Class of 1993 Faces Up to a New Corporate America : Business: Many graduates are pessimistic over downsizing. But others see chance for better opportunities.
They are upon us now, the graduating class of 1993, 1 million young men and women fresh out of colleges from Alaska to Alabama facing their day of reckoning in one of the toughest job markets in years.
“This isn’t about how you’re going to spend the summer,” says University of Richmond senior Kerry Depew. “It’s about what you’re going to do with the rest of your life.”
What can be said with certainty is that the class of ‘93’s timing is terrible. Corporate America is contracting. The big-dollar entry-level positions of the ‘80s have disappeared. Campus visits by company recruiters are down about 10% from last year. The number of college graduates working in jobs that don’t require a degree has inched past 20% and, when asked about the future in a recent poll, 54% of Americans aged 15 to 24 said the country’s best years are behind us.
“I’ve never seen so many qualified people on the market at one time,” said Fred Speno, director of human resources for the Ethyl Corp., a Richmond-based global chemical company. In past years, Ethyl hired 55 to 70 new college graduates. This year it is looking for 11.
“There are graduates out there that three years ago we would have done all kinds of stretching to get because of their impressive credentials, even if we didn’t have a slot. Today we can’t consider them. The situation gives you a feel for what it must have been like in the ‘30s when we were in full depression.”
If one is looking for a microcosm of the educated MTV generation, the University of Richmond provides a good starting point. Founded in 1830, the university is small, well-endowed, of high academic standards. It was the site of a presidential debate last October. Most of the students come from out-of-state. One-third receive need-based financial assistance. Here are some voices from that campus that reflect the changing nature of the job market over 30 years:
* Randy Fitzgerald, college professor, class of ‘63: “I remember the interviewers coming to campus in droves my senior year. Fortune 500 companies. The CIA. Everyone came. You could have as many interviews as you wanted. There was never any question of being able to step immediately into a good job. You just had to decide what you wanted to do.”
* Bill Barber, owner of an appraisal company, class of ‘73: “I was married and had no choice. I had to get my butt in gear. But I don’t think as a group we were particularly career-oriented in ’73. The Vietnam War was over, the flower generation was ending. I don’t recall my fraternity brothers being terribly concerned about getting a job. They figured they’d get by and things would take care of themselves. Very few of them even graduated. A lot just bounced around.”
* Lynn Maloney, financial analyst, class of ‘83: “Coming out of the ’82 recession, the job market was so bad when I graduated that I didn’t get a job. I went to graduate school. But I think our generation was very driven. Success, title and money was what counted, probably in that order. People were concerned about appearing successful and accomplishing their goals early. Appearance was everything.”
* Kelly Wright, graduating senior, class of ‘93: “Everywhere you go, it’s, ‘well, your resume looks great but we’re not hiring now. We’ll keep you in mind.’ I’m not really concerned yet. I still have plenty of time left to worry. But some of my friends are so discouraged, they aren’t even looking for a job.”
If Fitzgerald’s class of ’63 was part of the Vietnam-era generation and the class of ’73 was the lost generation and ’83 the Wall Street generation, who then are the people of Wright’s class of ‘93? They are the generation we don’t yet know. They are the generation that mothers took pills not to have and the first generation brought to maturation at a time when people talk of an America in decline. They gave up cocaine for beer, cut their hair and dressed up, learned that fulfillment and owning a BMW were not necessarily related, became wiser and more flexible than we were, and believe--by a 3-1 margin, according to one poll--that the standard of living, which typically doubles every other generation, will be more difficult to sustain than it was for their parents.
“I guess, if you wanted to label us, you could call us the recovery generation,” said Richmond senior Steve Dion, who soon will start a $30,000-a-year job as a claims representative for a Chicago insurance company. “There is a sense that we have to pick up the pieces from the excesses of the ‘80s. A lot of things seem to be crumbling in the country and first we’re going to have to help heal what went wrong. I think at 22 years old you understand that.”
That is a comment one might not have heard a decade ago, but university administrators nationwide say the current crop of new job seekers seems less fixated on wealth and more idealistic than its predecessors. At Richmond, for instance, 80% of the students are involved in community-service volunteer activities. Their projects included raising funds and physically building a house for one “low resource” family. Said senior-builder Ben Davis: “Maybe having a summer house is part of the American Dream, but shouldn’t every American have a home first?”
Most service-oriented organizations report that applications are running at record levels this year. The Peace Corps is on track to reach 19,000 applications for the year. Teach for America--in which graduates make a two-year commitment to teach in poor urban and rural areas--has received 3,600 applications at its New York City headquarters for 600 jobs. Green Corps, a Philadelphia-based organization that trains environmental organizers for advocacy careers, has three times more applications than positions.
“I think my generation has come to terms with the fact that you can’t live like the yuppies did,” said Green Corps field organizer Kelly Wark, 23. “It was personally not rewarding and socially not sustainable.”
For downsizing Corporate America, as well as for the service groups, the summer of ’93 is a buyer’s market. Sears, Roebuck & Co., having received 20,000 resumes, interviewed 10,000 applicaants and visited 98 campuses, will select 95 graduates for executive training positions. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has jobs for about 20 graduates this year, down from 100 to 130 in past years. General Motors, traditionally a major employer of recent graduates, “will hire very, very, very few” this year, a GM recruiter said, and AT&T; will have jobs for only 40% to 50% of the 2,000 or so graduates it traditionally hired from the graduating class.
“We’re seeking out people who have learned how to learn and can adapt to changing situations,” said AT&T; spokesman Burke Stinson. “We’re not really looking for people who have a dogmatic approach. That might have been attractive in the days when AT&T; was a regulated monopoly, but today’s market and technology are changing so rapidly, if you’re hiring people who don’t like surprises, you’re probably not hiring the right people.”
Among those in demand this summer--when entry-level positions are expected to command a salary 1% to 2% greater than last year’s--are those with degrees in engineering, the sciences and environmental areas, such as waste management and pollution control.
Women--two-thirds of whom already are in the work force--and minorities are in a particularly strong position. Facing the toughest prospects are liberal arts graduates with a single-subject focus. From them comes a familiar lament: College left them unprepared for the competition they now face getting a job.
“It’s like selling students on studying French and telling them they can get a job in the international market place,” said Michael Forrest, executive director of the College Placement Council in Bethlehem, Pa. “I can’t tell you how many kids go over to France after taking four years of French only to find that everyone there already speaks French.
“We find that college dropout rates fall significantly, particularly for minorities, the earlier that the notion of career has some primacy in their lives. If colleges can start to give them career orientation in the first year, it’s going to have a significant impact on the value of the education. . . . I think we’re sadly remiss to graduate liberal arts students who don’t have a broader scan of things in the world than just literature or history.”
With corporate giants looking for fewer recruits, the class of ’93 is seeking refuge in substantial numbers in smaller companies--”small” companies created 3 million jobs from 1988 through 1990--and in graduate school. Graduates with 17 years or more education can expect lifetime earnings of $2.1 million, compared to $1.2 million for workers with only a high school degree, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. They also are apt to find great opportunities in an economy that is redefining itself, getting leaner, looking for new markets and new technology, and in need of creative responses to business challenges that did not even exist a decade ago.
“I think there is probably something healthy about the situation today,” said Andy Ferguson, the University of Richmond’s director of career development. “The jobs out there for graduates offer great opportunity for advancement and growth. That wasn’t always the case with the jobs created in the ‘80s. A lot of them had responsibility and wonderful salaries but no substance. Now new employees are again going into entry-level positions where they are expected to learn from the bottom up.”
The class of ’93 apparently agrees with Ferguson’s assessment. Although most of them are pessimistic about the nation’s economic prospects, a survey of 21-to-29-year-old Americans last year found that 89% were optimistic about their career and financial prospects. The message seems to be that the traditional confidence and resiliency of youth is still a powerful force in a workplace full of middle-age anxiety.
“It’s not like I’m a 50-year-old man with a wife and a family,” said Richmond senior Pat Pryor. “I’ve had 15 or 20 interviews that haven’t led to anything but I really don’t feel anxiety. I’m not going to jump at the first thing offered. I’m still looking for what I really want to do, and when I figure that out, I know there’ll be a good job out there for me.”
