<p>I have a question mainly for Northeastern alumni but also for people attending Northeastern.
How hard is it to find a great job after graduating with a business major from Northeastern? Honestly tell me. Do companies look at a Northeastern degree and say, "Wow, this guy may be a real asset to our company." Or do they say, "Hmm, maybe we should get someone from Boston College or another more reputable University." I know all about school loyalty; I love my high school and wouldn't want to go anywhere else. However, compared to other schools in my area, we are not considered the best. Please don't sugarcoat anything; I really need to know how many doors attending NEU opens and how it is compared to other Universities in Boston. </p>
<p>Also, if for some crazy reason there is anyone on here from Louisiana, please give some insight on how NEU would be compared to LSU(my state University). </p>
<p>In all honesty, I think you’re thinking too much about ranking. My brother just got through applying for jobs, and the biggest thing they looked at was what skills he had. They knew his school had a good reputation for his subject area (computer science), but beyond that, it’s not the name of the school that makes the big difference. I mean, if you’re comparing Northeastern to Harvard, there the name could play somewhat of a role, but I don’t think just the name of Northeastern vs., say BC, is going to make a huge difference. They look some at GPA to see you’ve put in the effort, what classes you’ve taken, and the big thing is demonstrating the skills you have and your ability to learn. Especially in something like business, I feel like that’s how you can stand out, coming from Northeastern with that much experience under your belt that other applicants just won’t have. I’m not a business major, so I can’t give you specifics from that perspective, but this is the impression I’ve gotten from the job hunt perspective in general.</p>
<p>Thank you, nanatechnology. I’m honestly not trying to look at the rankings, but someone told me that companies in Boston sort of look at Northeastern students more as students who couldn’t get into a place like BC. Since I’m not from Boston, I just kind of wanted some perspective as to if this is true at all. Thank you again for your perspective.</p>
<p>Cbatarseh that could well be true. When I interviewed almost 30 years ago for my first job in public accounting my interviewer was a BC grad-he told me straight out he only interviewed me as a courtesy to a mutual friend but they would never hire someone from my school (this was in Providence not Boston and my school was Johnson and Wales College-a 5th tier school at that time). Talk about discouraging!</p>
<p>I was surprised to hear back from him a month later offering me a job on a six-month trial basis-I guess if I wasn’t a total loser I would get to keep the job! Fortunately by that time I had already received an offer from a better firm and was well on my way in my career-which included passing the CPA exam ahead of anyone else in the group I was hired with-all from “better” schools. </p>
<p>I am interested to hear other responses to this as I don’t know of a direct example between BC and NEU but I have found BC over the years in general to be awfully impressed with themselves so if you have someone hiring who went to BC I could see it working against you if you went elsewhere-as it did for me all those years ago.</p>
<p>When my son was looking at schools we didn’t bother even looking at BC-I think though he would have been accepted based upon his stats and his years of service to our local Catholic parish. I know from enough experience with it over the years that he wouldn’t have liked it there-only my opinion I know many fine people who have graduated from there but it isn’t for us-you know the whole fit thing?</p>
<p>He is really happy right where he is though-at NEU-and I am sure when the time comes he will have no trouble finding a good job-times are changing up in Boston you know…</p>
<p>You do have a point about the change Northeastern has been undergoing. A few decades ago, yes, Northeastern might have encountered that problem. It was a commuter school. Northeastern has made huge leaps forward and upward, but there is also a change in attitude from employers/others that have to recognize the change. I don’t think it’s the case anymore that students come to Northeastern because they can’t get into BC; their stats look fairly close.
I also come from the midwest, though, so I have. sort of a different perspective on this. Out there, no one really seems to know about BC or Northeastern, so it’s sort of an irrelevant point.</p>
<p>My son went through the job search process with a marketable degree from a very little known school. He called me in a panic one night because everyone looking for jobs in his fields seemed to be from schools that had much more name recognition, and I put NEU in that category than his school and everyone seemed to be every bit as good and better than he was. </p>
<p>Well, I don’t think his school name helped or hindered him. And he’ll now back that up. I think kids with marketable degrees from name school are too pompous and sure of getting the $50K job right out of college and getting to take the pick of the litter. Yes, sometimes it works that way, but more often or not it’s picking from a bunch of $30K jobs, none of them particularly appealing and being on your knees praying for the hot jobs and it being a lottery. Just like when applying for schools, it’s not as simple as having high grades and test scores is going to get you into certain schools. I’m sure you saw plenty that were disappointed with the reality. So it works with jobs as well.</p>
<p>So don’t count on getting a great job right out of college. I’ve seen some kids with amazing resumes not get what they had expected. And two years later, kids from schools that are not so well known are often doing just as well. It’s not that simple a case of cause and effect.</p>
<p>Though kids may apply to NEU as back ups to BC, in my mind they are two very different schools. I have two kids who might have done very well and been happy there, knowing their personalities and th way they are (yes, this is just my opinion) and I have kids that I just would not put NEU on the list at all. Just a bad fit in terms of the way they are. My younges, is one of those. So I really put NEU on a whole different category thatn BC and those who put them on the same list either are not looking at the types of schools they are or at this point don’t care and are willing to take either atmosphere. They really are completely different types of schools.</p>
<p>Yes that is very true-completely different schools. I have a friend whose son was accepted to both schools but loved BC and hated COOP and being in a city-and no big time sports-why he even applied to NEU in the first place is beyond me!</p>
<p>I know someone who hires for a big bank in Boston who will not hire Ivy league kids-has had bad luck in the past with their work ethic and won’t hire them-I think that is painting with too broad a brush but that is how the job market works-there are other places you won’t get an interview unless you went to an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>Back to the original question though would a BC degree be worth more on the job market than one from NEU-in a broad sense? That I don’t know but I wouldn’t doubt at this time to be true-whether it will be true in the future I can’t answer that but I have my doubts.</p>
<p>“Would a BC degree be worth more on the job market than one from NEU?” Not necessarily, I think it all about what you do with it…NEU has an excellent reputation in the business world for turning out “business-ready” graduates. By that I mean the 18 months of professional experience they get during coops give them a leg up during the interview process in terms of truly understanding what companies are looking for and what they expect from new graduates. BC is a great school but it isn’t necessarily the only ticket to success. I know of several kids that graduated with honors last year from BC (as well as other schools) that are still not working in professional jobs while others from less “prestigious” schools like Umass are gainfully employed. I think the key is not the school that you graduate from but if more about if you can get your foot in the door through interviews, networking, and contacts so that you can prove your worth. </p>
<p>My D is currently on her first coop…the VP of her business unit has told her that if she wants a job when she graduates, to come see him. She has her foot in the door.</p>
<p>There’s the statistic Northeastern likes to throw around that 50% of students are offered jobs by former co-op employers. I think that’s telling about the experience you get.</p>
<p>Thank all of you for your input. I appreciate it. I know I’m not going to BC, simply because it’s unlikely that I’d get a full scholarship there. I just want to make sure by going to Northeastern I don’t put myself in a position that will make it difficult to get a job.</p>
<p>I’m not a business major, but I’m graduating and I have a job lined up within the financial sector.</p>
<p>A lot of people get jobs with past co-op employers. Others don’t, but Northeastern has a decent career services office, hosts career fairs, etc. There’s a website where employers post openings for Northeastern graduates, and there are plenty of reputable companies.</p>
<p>One problem I did face was that there wasn’t a whole lot of outside-of-New-England recruiting on campus. So I had to seek out employers on my own (via company websites, Monster, etc.) which is annoying, but fine.</p>
<p>Within New England, Northeastern is pretty respected. Outside of New England, it’s a little less well-known, but generally respected. I got interviews. Honestly, school name is probably less important than you think, once you get into the top 75 or so. If you have a good GPA, good experience (co-ops will help here), good activities, etc. you’ll be competitive. I don’t think most employers are going to see BC as significantly more impressive. Harvard, maybe so. They’re going to care more about whether you are qualified to do the job. If you’re a stellar interviewer with killer credentials, it’s not going to make a difference.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that Northeastern was ranked somewhere like 96th when I started here, and now that I’m graduating it’s 56th. It’s clearly on it’s way up.</p>
<p>As part of my co-op, I’ve actually participated in quite a few job interviews. </p>
<p>At least in my experience, its far more about what you decided to do in college than where you went. In my memory, of the applicants I have seen the one that attended the most prestigious school out of them was also one of the candidates that was most quickly ruled out for the position.</p>
<p>The reputation of the school they attended is considered, but most often to the benefit of students who attended less renowned schools - if a student attended a small liberal arts college, but has research experience comparable to a student from a big name research university, it says a lot that the student with fewer opportunities took the steps necessary to take full advantage of them.</p>
<p>I guess I’m just talking about my own experiences.</p>
<p>The co-op program is great. I just didn’t have a lot of help from career services when looking for my full-time position come graduation. But that could totally be specific to me, my career field, locations I was looking, etc. It’s worth nothing that I was not interested in any positions in Boston. It’s also worth nothing that despite the fact that I don’t feel like Northeastern’s career services were a huge help, I did find a job several months before graduating.</p>
<p>I’m sure other people have had different experiences.</p>
<p>Start taking a look at the average SAT scores of different schools on College Board. Northeastern and BC’s average SAT/ACT scores are more or less the same, despite BC’s higher ranking. So it’s hard to say BC is particularly more reputable - it just has a longer history, whereas Northeastern is more “up and coming.”</p>
<p>I know literally nothing about LSU, but I just looked at their scores, and Northeastern’s SAT scores are about 100 points higher for each section.</p>
<p>I can speak only from the Finance side of the field and as a senior with two co-ops. </p>
<p>The top tier Finance “front office jobs” (BB/Elite Boutique Investment Banking/S&T) and Consulting (MBB) are incredibly competitive and reject the majority of applicants from ALL schools, including the Ivy League. Because of this incredible competitiveness the “front office” jobs are usually only recruited from “target” schools that are some mix of the Ivy league plus maybe MIT, Stern, and Stanford. Northeastern and BC/BU etc. aren’t even on their radar.</p>
<p>The only two schools from Boston that are “target” schools in Finance are MIT and Harvard. For that reason there’s really not much difference in terms of career prospects within Finance between BC/BU/Northeastern/Bentley etc. They’re all relatively similar in terms of student quality. Sure, someone that takes the US News rankings as gospel will argue that BC is however many spots above Bently, but recruiters hiring for these “elite” positions will probably view them all the same (i.e. not Harvard/Brown etc.). With that said, a few extremely qualified/lucky students manage to worm their way into these top front office positions from all of the after mentioned schools every year. I know that Northeastern is actually begining to develop somewhat of a reputation for creating these “boot strap” finance types. I think this is mostly because of the co-op program putting star performers in a position to shine. BC/BU etc. also has them. </p>
<p>With all that said, the “front office” in finance is only a tiny fraction of the finance industry. They basically make up what an occupier envisions as a Wallstreet “fatcat.” For every derivatives trader driving a ferrari there’s 50 guys working in Finance in very comfortable solid middle/upper-middle class lifestyles. Northeastern is definitely a target school for these types of jobs. Firms like State street, Brown Brothers, Wellington, Goldman, BCG etc. have dozens of Northeastern graduates in their ranks and recruit every year.</p>
<p>In summation, if you graduate from Northeastern biz undergrad with a good GPA, some decent extracurriculars, a handful of good co-ops from reputable firms (not difficult to get here), you have an extremely good chance of finding gainful employment at a well known financial firm in some capacity at a very respectable starting salary. But you probably won’t be an Investment Banker at a Bulge Bracket unless you network like crazy and really shine. </p>
<p>Disclaimer: This is my viewpoint from quite limited experience. I have spent a lot of time analyzing the industry I’m trying to find employment in though.</p>