I recently attended a presentation by Dr. Phil Gardner from Michigan St. University regarding how this job market is affecting career opportunities for the class of 2009. There were many interesting trends and data that I’d like to share with you but for the sake of blog space I’m just going to share one piece of advice that I wanted to relay to readers.
Dr. Phil (not the one you’re thinking of) lets his students at Michigan St. University know that even though there are fewer opportunities in the market, they should not go to grad school for fear of not getting a job. What employers are looking for these days is real life experience in the workforce. Moving onto a graduate program will simply cost students more money out of pocket which employers will not be inclined to reimburse due to lack of real life experience. So unless a field of study requires moving on to a graduate degree, first obtain some experience prior to graduate studies. It’s important to remember that your first position out of college might not be your dream job, but it will help build the skills necessary to eventually land that dream job.
Some interesting trends, data and advice can be found here.
Mike
Amfam Career Blog 