Graduating students faced stiff competition in the hunt for jobs

Companies had fewer jobs to offer when recruiting on campus this year and competition was stiffer, according to Career Services officials.

by Kristen Cole

Every day from the beginning of the academic year until a few weeks before Commencement, Li-Ming Pu did some work toward finding a job.

Over the course of two semesters Pu applied for more than 60 positions and interviewed – along with many people she knows – with at least a dozen employers who recruited on campus.

“It’s so awful when you have to compete against your own housemates or classmates for jobs,” said Pu, of Brattleboro, Vt. She graduates this weekend with a double concentration in public and private sector organizations and education.

Companies had fewer jobs to offer when recruiting on campus this year and competition was stiffer, according to Career Services officials, who alerted seniors to that likelihood at the beginning of the academic year, and advised them on how to search during a recession.

So it may not come as a surprise that the number of students who have accepted positions compared to last year appears to have decreased, while the number entering graduate school appears to have increased. (Statistics are not yet available for the Class of 2002, but see the profile of the Class of 2001 at the bottom of this page.)

“Many are deferring the job search until they’ve got time to put into it. I think that’s a good idea,” said Sheila Curran, director of career services.

The career search for members of the Class of 2002 is less about trends – such as the dotcoms that wooed students a few years ago – and more about individual decisions. Students are doing things “in onesies and twosies,” said Curran.

“When people are banging down doors to hire, you are less inclined to soul search,” she said. This year, “students are thinking about what they want to do and with whom they want to do it. I think that’s a really positive development.”

Aleksandr Kruglov participated in at least a dozen final-round interviews for consulting and investment banking positions – two fields popular in recent years among Brown graduates.

“It was really tough,” said Kruglov, who concentrated in sociology and business economics. “It was a difficult process because there are just so few jobs available out there.”

But the interviews provided him with an education about the companies and left him assured that McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm, was the right choice, Kruglov said.

Interviewing at a variety of companies is not just a way to get hired, said Frank Newman, visiting professor in the Center for Public Policy and American Institutions. It also can become a means for graduates to determine what they want to do.

Newman, who addressed the Class of 2002 during Career Week in January, said that an arduous job search may instill resiliency and confidence that will last a lifetime – and buttress graduates through several career changes, he said.

“If you have to scrounge, hustle, hunt around and drum up interviews,” said Newman, “the net effect is when you get out and you are working, you know in your gut…that you could do it again.”

Pu said the job search gave her confidence in her capability to find a job. Earlier this month, she accepted a position with Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York City, a post that will begin in July after she completes a business program at Dartmouth College.

At the beginning of the year “I went crazy applying for jobs,” she said. While her heart pulled her toward nonprofits, her head argued, “Who turns down a job that gives you so much money in a recession?,” she said of the offer from Goldman Sachs.

Ultimately, Pu said, the Goldman Sachs job would provide her with business fundamentals that will advance her toward her goal of starting or leading a nonprofit organization.

“Looking back, I think everything has happened for a reason,” said Pu. “It sounds so cheesy, but it’s true.”

The Class of 2001

Each year, Career Services tracks the decisions made by members of the graduating class. Statistics are not yet available for the Class of 2002, but those who collected their diplomas from Brown last year made the following choices:

• About 30 percent of last year’s class accepted a position.

• Finance and consulting were the top two areas of employment, followed by education and policy/research, which each attracted the same number of students.

• The most common areas of study among graduates of the Class of 2001 who accepted job offers were economics and computer science. Tied for the next spot were business economics, followed by biology and international relations (also tied).

• By far the largest number of graduates moved to New York, followed in descending order by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, California and Washington, D.C.

•Eight percent of the class went on to graduate school, 6 percent to medical or dental schools, 3 percent to law school.

• Among those who responded, 14 percent indicated they had “other plans” including travel, U.S. military service, training for the Olympics, and pursuit of acting careers.

(Of the 1,480 members of the graduating class, 87 percent responded to the career survey.)