Good morning Loves. Yesterday my colleagues and I were in our weekly team meeting and our boss announced she’s hiring a summer intern. She said she’s happy to give a university student an opportunity to get real world work experience so she can find a full time job after graduation. That’s nice.
Another member on my team said “That’s great because the average time a recent university graduate looks for a job after graduation is five years.” I’m new to the team so I was in no position to question what she said. I have absolutely no source to back up this information, but doesn’t five years seem like a long time to go without a job?
It’s a different time from when I graduated
When I graduated from university back in 2005 job offers were pouring in. Mind you I graduated in Economics, I was already working full time for an international bank and it was before the market crash. I think the market crash of 2008 changed the world, not only the world of finance but for all people – students, graduates and experienced employees alike. The job market is very different today.
I had my pick of jobs back then because having a university degree was an asset. I couldn’t imagine graduating and having to move back to my parent’s house because I couldn’t find a job. Doesn’t five years seem like a long time to go without a job? I think it’s a long time, not just for a recent grad but for anyone.
So what do you do if you can’t find a job after graduation?
I guess there are a few options if recent grads can’t find a job straight out of school they can go back to school or look for a job outside their field. They can even go to school to get an online msn np. I didn’t know this but I guess the days of employers lining up outside a university graduation ceremony are over.
That didn’t happen at my university graduation, but it did happen on the day of my financial planning exam. Recruiters from banks were waiting outside the classrooms, handing out their business cards to the 2007 class of new Certified Financial Planners. Yes I guess the job world is very different today.
Pursue a higher education
I chose to continue studying after I graduated from university, but I did it as I was working full time not as an alternative to finding a job. I think getting an MBA (or any type of post secondary education) is an asset because education is always a good thing, but is accumulating more debt if you just graduated with student loans a good idea? I’m not sure.
Get a part time job
The five year statistic has me wondering if students today are just being too picky with their job searches. I think it’s unrealistic for graduates to expect to find their dream job fresh out of school. It probably won’t happen and who wants to peak in their career at 22 years old?
The concept of starting at the bottom and working your way up may be completely lost on today’s generation of young workers, but it shouldn’t be. That’s how the world works and if recent grads need to take a job that’s below their expected standards then they should be open to do so. After all a part time job is better than no job at all.
Did you get a job right after graduation?
Photo from I’d Pin That
2005 HS: Yes, I had a FT job before graduating and actually skipped my last week, haha
2010 Cegep: Yup! It was only freelance but I could work fast and each contract earned me $30-ish/hr
2012 Uni: I searched and searched and found nothing. I had a couple of phone interviews with banks that went nowhere and a few interviews with airlines but I ended up going to Europe instead 🙂
I think that the economy was VERY different when I graduated university and even worse today. However, five years to find a job seems like an insanely high amount of time. She means a career-path job right? I can’t imagine someone not even getting a PT job for *five years*
I graduated from grad school in 2009, and it took me three months to find any job, but four years to find a full time one. In the interim, I cobbled together three jobs that were professional (required my degree), but were not benefitted at all.
I also graduated from grad school in 2009, and I was actually (technically) hired before I graduated! The program I was taking included 2 unpaid internships, and I was in the middle of my second one (after finishing all the classes) when I landed the job. I was bale to work something out with the school so that I could start this job (and move across the province) and still finish my internship (and thus graduate) remotely.
But I should mention – I only enrolled in this grad school program because I spent just shy of a year trying to find a job with no luck, with my BA only.