<p>smithie…your advice is all good. Son is keeping an open mind…an internship would be fine. We’ve even been encouraging him to consider unpaid opportunities. Sales is not a field he’s interested so I’m not sure taking a commission sales job would be a good path. I think it would be better to take something unpaid, temporary or low paid in a field that sets him on the right track. Given that he doesn’t really know what he wants to do, information interviews make a LOT of sense, and I agree that they are effective as a networking tool. </p>
<p>One bright spot. A friend of mine has a graduating senior who just landed a job in research at a prestigious university. Psychology major. There was some networking involved in getting in the door, but a strong record, good prep, and solid interviewing skills sealed the deal. A good story! Let’s hope for more!</p>
<p>During the MIT pre-frosh event in April, a tour to career office for both parent and students was one of the planned activities.
The office had all the statistics and resources on how to apply to get a job or intership, conducts workshop for resume building and interviews.
We as well as DD visited the career office to find the information as for all of us it was quite important that the DD college have a well funded career office.</p>
<p>My daughter accepted University of Cincinnati over some other good choices because of their built in coop program. She felt that she would get a leg up on other applicants since she would make a lot of industry connections and would get a lot of practical experience. In fact, this worked very well and she had a number of job offers.</p>
<p>I definitely tried to get placement data on my S’s intended major, Information Technology, at the various schools he was applying to.</p>
<p>I was looking for information on what companies came to recruit and actually hired graduates, as well as the average salary (granted that this is a self reported number, but a difference of 20% in the figures from one school to another is significant).</p>
<p>Maybe this explains the high PhD rate for Pomona and some other liberal arts college grads. Seriously, I have heard and believe many LAc are terrible in this area and getting any facts is like pulling teeth. If a school does not have a decent report on placement after graduation I’d look elsewhere. These should be fundamental.</p>