With graduation and the future looming, the best thing students can do in an economy with a 9.1 percent unemployment rate is plan ahead and be proactive.
Barbara Higel, assistant director of the Career Center, said the mentality and perception of students is “I don’t have to worry about [my career] until further on.”
Higel said the biggest hang-up for students is not knowing what they want to do. She pushes them to make a career plan, look at the bigger picture and not just focus on classes each semester.
“A student going to the Career Center is not going to walk in one time and have it all figured out,” Higel said
If a student knows exactly what he or she wants to do after graduation, the process is more narrowed, but still requires research and time.
“People are getting jobs, but it requires more effort and more planning,” Higel said.
Résumé writing, job search activities, employer research and developing a career action plan takes time. She said it is important to write your own résumé and not have someone else write it because the student will be more comfortable with the information. The Career Center will help students prepare their résumés, she said.
“Writing your résumé builds confidence that helps with an interview,” Higel said.
She said many employers want to know “what you did while you were in school” and the bachelor’s degree is “just a check box of the recruiting process.”
Higel said students need relevant experience and they can get that in campus organizations, internships and volunteering with organizations relevant to the student’s interests.
In USFSP’s Graduating Senior Survey, dated fall 2010 to spring 2011, 95 percent of those who completed the survey were “seeking new employment” upon graduation.
About 80 percent of graduating seniors were employed during college, and about 60 percent worked full time, with about 60 percent being full-time students.
About 30 percent of seniors said they used the internship resource at the Career Center and about half said they used other resources at the Career Center.
Some students are willing to relocate, but the survey said about 70 percent of graduates preferred to stay in the Tampa Bay area after graduation. Sixteen percent had one or two job offers, while 81 percent had none.
A study in The Wall Street Journal by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce examined the earnings per college major in several categories—25th percentile, median and 75th percentile, and a popularity rank. Of the top 10 popular majors, marketing, business management, accounting communications and elementary education are offered at USFSP. The same majors have an unemployment rate of about 6 percent or below, in the working field pertaining to their major.
After students receive their bachelor’s degree, it is important to “remain marketable. People have to remain competitive,” Higel said. “Students have to take some ownership. Students who do that flourish.”
