Grads face a new challenge: Landing job in tough times

By Ginger Livingston


Saturday, December 13, 2008

The excitement radiating from the four young women standing together outside Minges Coliseum on Saturday was so great, the glittering confetti in their hair was dulled.

Lindsay Hallimore, Heidi Deshiasey, Rachel Jarrett and Amanda Sovacool were newly minted graduates of East Carolina University’s College of Nursing, turning their tassels during the school’s 100th fall commencement ceremony.

Along with celebrating their graduation, the four young women have accomplished a goal still eluding some among the more than 3,000 students eligible to graduate during Saturday’s ceremony: employment. Each woman already had a job lined up.

“In nursing we can move anywhere, we don’t have to stay in one place,” Jarrett said.

“Everyone knows it’s a tough job market, but there are still jobs out there,” said Jim McAtee, interim director of ECU’s Career Center, which works with students in professional development training and helping students secure jobs while in school and upon graduation.

Securing a job after fall graduation is challenging in the best times because few businesses hire during the holidays and end of the year. These graduates are entering a workforce that in November saw the biggest loss of jobs in a single month — 533,000 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — since 1974.

“There are a lot of cutbacks right now, especially in the first of the year,” said Marcus Judge of Havelock, who earned a bachelor’s degree in logistics and distribution, which is studying how to efficiently move goods and services

Judge said he selected the field because businesses need things moved from point A to point B. However, he hasn’t moved into the employed category.

In difficult economic times, recent graduates have to be more proactive in the job hunt, McAtee said. That means having a strong resume and polished interviewing skills, he said. New graduates should chose the companies they want to work for and seek out the decision makers and planting the seed about future employment, even if a company isn’t currently hiring, McAtee said.

Adam Price, 22, earned a computer science degree. He’s juggling two jobs right now, writing business applications for a company operating refrigerated trucks and finishing up a job through the school’s cooperative education program. Computer science, he said, is one of those careers that always need people.

“(Jobs) are out there and no one is looking for them,” he said. However, Price recently decided he would return to graduate school in a few months to earn a master’s degree.

“With a bachelor’s degree you’ll be doing grunt work and with a master’s you can get to do something interesting,” he said.

McAtee said this generation of job-seekers knows what they want out of work and what they want out of life.

“They are willing to take the time to find the fit because work-life balance is really important to this generation,” he said.

Because balance is important, McAtee said this is a generation of students who are more likely to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors at a young age.

Amanda Moore isn’t pursuing a business plan, but she has mapped out a plan for joining the workforce and continuing her education while getting married.

She graduated with an English degree but in January plans to return to the classroom to earn her teaching certification.

“I always wanted to teach, but I wanted to hurry up and graduate,” she said. “I’m going to work as a substitute teacher several months then apply for a (full-time) position as a lateral entry (hire),” she said. The school systems in Harnett and Johnson counties already have her on their substitute rolls so she’s confident in her plan, even as North Carolina school systems face cutbacks from the state.

Contact Ginger Livingston at glivingston@coxnc.com and (252) 329-9573.