How did your student get their first job after college?

D - English major. College offered a post grad certificate course in Book Publishing. She was able to take it (at no cost!) as an undergrad because she had a high enough GPA. Got publishing internship summer before senior year and permanent job after graduation. Both times her contacts in the publishing program were key.
S - was interested in consulting so he became very active in a consulting group at his college. Interned for a “Big 4” after junior year and was hire full time after graduation.

Both of my kids eventually ended up in different industries. D got an MBA and now works in marketing for a large company. S left consulting after 3 years to enroll in grad school in another field.

2 Likes

First job was offered after summer internship. Side gig, very interesting that eventually can lead to something big was a result of following leader in particular field on social media and jumping in when in one of the posts said leader mentioned they need help with new project.

1 Like

This maybe isn’t so applicable because my D isn’t going straight into a long-term career. But my D volunteered at one place extensively during college. Last Spring, the boss at her volunteer job called his friend, who was looking for an employee, and recommended her for a summer position last year. The new boss loves her too, and is hiring her for her gap year. The job isn’t particularly prestigious or high paying, but the boss is teaching her so much. Both bosses really like her, and want to see her succeed.

5 Likes

D thought she wanted to be in the business side of the music industry, so she did internships at a management company & an independent label. She got a job offer, but the internships actually helped her realize it wasn’t for her career wise. She had no job lined up at graduation, so she took a job at Starbucks. She worked lots of overtime so that she could afford to live on her own in Nashville. She watched the job boards on the alumni site & applied for lots of positions. She finally got a really good job almost a year after graduation. She was worried that her interviewers would look down on her for working at Starbucks, but they were actually super interested.

She didn’t have experience in the field she went into … and she was hired as a consultant. She enjoys the industry very much. It’s led to some very good job opportunities.

S took longer to launch. He is not the corporate type. He was a substitute teacher for a year, then he worked at a company that presents science assemblies to elementary schools (equipment manager + some presentations). After that, he worked with a recruiter who helped him get a job testing water for businesses. He finally ended up getting a job as a chemical analyst - it was through LinkedIn. He is now working at another lab, running liquid chromatography/gas spectrometry testing.

1 Like

That is typical of job recruiting and hiring that is not through college’s career centers.

1 Like

My youngest daughter got 2 scholarships to attend Grace Hopper, that’s where she got a few job offers, she got interviews and job offers from her career center too. The place she worked part time in senior year also offered her a full time job but she declined.
But last year she finally moved to a job she really enjoys working, she likes to be busy, her previous job was too boring for her.

1 Like

My S attended the career fairs held in his college of engineering and got several internship offers and even more job offers there.

He also networked with middle school chums, which is how he got a research position with a prof after his 2nd year of engineering, doing his buddy’s job while Buddy was at MIT for summer.

1 Like

My D has had two jobs since she’s graduated. The first one she applied online through the company’s website. She got laid off. The second she got through a family friend.

1 Like

deleted (saw someone else responded with an answer)

Was there a signing bonus attached to the offer? That seems to be the norm in my D’s industry.

This isn’t the model for D’s school. There is an app where students can see which companies are coming, types of majors they are recruiting, and then they sign up for a certain number of on site meetings (I think it’s 7), and then they can opt to wait in line if they still have time. Generally speaking, second interviews happen day 2 and offers come quickly (within a week or two).

The advice to freshmen was to go talk to people with no lines to practice interview skills.

6 Likes

English/history degree. Came home and took an on-line TEFL course while working at a kennel (his go-to job during college and high school). Once done, he applied to teach in Korea and found a job right away and off he went for 5 years. Came back with a Korean wife (best present he ever gave me besides the grandson), got his master’s at Columbia and now teaches high school in the Bronx.
His time in Korea gave him time to mature and find out that although he had ruled out teaching before, that is what he really wanted to do.

8 Likes

“Was there a signing bonus attached to the offer? That seems to be the norm in my D’s industry.”

Yes there was. I agree, that seems to be the norm. Back in the day, pretty sure I got one as well. I think at this stage (of ones career) they are designed to make it easy for kids to move, pay a security deposit, etc.

2 Likes

One son went to school at a place known for helping students get jobs through the career center, but he failed to take advantage of that resource. He floundered some, but eventually got a job looking through indeed, etc. and taking advantage of local (not school specific) career fairs.
Other son did on campus interviews, and landed a very good entry level job. Multiple companies invited him to go to on-site interviews after the campus interview.

“That is typical of job recruiting and hiring that is not through college’s career centers.”

Yes, but this was through the college career center.

I had a similar situation recruiting from undergrad: I had a summer internship before junior year (through career center) and received a return offer. However, in my case, I had until the following April 1 (or thereabouts) to respond to give me time to go through the senior year recruiting process. It made for a less stressful process and allowed me to compare offers to try to make the best decision possible. I ultimately did decide to go back - the devil you know - but felt satisfied with the decision and process. This new practice of exploding offers leads - I believe - to less job satisfaction and more job jumping. There was a whole lot less of that when I started my career.

Exploding offers are sometimes used by employers to get to a quick “Yes”. Sometimes they are very short, but most colleges require companies that hire on campus to give a minimum amount of time before the offer expires. Typically 2 weeks.

3 Likes

Summer internship in between junior & senior years. Received an offer right away for employment after graduation. She was allowed to choose from offices in several major cities.

2 Likes

Most of my kids were hired through on campus career fairs for after junior year internship which then led to full time offers at the end of that summer. As mentioned above there was a two week period for them to accept. My kids were in the finance ( IB), cs and consulting fields so it’s sort of a linear path for them. Their school held large career fairs for the colleges of engineering and business and known for good placement- something we checked out ahead of time.

One son was an athlete who attended an east coast private- most job placement was in NYC which he was not interested in so he did his own search. He fortunately had good internships and is a natural networker so things worked out very well for him.

1 Like

CP does it that way too, but a lot of it is standing in lines, especially for stealth mode startups that you can’t vet online. They also get more formal breakout presentations from bigger fish like the national labs.

I think these things are very major specific.

My kids, both engineering majors. Both are older and both went to school during the big recession, jobs were at a premium and offers were not as plentiful as they had been or would be a few years later.

Son had an internship that he knew wouldn’t lead into a permanent job. His now wife, same major, same school, had an offer at the end of her junior year internship. But son went to many interviews, finally got a job around spring break of senior year. It was a tough year but by graduation, everyone in his major, had a job, was going to grad school or was taking time off by choice. The department head was very happy.

Daughter struggled getting an internship but interviewed for a lot of positions. Got one at the last moment, turned into a permanent position but did not get the offer until close to graduation as the company did not get the go ahead until late.

My niece in IB, who is 5 years younger than mine, had her internship interview and offer before her junior year and permanent offer at the end of that summer. Her brother also had his internship secured before his junior year.

For majors such as engineering, IB and business, I think the recruitment through the school is strong and active. Schools have relationships with firms and recruit accordingly.

1 Like