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Dear editors and graduating readers of City on a Hill Press,
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:
- 82.0% of upcoming graduates have not secured a job for after
graduation
- 81.9% of those who secured jobs completed at least 1 internship
- 54.9% of seniors have looked/been looking for a job for 3 months
or more
- 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
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