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I just graduated from a very well-known large university in a college town. Now, I am realizing, unless I was a science or math-based major, my odds of finding a job are very hard and I pretty much have to start at the worse of jobs. Heck, I'm starting to think if I was at least in a town outside a major metro like Santa Cruz outside San Jose or Davis outside Sacramento, my odds would have been better.
I feel bad because so many liberal arts majors are out of jobs and some even have big college debts to pay off.
If its a well known large university - then they must have career services section that is ,hopefully, worthy of the pennies you've paid to keep them in business.
I would assume you've had opportunities to network previously all along you were studying, if not then that would be part of the problem as you need to network with the right people at the right time and this 'landed a job' process begins right when you enter an academic institution, more so when you've had no prior work experience.
Anyhow, what you should do is to tap on the resources offered by your career services people at your university. What I would also suggest is to become more active (if you haven't already been) on LinkedIn and attend career/networking events outside of your college town.
There is a job for everyone - you have to find it and fight for it. It may not be a six figure salary but with the choice of major you have that would be difficult to come by anyway (at an entry level).
Don't restrict urself to a location when you are looking for your first opportunity - explore the world, you won't regret it !!!
I haven't read every single post yet, but I will answer some questions....
I went to the local university and stayed at home so I would not be in debt after graduation and I am not in debt. The local university is in a college town. With less 50,000 population and and being aa spread out/rural county, there is not many jobs. There are hardly any large firms here. In fact, one of my internships I had to commute 23 minutes into a small city/large town of 100,000 population just to get experience I needed. I am lucky I got two internships because some of my fellow psychology and sociology students could barely get one internship during college. I also had experience as a teacher aid, customer service at a grocery market, and other past jobs that would relate to entry level sales jobs.
So far, the only jobs I can find are ones that are willing to pay a college graduate the wage of some one with high school degree, and those jobs also have HIGH turn over rates. Pretty much they just want a body and I'm not willing to move out to only get fired after a month of not being ridiculously high standards.
I have one cousin who went to CSU Dominguez Hills, basic commuter school with not a lot of reputation, and he had been hired by Enterprise out of college and from there by Grainger. Another cousin went to CSU Fullerton and started with Grainger. Before that he was a bell boy.
There is not enough jobs around here for all the college graduates. There is not enough places to intern around here. I was told before I went to my college that 88% of students who graduated had jobs within 6 months of graduation (note never mentioned what type of jobs they had or if they were jobs graduates wanted). Now, I realize those statistics pretty much are of science and math graduates.
If its a well known large university - then they must have career services section that is ,hopefully, worthy of the pennies you've paid to keep them in business.
I would assume you've had opportunities to network previously all along you were studying, if not then that would be part of the problem as you need to network with the right people at the right time and this 'landed a job' process begins right when you enter an academic institution, more so when you've had no prior work experience.
Anyhow, what you should do is to tap on the resources offered by your career services people at your university. What I would also suggest is to become more active (if you haven't already been) on LinkedIn and attend career/networking events outside of your college town.
There is a job for everyone - you have to find it and fight for it. It may not be a six figure salary but with the choice of major you have that would be difficult to come by anyway (at an entry level).
Don't restrict urself to a location when you are looking for your first opportunity - explore the world, you won't regret it !!!
Good luck
HA HA. Career services put on job fairs, which are highly competitive, and offer interviewing and 1 on 1 "how to create a linkedin account" and "resume creations" appointments. Which i can google or even do it on my own. I'd ditch our career services for something more practical like more investment in getting companies to offer internships.
Math and science? Seriously? What jobs do you think science and math majors get?
Math--- nothing
Science--- $30k/yr doing boring crap in a lab
Math is great to compliment another technical degree. For example, pair that up with computer science, or perhaps some business disciplines that require a lot of 'numbers', or physical sciences.
Speaking of which, Last I heard a decade ago, those going into physical sciences and graduate with a bachelors go right away to earn their Masters. For many physical science majors, you need a masters to be where it's at and marketable. A bachelors apparently isn't that great.
State College/University Park, PA - Home of Penn State University... big college town surrounded also by farmland.
Nearly forty years have passed since then, but I considered myself lucky to have been able to find a suitable, if not all that well-paying job and move back to Happy Valley three years after graduation. Far too much of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was, at the time, pretty much rooted in the values and traditions of the Forties, and the set of unattached singles was much smaller and duller.
I was to return to a more realistic environment a few years later, and several of the "returnees" I socialized with at the time found their way to careers elsewhere when their Happy Valley-based employees offered them more money in other cities (Pittsburgh, then shedding its "steel and smokestack" image, was usually the top destination).
So to those who enjoy the more-stimulating atmosphere, I'd advise on planning to leave someday (you will notice the age difference faster than you might think), but if you can make ends meet, why rush? Setting up shop from scratch in large cosmopolitan city can also be rough on your wallet.
OP brings up an interesting thought...is it better (in general) to attend a university situated in a thriving city even if its reputation is poorer than one that is on the outskirts of everything? I guess one can look at the recruiting/employment numbers.
This is a point that I think often gets vastly overlooked on these forums.
Like many, I grew up in a small town (50,000) that was mostly blue-collar. In hindsight, there wasn't much work for college graduates in the good times, much less today. I went to the regional public university the next town over, which is a completely average school. The nearest city of any substantial size (Knoxville, TN) is two hours away with the state flagship college that's much better regarded, so finding employment there is tough. The next major cities are Charlotte, NC (180 miles away) and Nashville, TN (250 miles away). With no experience, it's tough to even get considered for a position from that far away.
When you're in an area that has no meaningful professional work, the school won't have the connections to place graduates with employers. My school has a terrific digital graphics/media program, but because there is no work in that field locally, people come out with no internship experience, and end up losing out to candidates local to big cities.
I can't think of any truly great schools that are isolated in small towns or rural areas. There may be some in specific fields, but nothing immediately comes to mind.
IMO, parents do a disservice to children by even raising them in an isolated, rural community. Schools in these areas are often not good, so students don't get a great education. Even if the schools are good, it's harder to get to the good schools for an admissions interview, etc. Parents and schools need to steer kids toward going to college in urban areas, where there are likely more connections and jobs.
Repped. I, myself, highly recommend students look at the job market before choosing a university. I went to VCU in Richmond, VA. Richmond is the home to many Fortune 100 companies and start-ups. Several of my friends went to JMU in Harrisonburg, VA. Many of those friends worked in Applebee's or Capital Ale House as a Bartender or Server after graduation. They eventually had to leave for more opportunity.
I'm not going to lie- JMU is a fun, party school with an ideal college campus however thinking long term you have to set yourself up for plenty of job opportunities. Luckily, most of my friends were involved in internships in DC so they could gain experience during the summer. Then they would work lower wage-paying jobs during the semester to make ends meet.
The thing about JMU, though, is that no one I know went there (myself included) with the intention of staying in Harrisonburg because it is no titan of industry or anything.... but the reputation of the school is well enough that employers like to hire JMU graduates and many alumni are hiring managers in places like DC/Richmond/Hampton Roads. You don't have to intern in Harrisonburg, in the same way UVA students don't have to intern in Charlottesville or VT students don't have to intern in Blacksburg. I interned in Virginia Beach at an auditing firm and in DC for a national bank.
I know I sure didn't choose where to go to school based on building the rest of my life there. I went to the school that offered me the most $$$ and allowed me to have the least amount of debt even if it is a true college town. I'd recommend anyone go to the best college they can get into that would leave them with a manageable amount of debt.
The thing about JMU, though, is that no one I know went there (myself included) with the intention of staying in Harrisonburg because it is no titan of industry or anything.... but the reputation of the school is well enough that employers like to hire JMU graduates and many alumni are hiring managers in places like DC/Richmond/Hampton Roads. You don't have to intern in Harrisonburg, in the same way UVA students don't have to intern in Charlottesville or VT students don't have to intern in Blacksburg. I interned in Virginia Beach at an auditing firm and in DC for a national bank.
I know I sure didn't choose where to go to school based on building the rest of my life there. I went to the school that offered me the most $$$ and allowed me to have the least amount of debt even if it is a true college town. I'd recommend anyone go to the best college they can get into that would leave them with a manageable amount of debt.
VT/UVA have good reputations that can allow someone to go most anywhere in the country. Charlottesville isn't isolated to the extent Blacksburg is either. I know a few JMU grads, but they were mostly women who ended up being SAHMs.
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