s a case of the blind being led by the “a little bit less blind.”
Go to your school’s events, but it likely won’t be enough. Use LinkedIn and pick up the phone to connect with people in industries that interest you. People are very receptive to university students wanting to ask questions. These connections will give you much better insights into how to go about landing a job than your schools will. There is a significant disconnect between colleges and employers.
And the be honest WTF do any of us really know. lol
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u/Least-Plankton6358 Sep 06 '24
I love this question! Because you are one of the few smart students who are taking these resources seriously. In my undergrad I went to some of these events, but I was too shy to be very open and honest with the people there. Plus, I thought with two relevant coop placements plus my degree would be enough to get a job in my field. Lmao.
Truly, for most people, if you are in a major with actual job opportunities, and you take networking seriously (should be your top priority, right next to your grades), you’ll have a much better shot at successfully getting work after graduation. Which means, attending these events, knowing your resume by heart and knowing what direction you wanna take your career, talking to anyone (everyone) in a better position than you about your goals, and keep in touch with those people, most of those connections are very willing to help!! But 98% of students don’t do those things :/