<p>Whoa Hmom5, I can’t speak for today’s job environment,but I attended Baruch College and majored in accounting, although I did minor in math. I did very well academically. </p>
<p>I can tell you that at that time, I could have gotten any job that I wanted. In fact ,I turned down a chance ( which I now regret) to be a bond trader in favor of working for large accounting firm. I don’t believe one bit that kids have to go to an ivy school or NYU, or semi- Ivy type of LAC in order to get a top job. However, I do believe that if they attend a lessor tier school , they will need a very strong GPA and strong interviewing skills for the better jobs initially. As I said in a prior post ( post number 8), they need some boldness and initiative.</p>
<p>I also agree that schools should be blamed for having mediocre career centers. Schools themselves should exercise some initiative and boldness and get a LOT more contacts. I don’t care if the school is private or public, this is a mandatory service that they should provide and should be given priority over the quality of their sports teams or their athletic facilities.</p>
<p>Well it is obvious they are not well represented, I am just saying that you have choices. I think UCSB fits well because it is a top public with horrible career services - unless you want public accounting or engineering</p>
<p>Students need to take blame, a large portion, for their career misgivings. Many do not start their job search till post graduation. Even the lowest ranked school can dole out such basic information informing students to start their search early, attend career networking events, contact alumni and partake in internships. Many will fail to attend career center presentations, many don’t care. With a measly budget and large student body - which this is not unknown to the students attending such a university - students should expect minimal hand holding. Its of great assistance for a university to bring employers to you, but if students are presented with this scenario and fail to oversee the plethora of opportunites they have during their own search of alum, faculty, etc, then why should they not take a large part of the blame. Schools are academic institutions first and foremost. Professional schools, whether top tier or bottom feed the similar information to their students and both, yes even cal states bring respectable speakers in regards to such topics. </p>
<p>I used UCSB as a point of reference because i have listed opportunities that are available if people spend less than an hr looking. Susan Block, the TMP teacher offering ibanking internships quarterly believes she is rather underutilized, yet she posts this information on our career website gaucholink.</p>
<p>For the ivy grads and USC grads that i know who are baristas and waiters, what is the excuse then. The school provided wonderful career services.</p>
<p>Taxguy, when I started in the business almost 30 years ago there was a much wider representation of schools. As the ivies started to attract a broader mix, things changed. Firms simply choose their few schools to recruit at and rarely consider resumes that arrive via any other channel. Kids I see from outside of those few schools are the very connected.</p>
<p>South, while schools are there to educate, part of that education IMO is to teach kids how to make it in the real world. I’m from CA and have nieces, nephews and friends kids at all of the UCs and CSUs. With the large numbers of successful grads of all of these schools, I am appalled at the fact that these schools have not enlisted their alum to help the current generation. These schools seem to hold no reunions and not engage their alum in any way. Unbelievable! And it accounts for the paltry alumni contributions to these schools. </p>
<p>So I’m seeing many very bright grads from these schools now who will not do as well as their parent’s did and there’s no excuse except that these schools have not done their part in creating mobility for their students. Keeping out out of state students have left the CA kids so California centric that most don’t contemplate leaving the state, much less the Country, for employment opportunities. Job fairs seem to be the only way many think to look for jobs.</p>
<p>I contrast this to my experience at Penn where all I needed to do was go to the career office and look in the files for alum’s phone numbers who worked in my desired profession. One phone call got me the interview. And it’s even easier today, with very sophisticated break downs of jobs, interests and everything I need to know about alum. These perks make a school world class and the UCs could absolutely be doing these things with corporate sponsors and private donations paying for it.</p>
<p>I just had the craziest idea. Hmom, you said you interview for a bank right? Well since I am a state schooler and all, let’s network!!! If I get a job at your bank, I will become successful, earn lots of money, donate to my schools career center, and get my school on the right track!</p>