<p>I’m a bit surprised at difficulty with a finance/accounting degree unless there’s a desire to stay in a particular location.</p>
<p>Tuesday, Intel reported blowout earnings, IBM had good results as did VMWare. Yesterday, Apple had an incredible earnings report almost doubling earnings, EMC did well, and I see that GE is reporting good earnings this morning.</p>
<p>There’s an article in the news this morning that Microsoft and Google are hiring 6,200 this year globally with some of those jobs in the US in their various campuses. In some areas and skill-sets, there are shortages.</p>
<p>Many students do not have the math ability for some of the fields suggested. To tell them to major in subjects they do not have the ability is bordering on arrogant. I agree with the advice work for the best grades, and keep debt low.</p>
<p>Those companies aren’t only hiring engineers. They are hiring various business positions too.</p>
<p>BC Eagle, thats fine. 6,200 jobs. Most of which are likely STEM or accounting majors. Likely from the very best schools. How many kids does that leave unemployed???</p>
<p>Google is hiring communications, product managers, etc. BTW, the 6,200 number was for Google alone. I didn’t get a number for Microsoft. I know that EMC is hiring too. There are many large techs that are in hiring mode. This removes a lot of kids from smaller companies that may be local and so those smaller companies are having a harder time recruiting talent.</p>
<p>DS finished his coursework for his CS degree in December, took a break and started seriously looking in February, by the end of February he was hired by a small software company in Silicon Valley and started working in March as a software engineer. He has told me several times that the company is not meeting their hiring goals - there are lots of empty desks around him waiting for the right person to fill the job.</p>
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<p>The operative word is “right.” I remember reading something about the disconnect between all the people looking for jobs and the number of jobs that go unfilled. The problem is that there is often not a match in the skill set needed for the job and the skill set of the applicant.</p>
<p>The thing is that companies will have to hire and train even though they would rather not. At my company, we hire people with the right major, internships and a little specialization but it takes six to nine months to get them up to speed on our environment. So we train them even though they don’t have the skillset. But we’re a company that looks at the long-term. A lot of companies out there don’t take that approach; perhaps because their financial positions don’t allow them to.</p>
<p>Question about on-campus recruiting: How does it work if the college graduate doesn’t want to stay in the area the college is located in? I’m trying to persuade my daughter to go to the career center, but because she wants to return home after graduation, she doesn’t think the center will be helpful.</p>
<p>If it’s a national company, then they may be able to offer jobs in multiple locations.</p>
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<p>There’s your answer BC. There is a lot of recruiting for Computer Science, and a lot of departments are not going to push all the recruiters. We let Career Services do that.</p>
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<p>I completely agree.</p>
<p>“I’m a bit surprised at difficulty with a finance/accounting degree unless there’s a desire to stay in a particular location”</p>
<p>BCEagle, he does want to stay in the CT/NY area, he got married last year and has a home, a child from his wife’s first marriage that is in school, but still, it’s been hard, some interviews, but no job.
I know a lot of A T & T workers that had trouble also when they merged and many were laid off. Some had to move out of state after a year or two, because they just couldn’t find work in computer/managerial positions. It’s not easy, selling or renting a home, moving away from family/friends, etc. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but sometimes it’s the only way to survive.</p>
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<p>At my son’s school, professors get job frequently postings from former students and they just pass them on to students using the departmental list-server. The former students probably get a bounty for each person that the company hires through them. The former students aren’t interested in going through the career center so the professor forwarding postings to the list-server can dress it up or just pass it on.</p>
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<p>Part of the recommendations, at least on “good” majors like accounting, is flexibility on location and that’s usually a lot easier for new graduates because they haven’t started a family or purchased real-estate yet. Yes, it’s hard without a local network, knowledge of the area, etc. But lots and lots of kids without a family do it if that’s what they have to do.</p>
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<p>She should take a look at the career center’s job listings. She may find that some of them are not local.</p>
<p>My daughter is a senior in college. She and several of her friends found jobs through on-campus recruiting. Not all of those jobs are in the part of the country where the college is located.</p>
<p>Our son’s recruiting database is national but a lot of employers prefer local employees.</p>
<p>Ask her for access to her online recruiting account and take a look for yourself if you are so inclined.</p>