Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104040613
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: E/2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KAREN BALL Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Members of the Class of '91, from engineers to marketing majors to budding young business executives, are finding that a degree doesn't guarantee a job - especially in a recession.
"We get a double whammy in recession time, because fewer companies are coming to campus to recruit, but more students are coming in for our services," said Jack Rayman, director of career development and placement at Penn State University.
Since June, 1.6 million Americans were added to the unemployment rolls as the jobless rate grew from 5.3 percent to 6.5 percent.
"These people who got laid off had college degrees, and now they're competing against the new college grads," said Patrick Scheetz, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.
Scheetz recently completed a study that found job offerings for college graduates have declined by about 23 percent over the past two years.
"Even in engineering, where opportunities have been quite bountiful, the graduates have faced a difficult time," Scheetz said.
Rayman agreed that the job market is tighter for these "technocrat" students.
"But when you say engineering is soft, I don't think you can catastrophize too much," he said. "Instead of having 12 offers at a lot of exotic locations, they might have one or two offers in a place where they don't necessarily want to be."
Other students still hotly pursued are those in health-care fields, such as nursing, pharmaceutical marketing or hospital management, career counselors and employment experts say.
Penn State has suffered a drop of about 10 percent in on-campus recruitment this year, especially for liberal arts students who might be trying to break into the business world through management training programs or sales management positions, Rayman said.
"They're having to take the search to the employer . . . rather than having the luxury of sitting here in Happy Valley and having the recruiters come to campus," Rayman said.
Schools nationwide are reporting similar declines in recruiting.
At Georgetown University's graduate business program, career counselors are advising upcoming graduates to look beyond traditional Fortune 500 companies.
"We're urging them to take a look at non-profit companies and at companies that are not necessarily the glamour industries, like waste management," said Steve Fleckenstein, who counsels Georgetown's MBA students.
John Onto, an associate dean at Georgetown's graduate business school, said, "The people with powerhouse resumes who have flexibility are still very much in demand."
But he said that as the school year slips away, students are becoming less choosy.
Sasson, who will receive an MBA from Georgetown this spring, recalls what happened when he received an undergraduate degree from Duke University seven years ago.
Corporate recruiters "were sparing no expense to impress you - throwing lavish parties and sending cars to the airport to pick you up," he said.
"It was a very electric atmosphere . . . Now, they might say, `Well, next time you're in New York, give us a call.' But they expect you to get there on your own steam."
Sasson frequently hops in his car and drives to New York at his own expense for interviews. With a high-caliber resume that includes five years' experience at Schroder's, a top London investment firm, the 29-year-old had expected to nail down an even better job on Wall Street after graduate school.
Now, he wonders if it was a mistake to leave his $70,000-a-year job to return to school.
"Despite all these interviews, nothing happens. Companies are getting rid of people instead of hiring," Sasson said.
"It's really a crap shoot. You might send off 100 letters, get 10 interviews and then one job. There isn't really a sense of panic at school, but people aren't getting the jobs they thought they would."
by CNB