Letter to the Editors of City on a Hill Press

I wrote this letter to the editor for a recent PR campaign at InternMatch.  It did not get picked up by the newspaper, but I spent so much time and effort on this piece that I figure I might as well show it on the blog.  I think it's a good piece of writing in general, but as a letter to the editor, it does not respond to the articles listed enough.  Something to remember for the next PR campaign.  

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Dear editors and graduating readers of City on a Hill Press,

While doing research for my internship at InternMatch, I came upon two articles published a year ago: She’s Moving Home After Living Alone (May 26 2011) by Rosie Spinks and Dreams of Luxury, Not Necessity (March 3 2011) by Asa Hess-Matusimoto.  These articles shocked me because even a year later, I found them to be still relevant.

Over the past couple of months, there has been a lot of good news in regards to the employment prospects of the class of 2012.  US unemployment is said to have dropped for the second straight month, and the National Association of Colleges and Employers predicts a 10.2% increase in the hiring of college graduates compared to 2011.  

Recently, InternMatch surveyed over 10,000 seniors which resulted in some alarming statistics:

1. 82.0% of upcoming graduates have not secured a job for after graduation
2. 81.9% of those who secured jobs completed at least 1 internship
3. 54.9% of seniors have looked/been looking for a job for 3 months or more
4. 43.9% of upcoming graduates are planning to move back in with their parents

Troublingly, students who did more internships did not significantly increase their odds of landing a full time job.  

This leads me to wonder who is feeling the impact of the positive statistics?  Certainly, not my fellow graduating seniors at UC San Diego, who been frantically searching for months.  The class of 2012 needs to realize that even though we may perhaps be a little better off than the class of 2011, the employment situation is still terrible and that our parents' era of guaranteed employment with a diploma is truly over.     

A new mind set is needed to succeed in this new age of increased competition.  The class of 2012 needs to not just look for full time jobs after graduation but be open to working internships as well.  Even the White House has realized that the times have changed when it launched the Summer Jobs+ initiative to place new graduates in internships rather than jobs.  Filling out job applications is no longer going to cut it, networking and other non-traditional channels is how the class of 2012 is going to find its first job.

                                                                                                                                                     

Basically, it’s now more important than ever to get your hustle on.

Jonathan Lau

UC San Diego

Class of 2012

Anthropology