Helping Students Find Jobs After Graduation
University Career Services advises students to begin their search early in college
'It’s still a competitive, challenging job market and students need to take advantage of every resource that is available to them. That's where our office comes in.'– William Jones, director of operations and strategic initiatives at University Career Services, New Brunswick
Ming Weng’s path to employment began well before graduation.
Since he came to Rutgers as an undeclared freshman, Ming relied on University Career Services to guide and prepare him for the job market.
Ming, who graduated last month with a degree in human resources management, said the office helped him at every step, from finding the right interview suit to getting internships that eventually landed him a job at BASF, a New Jersey-based chemical company.
“I could go to them with any question and they would tell me where to go and what to do,” said Ming. “My parents didn’t go to college, so it wasn’t possible to ask them for career advice.”
The job outlook for graduates like Ming is improving.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently reported that businesses plan to hire 5.2 percent more new graduates than they did last year.
“It’s still a competitive, challenging job market and students need to take advantage of every resource that is available to them,” said William Jones, director of operations and strategic initiatives at University Career Services, New Brunswick. “That’s where our office comes in."
Three-quarters of Rutgers Class of 2015 was employed six months after graduation. Nearly 90 percent of the students participating in Rutgers Internship & Co-op Program (RICP), which is a class that provides academic credits for internships, had a job six months postgraduation.
Ming landed his internship at BASF when he attended a fair organized by Career Services. He interned at BASF for two summers and will be working full time in the company’s human resources after graduation.
“The internships are a good way to get groomed into the full-time program,” he said.
Jones advises students to begin their job search early in their college tenure – as early as the second semester of their freshman year – even if they are undecided about a career path.
“It’s important that students start early because the employers are also starting early,” Jones said. “We tell students that experience is a new entry-level requirement for full-time jobs. If they don’t have an internship – especially a meaningful one – before they go into the job search, then they’re not being competitive.”
Most employers are what Jones called “major agnostic,” meaning they are more interested in the students’ communication, analytical and team-building skills than their majors.
“Employers are looking for people who are good communicators, which can come from a variety of majors,” he said. “We’re hearing from employers that they can teach them the day-to-day of a job, but what they can’t teach are the soft skills.”
For example, an accounting major may want a job in the music industry or the art major may end up working for the Internal Revenue Service providing valuations for repossessed artwork.
Rutgers’ Career Services has created “career clusters,” five areas of interest that can help students narrow their focus and employers connect with the right candidates. The career clusters include arts, communications and entertainment; business and financial services; education and public services, among other fields.
Staff members, Jones said, are assigned to the career clusters based on their prior industry experience, and they recruit employers into the cluster.
Emmelie Rodriguez, who majored in communication at the School of Arts and Sciences, had a job lined up before she graduated in May. She went to Career Services in her junior year to polish her resume. That resume, she said, helped her land an internship that led to her full-time job at Spanish Broadcasting Services, which owns 20 radio stations including 97.9 in New York. Rodriguez started her job as an account representative a week after graduation.
As a senior, Rodriguez encouraged a sophomore, whom she was mentoring, to start thinking about the job market early.
“I told her, ‘You have to have a resume,’ ” said Rodriguez, who credits Rutgers with helping her eventually land the internships and her job. “Since I’m not going to be around anymore, I let her know about all the services available to her.”
Jones and the staff at Career Services are collecting the post-graduation data on the Rutgers Class of 2016 to see how students have fared.
“If you go into a field you’re not interested in, you’re not going to succeed; you’re not going to have that passion to work harder,” Jones said. “We always say find something you’re passionate about, and then you can figure out a way to make money with it.”
For media inquiries, contact Roya Rafei at roya.rafei@rutgers.edu