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Rising Economy Produces Job Surge for 2006 Grads

Silicon Valley’s improved economy has resulted in a better job scene for college graduates this spring. There are more job opportunities than two years ago and the outlook for 2007 is even more positive. There is no question that now is a good time for graduates to enter the work world.

“From last fall to this,” says Kathy Potter, director of Santa Clara University’s Career Center, “we saw a radical jump in the number of employers coming on campus. It’s definitely a reflection of the local economy.” According to Potter, Mountain View-based Intuit has seen a 40 percent increase in their recruiting program of undergraduates and MBAs.

Karen Oeh, Foothill College career center coordinator, states that “we’ve noticed that more companies are offering internships. Employers contact us because they’re interested in students from specific Foothill programs.” Whether employers are hiring outright or providing internship opportunities for students and recent graduates, opportunities are growing at a steady pace.

In discussions with local colleges and companies several themes emerge:

College recruitment is up. This means more companies are showing up on college campuses and internship opportunities are increasing for college students and graduates.
Engineering and business program graduates continue to be the most sought after recruits, but companies also look to other majors for graduates who will fit in with a company’s culture to fill spots in such areas as marketing, sales, human resources, and process excellence.
Fortune 500 companies are not just searching for the best and the brightest. They are interested in finding graduates who excel in both written and oral communication and will be well-rounded employees.
The most ideal college recruits get offers in January or February of their senior year, following the prime fall recruitment season.
More job openings mean greater competition among companies for top graduates, which has resulted in many companies initiating, expanding, or reviving their campus recruitment programs.
Successful recruiters need to understand what motivates the current generation of students, those born after 1980 and known colloquially as “the Millennials.”

The “hot” majors

Though a great number of job openings at local career centers are for electrical engineering, computer science, finance, and marketing majors, the San José State University Career Center has found increased interest in other majors, including administration of justice, for opportunities in public service, retail, and financial services. Graduates of universities with strong liberal arts programs, such as Santa Clara University, are not without options, however. Potter says students are recruited for positions in sales, marketing, human resources, and technical writing. Donna Gilmour of SJSU’s career center noted that liberal arts students’ critical thinking skills are desired by many companies. She added, “In general, at SJSU, we are seeing an increase in employers stating that they are open to all majors.”

Intuit recruits all majors for its two-year leadership program that rotates new employees through product management, brand marketing, and process excellence.

Attributes employers look for

Fortune 500 companies are not just searching for the best and the brightest. Employers are looking for candidates who will fit in well with their companies’ culture. “For our leadership program, and really for all our job openings, we ask ‘Who will fit in best with our culture?’” says Kim Capps, university relations manager at Intuit. “Have they worked in teams on group projects? Are they smart and well-rounded? Do we offer a career path and work environment that will be a good fit for them?”

Employers with national or global presence seek students who are flexible in regard to relocating, according to Gilmour. She noted that while most SJSU students would prefer to remain within the Bay Area, the cost of living locally is forcing many to consider jobs in more affordable regions throughout the United States.

“Employers look for candidates with interpersonal skills. It’s more important to have high emotional intelligence than a high I.Q.,” Potter said, explaining that emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and “read” people. In addition, employers continue to seek out those who excel in both written and verbal communication.

Fall is prime recruitment season

In its recent Student Recruiting Outlook 2006 white paper, WetFeet, a San Francisco-based recruitment solutions provider, stated that students are making their employment decisions earlier in the school year, effectively shrinking the window that employers have to attract them. By May of 2005, 43 percent of Class of 2005 undergraduates and 80 percent of MBAs had already accepted job offers. WetFeet believes it’s beneficial for companies to begin early to build relationships with potential candidates and get the inside track on hiring proven performers.

In this vein, Intuit does its heaviest recruiting in the fall, and by March, has finished its big push for the year, Capps said. Promising candidates are then invited to open house events at Intuit’s campuses in Mountain View, San Diego, and Waltham, Massachusetts.

Giving personal attention to candidates has proven to be an effective recruiting method. WetFeet researchers found that “employers who had a solid on-campus recruiting program overwhelmingly attracted more hires.” The report goes on to state that “Campus information sessions and genuine interactions with employee reps are often the most influential factors that lead a candidate to choose an employer. Because students see all presenters and interviewers as the personification of the company’s culture, they often make a decision about pursuing an employer based on their interactions with company representatives.”

Recruiting advice for employers

WetFeet advises employers to focus their resources on a targeted group, rather than spreading their resources more thinly across a greater number of schools. An active presence allows a company to build relationships with students, career centers, and faculty advisors.

In California, Intuit participated in on-campus recruiting at just four colleges: California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; and University of California, San Diego. In order to improve recruitment efforts, however, according to Capps, “We’re recruiting on more campuses this year and we will be growing our relationships with colleges we don’t currently visit.”

All the local colleges contacted for this article requested that employers contact them at any time during the school year via e-mail or phone to learn about job fairs, to post job openings and internships online, to participate in employer panels and information sessions, and to sign up for on-campus interviewing. (See sidebar for upcoming job fairs and career center contact information.)

Gilmour noted that San José State University has experienced an increase in demand from employers throughout the year for participation in on-campus recruiting tables, information sessions, and job fairs. The college also works with departments to offer job fairs for specific majors, such as the recent civil engineering fair, a justice studies recruitment fair, and a job fair for future social workers.

Though fall is the busiest season, recruitment continues throughout the academic year. Most colleges host fall, winter, and spring job fairs. Santa Clara University, Stanford University, San José State University, and San José City College are all hosting career fairs this month. In May, both De Anza and Foothill Colleges are hosting job fairs that are open to both students and the general public.

In addition to the standard methods of recruitment, employers can also work with student organizations to publicize job opportunities and attract student interest. Drawings and raffles also serve to attract attention. WetFeet reported that Target awarded “scholarship” money to candidates randomly selected from among attendees at their information sessions. “This tactic generated significant buzz and word-of-mouth for the company among candidates, both at the event and later, when the recipients talked about the credit appearing on their tuition bills.

Recruiting “the Millennials”

According to Kevin Wheeler, author of “A New Generation Follows A New Set of Rules,” published online in March 2006, “Generation Y or ‘the Millennials’, will change the way almost all future recruiting takes place. This generation of individuals born after 1980 makes up nearly 25 percent of the current and potential workforce. Only the Baby Boomer generation was more numerous and more influential, and those workers are in the waning years of workplace importance.”

Wheeler states, “Technology is core to understanding this generation. They are technically savvy and connected.… They don’t read much, unless it is online and part of a website or an e-mail.” Foothill’s Oeh notes that most companies “recruit via our online job posting website because we have a lot of distance learners,” which significantly broadens employment outreach.

“The smart organizations,” says Wheeler, “will have youth-oriented websites for college recruiting and offer a variety of ways to interview, including online as a virtual interview. These youth are used to working with e-mail and conference calls, with online collaboration tools and with streaming video. Good college recruiting will use these skills to create relationships with the students and recruit them over time.”