MU Grad Unemployment?

[mu_hilltopper]

After seeing today's news about the unemployment rate .. it made me wonder..

What's the unemployment rate of MU grads from June 2010?  2009?

I have no idea.  If I had to guess, I'd say 50%.  Not that 50% are unemployed, but a mix of unemployed/underemployed/burger flipping/internship part-timers, etc.

Anyone have a better idea?

[bs4173]

I graduated in May and was fortunate enough to get a good job right away. It's been about 6 months since commencement and my ten closest friends in the MU Class of 2010 were spread across majors/colleges. Here's our breakdown...

1 is in grad school
6 have full-time jobs
2 are doing yearlong volunteering w/ their expenses paid
1 is in limbo

I'd say we were lucky/special, but if I were to extend that number to 50 of my closest peers at Marquette, the percentage would probably be up there. That said, not all of us are in our first-choice positions, but hey, we're employed and more or less doing something in our respective fields of study.

My honest guess? >75% are full-time employed, in some sort of extended volunteering program (Teach for America, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, etc) or in grad school.

[GGGG]

hilltopper, it's going to depend on the program.  The Business program still touts a 90% placement rate.  But I am sure that there are majors that are suffering.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Jaybee's dancin at the sugar shack, employed.

[BringInTheReaper]

I'm a June '09 outta the b-school, personally I am working as are most of my friends... but I wouldn't believe that 90% rate, it took me a full year to find something besides a part time job and that was the consensus among my friends.

[BringInTheReaper]

I guess I should add that it could have changed since I graduated, but considering the economy I would guess it hasn't to that large of an extent yet.

[DiaperDandy]

I graduated May 09 with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Took me 1 year and three months before I landed a fulltime engineering job.  Same for one of my friends with the same degree.  Two others still have not found jobs and another joined the marines.  Economy is tough.  I am so thankful I finally found a job and I feel for those that are still looking.  The only advice I can offer is keep your head up and dont give up.  It may seem like an eternity but you will find something eventually.

[Hards Alumni]

I'll be real honest.

There are jobs out there in every field.

Might you have to actually work at finding one? yes.

Might you have to relocate? yes.

I feel like a lot more people would be employed if they did more than fill out online applications.  I am sure plenty would disagree, but a lot of people are never taught HOW to find a job.

Putting your resume online is NOT the way.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

I graduated a couple weeks before the stock market 'crashed', in Aug '08. Even with an MS from the COB, it took me 14 months to get a regular, FT job. I did have to relocate (to Iowa, ugh). It's a great job... but it is in Iowa.

I agree that people are not taught how to look for a job -- I sure wasn't. But then again, I was a CAS undergrad, studying POSC etc. Part of the problem was that I had very little idea where I should be looking. Another part was that the COB, amazingly enough, has no person devoted to hooking up COB graduate students with potential jobs. The COB!!

[jficke13]

hilltopper, it's going to depend on the program.  The Business program still touts a 90% placement rate.  But I am sure that there are majors that are suffering.

Take those numbers with a grain of salt; they come from a biased source. The law school has some absurdly high employment rate too, but if they were to weed out underemployed or employed out of the field of law numbers it would look a lot more modest.

[MUeng]

my closest friends seemed to make it.  1 engr ft job, 1 in engr grad school, 1 ft job.  I graduated may '09 with a mech engr. major and searched for about 6 months unsuccessfully and joined the military.  I think I was over confident in my job hunting skills.  It was tough out there, thats for sure.

[MUBurrow]

Take those numbers with a grain of salt; they come from a biased source. The law school has some absurdly high employment rate too, but if they were to weed out underemployed or employed out of the field of law numbers it would look a lot more modest.

+1 - I'm in law school out of state after going to MU undergrad, and dont know much about employment reporting in other disciplines. But I can attest that school reported law school employment numbers are never to be trusted. Its one of the most self serving, skewed, and least transparent reporting systems I have ever seen.

[Ari Gold]

out of handful of Friends either from CoC or in politics.

Most CoC people I know have gotten some sort of job but it took them awhile. Many in fields they didn't anticipate going into (in fact a few of them work on campaigns actually).

Of my political friends many had a job. Now some they're in some sort of limbo until staffs get sorted out. Many of them "just go to law school" if no jobs pan out.

I will say that I'd rather take my situation of limbo until... vs some of my friends who graduated or are graduating from other universities. Of those people I have 1 friend (out of about 6-7) that have a job in their field. 

[mu_hilltopper]

Way too much anecdotal information here ..

Too bad the Universities can't be honest about the situation.  I mean, I understand why the for-profit degree mills give out false information, but real colleges should be giving accurate info.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

Way too much anecdotal information here ..

Too bad the Universities can't be honest about the situation.  I mean, I understand why the for-profit degree mills give out false information, but real colleges should be giving accurate info.

Well, even "non-profit" institutions have huge financial incentives to milk the numbers. Profs and admin want to be paid more, like everyone else, and the way to do that is to make a degree seem more valuable, which "justifies" raises in tuition, grant money, etc.

[Hards Alumni]

out of handful of Friends either from CoC or in politics.

Most CoC people I know have gotten some sort of job but it took them awhile. Many in fields they didn't anticipate going into (in fact a few of them work on campaigns actually).

Of my political friends many had a job. Now some they're in some sort of limbo until staffs get sorted out. Many of them "just go to law school" if no jobs pan out.

I will say that I'd rather take my situation of limbo until... vs some of my friends who graduated or are graduating from other universities. Of those people I have 1 friend (out of about 6-7) that have a job in their field. 

"Just going to law school" is a terrible idea.

I am a living example.

[Golden Avalanche]

I'll be real honest.

There are jobs out there in every field.

Might you have to actually work at finding one? yes.

Might you have to relocate? yes.

I feel like a lot more people would be employed if they did more than fill out online applications.  I am sure plenty would disagree, but a lot of people are never taught HOW to find a job.

Putting your resume online is NOT the way.

Other than being placed in a job through family connections, what are you thinking with this line?

[Hards Alumni]

Other than being placed in a job through family connections, what are you thinking with this line?

Call, show up in person, mailing out 100's of resumes is as about pointless as it gets.

Usually you need to show your employer that you are motivated.

Think about it this way.  How many resumes do you think HR at a company gets every day?  10?  20?

How many phone calls do they get from people to SEE if they have jobs available every day?  Maybe 1.

How many stop ins inquiring about jobs?  even less.

Half the trick to finding a job is getting yourself in the door.

[shiloh26]

+1 - I'm in law school out of state after going to MU undergrad, and dont know much about employment reporting in other disciplines. But I can attest that school reported law school employment numbers are never to be trusted. Its one of the most self serving, skewed, and least transparent reporting systems I have ever seen.

My personal favorite tactic (at UW law school) is when they hire new law grads to come back as part time teachers for some BS "how to succeed in law school" class that meets once per week.  Hiring back 10 in a class of ~200 people, that artificially boosts "employed at graduation" percentages by 5% alone, considering most people read that as "employed as a lawyer."

They instituted that last year when law firms were laying people off and hiring no new grads.  It was painfully obvious what they were doing, and it felt just a bit odd that the ones teaching us how to succeed in law school were the new grads that weren't able to secure employment out of law school.  

[GGGG]

Way too much anecdotal information here ..

Too bad the Universities can't be honest about the situation.  I mean, I understand why the for-profit degree mills give out false information, but real colleges should be giving accurate info.

Honest about what?  How are they supposed to gather this information since so much of it needs to be collected from alumni who may or may not be willing to help?

Here is the data that Marquette has to collect according to the Higher Education Act:

http://www.marquette.edu/consumerinformation/

[GOMU1104]

Other than being placed in a job through family connections, what are you thinking with this line?

It's called "greasing the wheels..."

[muhoosier260]

Way too much anecdotal information here ..

Too bad the Universities can't be honest about the situation.  I mean, I understand why the for-profit degree mills give out false information, but real colleges should be giving accurate info.

you asked for it, you got it. go ahead, ask MU for the numbers, i'm sure you'll get some b.s.

[Golden Avalanche]

Call, show up in person, mailing out 100's of resumes is as about pointless as it gets.

Usually you need to show your employer that you are motivated.

Think about it this way.  How many resumes do you think HR at a company gets every day?  10?  20?

How many phone calls do they get from people to SEE if they have jobs available every day?  Maybe 1.

How many stop ins inquiring about jobs?  even less.

Half the trick to finding a job is getting yourself in the door.

So, basically, call them up. I thought there was more to it.

Your last point is exactly my point: the best way to get a foot in the door, in the past and now, is through family connections. Without that, you're looking down at a black diamond run with one ski in this market.

Since I have the talking stick I'll relate a story: just over two years ago I walked into a office so I could hand a resume to the HR contact listed in the job advert. She said "thank you" and then promptly called security. Apparently, my cackling at the absurdity of the situation didn't quell her fears as she didn't bring me in for an interview. 

[rugbydrummer]

So, basically, call them up. I thought there was more to it.

Your last point is exactly my point: the best way to get a foot in the door, in the past and now, is through family connections. Without that, you're looking down at a black diamond run with one ski in this market.

Since I have the talking stick I'll relate a story: just over two years ago I walked into a office so I could hand a resume to the HR contact listed in the job advert. She said "thank you" and then promptly called security. Apparently, my cackling at the absurdity of the situation didn't quell her fears as she didn't bring me in for an interview. 

Maybe the trench coat and dark sunglasses were not the best choice that day??  just kidding, but i feel like we need to know the circumstances of this resume drop-off to better appreciate why an HR lady would call security for you to walk out??

Alright my ten cents:
1) i agree that getting a job is not impossible, but does require one to expand the net of searching & relocate, which is not something everyone may be willing to sacrifice

2) to that point, "health care is not affected by the economy" is not strictly true.  Yes, I could have gotten "a" job, but staying in milwaukee required me to work harder and wait longer.  If I wanted to work in rural where-ever, i probably could have gotten a job in a heartbeat

3) my class of 35 .... i think most of us had FT jobs by 6 months out, though there were a few who were still searching as long as 8-10 months out from graduation, and certainly there were a few people who are on a 2nd job already <1 year into the first job...  Plus it just sucks to try to find a good gig in mke b/c the market just gets more & more saturated every year and not so many jobs are being created to keep up, either.

as far as getting hired... idk what to say.  it kinda feels like the majority of people have some sort of "In"... however with my current employment, i somehow managed without that.  Not to say that in my job search process i didn't use connections (one of my friends' parents is part of a well-established MD group in the area; actually it kind of came back to haunt me in the interview e.g., why am i interested in this job other than knowing so-and-so.)  The problem in healthcare is that it's a bit tough to cold call the ginormous organizations (i.e. Aurora, WF, Procare), although one of my friends did get buddy-buddy with one of the HR people, which certainly greased the wheels a bit.

Probably another good, maybe underutilized resource is alumni connections... though i'm sure not every alumnus necessarily will be able to help in those regards, but really there isn't much to lose.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

I graduated a couple weeks before the stock market 'crashed', in Aug '08. Even with an MS from the COB, it took me 14 months to get a regular, FT job. I did have to relocate (to Iowa, ugh). It's a great job... but it is in Iowa.

I agree that people are not taught how to look for a job -- I sure wasn't. But then again, I was a CAS undergrad, studying POSC etc. Part of the problem was that I had very little idea where I should be looking. Another part was that the COB, amazingly enough, has no person devoted to hooking up COB graduate students with potential jobs. The COB!!

The business school does have someone now, Daniel Ortega.  Met him this summer, he's a "real world" guy.  180 degree change from the previous blowhard, Marq Stankowski. 

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

I think I heard of him when he was hired, which was after I was back home still searching, but haven't met him or anything.

I don't remember being impressed with his background, but I am glad he sounds like an upgrade to Stankowski.

[4everwarriors]

The business school does have someone now, Daniel Ortega.  Met him this summer, he's a "real world" guy.  180 degree change from the previous blowhard, Marq Stankowski.  

Didn't realize those jobs delivering bottled water were so difficult to get. Could always augment with a summer gig selling beer at Miller Park.

[drewm88]

Graduated in May. Almost my entire extended circle from MU is set in either a job, "volunteer" position, or grad school. Also, I think almost all of those people that chose grad school did so freely, rather than resort to it as a Plan B. I definitely can't say the same for my non-MU circle.

[mu_hilltopper]

Graduated in May. Almost my entire extended circle from MU is set in either a job, "volunteer" position, or grad school. Also, I think almost all of those people that chose grad school did so freely, rather than resort to it as a Plan B. I definitely can't say the same for my non-MU circle.

Right .. but I think the number to look at is those who are employed (not underemployed, like an Accounting major working as a check-out at Walmart) and not 'volunteers' nor 'interns'. 

Real, career jobs.

The grad school people, certainly, some went because that was their passion.  They aren't looking for work, so would be removed from the denominator of the equation.

[drewm88]

Right .. but I think the number to look at is those who are employed (not underemployed, like an Accounting major working as a check-out at Walmart) and not 'volunteers' nor 'interns'.  

Real, career jobs.

The grad school people, certainly, some went because that was their passion.  They aren't looking for work, so would be removed from the denominator of the equation.

Sorry, I should have clarified. The ones who are in volunteer positions generally also chose them freely, just like the grad school people. I'd say about 1/3 of my friends from MU are in career jobs, and there are only a few that wanted to get career jobs but had to take something else instead.

So overall with my circle of friends, the vast majority of people were able to find whatever it was they were looking for.

[muwarrior87]

Graduated in May '09 and spent a long time looking for anything remotely close. I had been working seasonally for a road construction company doing quality control/office help up until this past week when laid off for the remainder of the year without much knowledge as to if/when I'd hear about a possible full time career position with the company.  So I'm back out looking for Construction Management or Civil Engineering positions. This week will be filled with door to door resume drop offs and position inquiries.

[Golden Avalanche]

Maybe the trench coat and dark sunglasses were not the best choice that day??  just kidding, but i feel like we need to know the circumstances of this resume drop-off to better appreciate why an HR lady would call security for you to walk out??

I agree the trench coat was a bad choice that day.....haaaa.

I just think she was spooked. Mid-20s, relatively smaller office, perhaps new to the position within the last year, etc. At her age, and with the way things are done electronically today, I don't think she understood that showing up at an office for an open position was the norm until around 10 years ago.

My guess is she'd never seen a candidate in person unless she called them in for an interview. Most of the HR people I know don't ever see people. She probably just had no idea what to do figuring if I got by the front desk I must be some sort of psycho. 

[Aughnanure]

Call, show up in person, mailing out 100's of resumes is as about pointless as it gets.

Usually you need to show your employer that you are motivated.

Think about it this way.  How many resumes do you think HR at a company gets every day?  10?  20?

How many phone calls do they get from people to SEE if they have jobs available every day?  Maybe 1.

How many stop ins inquiring about jobs?  even less.

Half the trick to finding a job is getting yourself in the door.

When did you graduate? Just curious, because I know of most employers in the communications field HATE that (calling, showing up). People dont operate the same way. I moved out to DC to get a job (May 09 grad), but not everyone can do that and make it (i.e. you will not get an interview in Philadelphia if your resume says you live in St. Louis)...and the Midwest is doing terrible right now in terms of job opportunities.

I agree that just posting your resume at CareerBuilder.com is not going to work and you will only get calls from people wanting you to go into sales. But you are making it sound too simplistic. I had to get connected on certain big DC listservs, pay monthly for specific DC and government job listings, check industry specific east-coast listings daily, look on Craiglist 3x a day and most (80% at least) of the job postings were anonymous, meaning you had no idea where the company was or what its name was.

[PBRme]

Any Recent Grad or undergrad with ability to use Pro-E and looking for full or PT send me a PM

Edit:  I guess legally I can't legally word it that way, replace recent grad or undergrad with anybody

[mugrad99]

The business school does have someone now, Daniel Ortega.  Met him this summer, he's a "real world" guy.  180 degree change from the previous blowhard, Marq Stankowski. 

The President of Nicaragua?

[Hards Alumni]

When did you graduate? Just curious, because I know of most employers in the communications field HATE that (calling, showing up). People dont operate the same way. I moved out to DC to get a job (May 09 grad), but not everyone can do that and make it (i.e. you will not get an interview in Philadelphia if your resume says you live in St. Louis)...and the Midwest is doing terrible right now in terms of job opportunities.

I agree that just posting your resume at CareerBuilder.com is not going to work and you will only get calls from people wanting you to go into sales. But you are making it sound too simplistic. I had to get connected on certain big DC listservs, pay monthly for specific DC and government job listings, check industry specific east-coast listings daily, look on Craiglist 3x a day and most (80% at least) of the job postings were anonymous, meaning you had no idea where the company was or what its name was.

I graduated in 2004.  I found work in less than 3 months in a pretty bad market as well, with a Biomed sci degree in the Milwaukee area... which is near impossible.  After leaving that job, then law school I moved to the Madison area  (2006) and found a job in 2 weeks.  I applied, and then called the next day, and I was hired that day.

Obviously, this will vary from major to major, but when you picked communications, you had to realize the competition for jobs would be high based simply on the amount of CoC grads every year.  I'm just tired of people graduating and expecting a job without looking or actually trying.  The internet is a fabulous tool, but it shouldn't be the only thing people use to find a job... and thats the problem.

As for HR people HATING when people just show up; too effing bad.  Its part of their job, and if they really don't like it, all they need to do is say that when the person shows up.

[Wareagle]

Network your butt off (and form genuine relationships).  It's the most fool-proof method I've found.

[zwangmedico]

Going on with part time jobs but now getting bored...would love to do something new!!!