Are there any statistics from previous years for seniors getting jobs lined up by summer before senior year or fall semester? I’ve heard of many this year. What are you seeing? It seems job market is doing really well and soon to be grads are getting recruited before someone else can grab them. I know two juniors who decided to use their credits to graduate early, just to enter job market while it’s hot.
My D already has a verbal offer and she’s still three semesters from graduation. She’ll have her written offer at the end of the summer, before she starts senior year. Her boss told her that he didn’t want to lose her to another company.
Almost all of her friends who are graduating this year had offers by September at the latest. Most had written offers as soon as their internships were over in August.
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There are a few colleges where students from the moment they matriculate (i.e. way before senior year) are basically assured of a job at graduation if they graduate.
They have names of the form “United States ___ Academy”.
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My S had one in the summer before his senior year but since he was going for a 5th year masters he simply steered the discussion to an internship.
I think that early offers are fairly common and a way to lock in talent early. My recommendation to our S was to set a date for when he wanted to accept a job than let all potential employers know of his timeline. That way any offers should be on his date not theirs.
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That’s exciting. I’d be interested to see how it plays out. Are the offers competitive or less so because its early. Or how does it play out. Accepting now is like applying ED. But then you don’t get to see any other possible offers…like if you applied EA Or RD. Would be interested to see how it plays out. Hopefully I’m a year away with my son who will have interned for the same company twice.
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I heard Fidelity is hiring 9000 new employees from a Fidelity account manager! That’s a lot of new hires!
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The offers tend to be very competitive. There is a lot of information out there as to what is a typical offer for a new hire so students will know if it’s a good or not.
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Obviously jobs and offers for different areas, students, colleges and fields would vary but overall a good sign for next batch of grads.
Is it more difficult to get your foot in if you don’t want to work where you interned?
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Doesn’t seem like it in my D’s friend group. There were a bunch who didn’t love their internship or coop company , so interviewed and were hired by other companies.
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It is generally more difficult without a useful connection like the kind that a mutually desirable internship experience gives.
However, in a hot job market for new graduate employees, it may not be that difficult even then, although it may require more work than just signing an offer with one’s internship employer.
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Not sure how different they are this year, but my kid was a '20 and most of them had things set up by Thanksgiving. It has Definitely been trending that way.
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What’s up on pre-med front, people taking gap year getting useful and paid work or doing other things?
Many students are taking several years after getting their bachelor’s to get additional patient facing experience, or do research, or attend a Post-Bacc program or SMP, or just make sure they want to become a physician.
This can make sense as the time, money and opportunity cost of becoming a physician are large. The average age of med school matriculants is rising because these extra experiences can make an applicant more competitive, which in turn makes some applicants coming directly out of undergrad less competitive…so then they need to strengthen their candidacy through these various ways as well.
My daughter is a sophomore who wants to be a PA. Is there a forum on CC that addresses med or health occupations? I saw one that had light traffic. Grad programs don’t seem to care about extracurricular activities unless they are health related, right?
Congrats to the engineers getting early offers. I helped a recent business management from top 70 school that didn’t have a job with 3.8+ GPA. Gotta network. Also for business majors it’s important to accept something as long as it pays ~$50k.
Yeah when I look at the stats not everyone has a job, even at graduation or months after. . I just hope my son next year is representative of the chat above though. Will make life easier for sure !!
I do think most kids who want a job and who have prepped for getting one can get one. But it requires work and far before senior year.
I suspect this is common too. Even getting internships the last 2 summers was very difficult. There was a segment recently on the local news about the difficulty UCSD students had or were having regarding internships due to the pandemic and the special programs that were being put in place to help them.
I do think kids need to be open. Getting professional experience is key even if not where you want to be or doing the exact job you desire. It’s about relevant experience and hopefully enjoying your firm and them enjoying you.
My son didn’t want to live in Jackson Ms last summer and I suspect few from UCSD would like living in Albuquerque or Lubbock Tx etc. but it’s 10-12 weeks and you have to be open to it.
We are in TN. My son has already turned down a great internship with great pay in rural upstate NY. They wanted him due to his experience last summer. He has to decide on Wed (one company, two offers…one ten miles away in an office, one 35 in a plant….both with his employer from last summer. He’ll be living home this summer…we get him one more which we are excited about. But if he didn’t cast the net wide last summer he’d not have gotten the job in MS which now turns out to be a job near home. In fact had he not gotten a job last summer he may have failed altogether this summer.
I know everyone pushes networking and I agree. Warm apps are a lot better. But not a lot of kids are connected nor know how to. Many are also introverts.
But I am so glad to have read so many success stories above. If we can keep the economy humming it bodes we’ll for our kids.
Being an introvert has nothing to do with learning how to network. You aren’t chatting someone up at a cocktail party or making chitchat in line at the supermarket- there are very specific skills to learn in order to network effectively (hint- it’s not brain surgery) and I’ve taught many introverted, shy, hates meeting new people types of people how to do it.
Don’t let your introverted kid use that as an excuse- especially now that there’s Linkedin (no need to talk to a stranger!), email, and that most colleges career services teams already have a pre-screened list of alums who have ALREADY agreed to talk to their students about careers. These aren’t cold calls- this is emailing an alum who WANTS to be helpful to students trying to break into their industry!
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Yes I agree warm apps are better as said. Let me change introvert to afraid to reach out….or flat out just not willing etc. I agree with what you’re saying. And those who don’t make the effort are more likely to struggle.
Can you give more specifics, especially as it relates to college students looking for a first full-time job? I’m near retirement and I don’t even know what you mean.
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