Hope for Finding a Job is Not Lost
Many college students’ post-graduation goal is to find a job, preferably shortly after graduation. But in past years, this has become increasingly difficult. Our current society has many jobs, the ones that are desirable for a recent college graduate with a bachelor’s degree are few and far between.
That said, having a college degree versus not having a college degree significantly increases your chance of acquiring a job. According to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, “bachelor’s degree holders are half as likely to be unemployed as their peers whose highest degree is a high school diploma and make $1.2 million in additional earnings over their lifetime.” That said, college graduates today are still struggling to find jobs, given their education from their undergraduate work. Jack Kelly, Senior Contributor at Forbes reported this occurrence, “Two in five recent graduates say their colleges did not adequately teach them the skills to emotionally and mentally navigate a transition into the workforce, a separate survey by the Mary Christie Institute highlighted.”
Why this is happening comes down to a variety of factors, but many of which seems to result from the over-saturation of students getting college degrees in both “mainstream” majors and those that one could consider “more obscure.” This can partially be attributed to the effects and after-effects of the global pandemic and the lack of jobs and hiring during that period. As for those who are able to get jobs, they often are working in positions that are below their ability, education and other qualifications would prepare them for.
“The number of young adults who are underemployed-working jobs below their skills or ability-increased to 40% in 2023, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,” noted Kelly.
None of this is for lack of trying either, with many students applying to hundreds of positions and receiving minimal responses. This occurrence is certainly apparent for many SLU students as well. “Finding a job after SLU felt like a full-time job itself, hours of applying every day but very rarely getting a response back. My luck only started to turn around when I started looking for federal employment” noted James Bushover ’23. Finding jobs is certainly not done without effort and college graduates should not expect to simply be handed positions. Like anything in life, there needs to be a concerted effort and work put in to achieve goals. But as Bushover noted, it’s not impossible.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. Jobs are out there and for those who put in the effort as mentioned above, they can get these positions. These “most qualified” candidates are likely to have previous professional experience beyond just education and simple work (sales, customer service, etc). However, not everyone can have the opportunities early on for professional work experience.
For those who are unable to, which is many, a great way of going about this is internships. Internships span the gamut of jobs from private sector work to work in the public sector for entities such as the Federal workforce. “An internship after graduation can be a great way into the Federal workforce for a recent graduate. Whether through the Pathways program or via direct agency recruitment, these experiences can provide a resume booster and, more importantly, insight on the federal hiring process, including possible mentors” noted Isaiah Albright ’23. In addition to professional experience, the quality of applications is also crucial, and many college graduates find themselves without an idea of how to go about this. SLU, however, has resources for this, and students should understand and utilize these resources.
SLU’s internship fellowship program is one of these things and has been utilized by students to leverage several full-time offers. “SLU’s Internship Fellowship program helped financially support my post-grad experience at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which I was able to leverage into several full-time job offers, both in the private and public sector” noted Albright.
To reiterate, the job-finding experience for recent graduates does not have to be doom and gloom. There are ways to expedite and work through this process but as mentioned it takes effort. The job market in the present is difficult to navigate, but not impossible, and SLU students are a prime example of that.