Seniors Join School of Hard Knocks

Until recently, San Diego State University senior Estella Salazar was sure that her fluency in several foreign languages would help her land a management training job with a multinational company in San Diego after she graduates this spring.

But the gloomy economic outlook and the smaller number of jobs available have forced Salazar, a Spanish language major, to expand her horizons. Although a management-trainee job remains at the top of her wish list, Salazar is now willing to take a sales job or relocate.

Salazar and other graduating seniors are facing the worst job market since recessions during the early 1980s and the early 1970s. And colleges, anxious to get their alumni into the work force, are increasing efforts to lure reluctant recruiters to campus.

Companies are expected to hire about 10% fewer graduates than they did last year, according to an annual survey conducted by Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University. That fall-off follows a 13.3% cutback in hiring last year.

Consequently, students must be “more aggressive than they’ve been in the past,” said Judith Gumbiner, director of SDSU’s Career Services center. “It’s like the early 1970s when students (last) exhibited extreme concern about their employment prospects.”

The hiring situation “definitely hasn’t been this bad since the 1970s,” said Neil Murray, director of UC San Diego’s Career Services Center. Job prospects, however, are “not quite as bad as some of our worst fears six or eight months ago” when a protracted Middle East war was expected, he said.

“I hear it from students: They are finding it tough,” said Jerry Houser, director of the Career Development Center at USC. “Where they may have found three or four offers in the past, they might find one or none.”

Uncertainties triggered by the Gulf

War and the recession have forced many employers to say, “This is a time you have to hesitate,” explained Patrick Scheetz, director of the Michigan State institute. “You can’t go hire like gangbusters.”

Recruiters for once-robust fields that now are on the ropes--among them banking, retailing, consulting and real estate--have retreated from past hiring levels or dropped out of the college hiring scramble entirely.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank, for example, expects to hire 250 to 300 college graduates this year, down from the 400 it usually picks up, according to spokeswoman Kathleen Shilkret. Most of the openings will be in marketing, sales and branch operations. Plum positions in commercial lending or on the corporate staff are unavailable.

The hiring cutbacks have been felt everywhere from the Ivy League schools to state colleges:

UC San Diego reports an across-the-board falloff in on-campus recruitment visits. “Banking has been really hard hit . . . (as have) retail, electronics and aerospace,” Murray said.

With jobs few and far between, more UCSD graduates are bound for graduate school.

“That portion of our office that assists with admissions to graduate and professional schools is doing a booming business,” Murray said. Usually, about 1,800 UCSD graduates enter the work force, and 600 to 800 enter graduate school.

At San Diego State, a recently completed business job fair drew 10% to 15% fewer companies than the nearly 90 a year ago. Although on-campus interviews have picked up, “the recruiting season started out very, very slow,” Gumbiner said.

Gumbiner did see a “noticeable” increase in the number of financial services companies that are seeking SDSU graduates for commissioned sales openings.

And, civil engineering is “one of our bright stars, it’s a high-demand area,” Gumbiner said.

At UC Irvine, the number of recruiters has fallen about 20%, said Bruce Riesenberg, associate director of career planning and placement. Firms in such industries as aerospace, banking and retailing made noticeable cutbacks.

At Cal State Los Angeles, the loss of engineering job offers from aerospace firms is being offset somewhat by offers from utilities and firms involved in public works projects, according to Clemencia de Leon, director of the Career Planning and Placement Center.

Still, “our recruitment program is slower,” said De Leon. “Employers are being conservative and careful. Second interviews are coming in slower, and the job offers might take longer.”

At USC, some students have given up finding a job this year, said Houser. “There is a good chunk of folks that are sort of postponing it,” he said. “Some might be going to graduate school.”

At Yale University, the number of recruiters visiting the New Haven, Conn., campus dropped slightly from last year, said Susan Hauser, director of career services. However, Hauser said most Yale students find jobs by contacting employers directly.

Company recruiters have had to change their ways in light of corporate belt tightening.

In the past, a student who was less than top-notch--but showed the potential for success--might get an offer, said Jim Banks, a Hewlett-Packard Co. manager who recruits at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But during the past year, Banks said, “we did and continue to reject some candidates that could be very successful at HP . . . because they are not the top candidates. They need to be some of the top candidates this year if they want to be placed.”

Banks worries that the hiring slowdown will make it tougher to find new talent once the economy returns to normal.

“New blood in the company is very critical,” said Banks, whose Palo Alto firm is a high-technology leader. “People who are coming out of schools have the latest technology training. They bring in a new view.”

In two or three years, companies that cut back now on recruiting may “need personnel for promotion and will find a (gap) in the pipeline,” said Scheetz, of Michigan State. “They won’t have as many middle managers to chose from.”

Weaker demand for their graduates has forced many colleges this year to try new strategies to help their students find jobs.

At the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, officials faced a steep decline in recruiting from investment banks and consulting firms that traditionally hired large numbers of MBAs. To offset the loss, Stanford did some recruiting of its own, attracting consumer products and entertainment firms, nonprofit organizations and government agencies to campus to interview graduating students.

Stanford also shopped its students around the nation. In a first for the business school, groups of students were flown out to meet with employers in Chicago and Washington--cities in regions where relatively few Stanford MBAs found jobs in the past.

A Stanford MBA will still receive multiple job offers, said Maureen McNulty, director of the business school’s Career Management Center. But, she acknowledged, “our number of scheduled interviews is down somewhat. The staff is concerned but fairly comfortable.”

Students have responded to the tough job market by becoming more flexible about the jobs they are willing to take.

Renee Cambra, a business major at San Diego State University, says her “ideal job” would be with a strategic marketing firm in Southern California. But, if the tight job market dictates, Cambra, a graduating senior, will relocate and consider a sales or public relations job if it’s “the right opening.”

Cambra has been called for follow-up interviews by several companies but still finds the job search tough going.

“It’s very hard,” she sighed. “There is a lot of competition and very few openings.”

Despite the economic slump, the recruiting season has provided a few surprises on local campuses.

Civil engineering is “one of our bright stars, it’s a high-demand area,” Gumbiner said. Similarly, SDSU’s recently completed science and engineering job fair on campus “was a sellout,” Gumbiner said.

UCSD’s biotechnology students have fared better than other graduating seniors, in large part to because of comparatively rapid growth of that industry, particularly in San Diego. “But even they’ve taken their lumps,” Murray said.

Lower Expectations Percentage change from previous year in the number of college graduates that companies planto hire, for years beginning Sept. 1. *Estimated Source: Collegiate Employment Research Institutue, Michigan State University