THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's Pre-Graduation Virtual Career Fair that we announced in our earlier posting, Nearing Graduation and Still No Job. NOW what?, is now well underway, with new employers joining the Fair every day since it was launched.We've been modifying the flow of the Fair on-the-fly for this year, expanding it beyond its original scope, to good results. We decided to post occasional updates about the Fair to the blog, so that users subscribed to our http://feeds.feedburner.com/BlackCollegian using the "careers and jobs" or "what's new" category can automatically learn about developments and new hiring employers added right up through graduation.
Additionally, we've changed a few things around that we'll discuss more fully on the blog as the Fair goes on. For one thing, we've added a Career Fair Survey , where we invite Career Fair visitors to return to our site and provide their feedback and suggestions on the employer websites they've visited and jobs they've applied to, as well as feature for suggestions for the next Fair. We're doing this because our goal this year was to get jobseekers with the most direct access to the open opportunities and the best introductory information specifically for entry-level candidates, new grads and students. We are constantly adjusting the format and the links for the Fair as new employers join up to save time for our readers who still need a job before graduation. We are also planning to run a paid focus group for jobseekers after the Fair, and survey respondents will be the first people we'll consider for invitation to the group.
Helping us kick off the Fair were these employers, who immediately responded to our invitations for those companies who were still seeking entry-level and student candidates for open opportunities this season:
American Heart Association
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Bulloch County (GA) Schools
The Children's Place and Disney Store North America
City Year, Inc.
Electronic Arts
Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Green Dot Public Schools
HDR
Inflexxion
Intel
Jersey City Public Schools
Madison Metropolitan School District
MPI Research
MTA Metro-North Railroad
National City Corporation
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
The Pepsi Bottling Group
Proofpoint, Inc.
San Antonio Police Department
Shell Oil Company
Spherion
Stryker Medical
U.S. Department of State
Wells Fargo Advantage Funds
To receive additional updates about the Fair and new employers as they come in, feel free to subscribe to the feed on THE BLACK COLLEGIAN'S Blog (http://blackcollegian.blogspot.com), and stop back frequently until you find a job.
All are welcome!
Good luck!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Nearing Graduation and Still No Job. NOW what?
"School's out, you have that degree and you are ready to conquer the world. Only
one thing stands between you and your professional success: You don't have a
job. So now what? Should you begin a massive online resume campaign and then
wait for employers to call? Should you take any job you can get now and hop
around until you find one that fits? Should you enlist the help of a headhunter?
Should you ask everyone you know for a job?"
These are the timely questions explored in Pamela McBride's feature article, You're a Graduate and No Job - Now What?, from THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's Second Semester Super Issue, and they will likely resonate for a number of soon-to-be-grads who are struggling to fend off
senioritis, growing anxious about what lies ahead.
More so than in recent years past, many of our readers from the Class of 2008 who have not yet landed jobs after the campus recruiting are understandably uneasy about the mixed messages
they've been receiving about their employment outlook. On one hand, official reports of a
general economic slow-down are punctuated by news reports of a hiring drop across many sectors (not only clearly struggling ones like manufacturing and those directly affected by the housing bust) and rising unemployment in many states.
On the other hand, as Dr. Phil Gardner reports in his annual study of the Job Outlook for this year's college graduates, there are bright spots on the horizon that should help motivated
new grads get a shot at launching rewarding careers. Shortages of skilled, educated workers in
areas such as IT, healthcare and secondary education have created a good range of opportunities for certificate- and degree-holders in these fields, according to numerous industry reports.
senioritis, growing anxious about what lies ahead.
More so than in recent years past, many of our readers from the Class of 2008 who have not yet landed jobs after the campus recruiting are understandably uneasy about the mixed messages
they've been receiving about their employment outlook. On one hand, official reports of a
general economic slow-down are punctuated by news reports of a hiring drop across many sectors (not only clearly struggling ones like manufacturing and those directly affected by the housing bust) and rising unemployment in many states.
On the other hand, as Dr. Phil Gardner reports in his annual study of the Job Outlook for this year's college graduates, there are bright spots on the horizon that should help motivated
new grads get a shot at launching rewarding careers. Shortages of skilled, educated workers in
areas such as IT, healthcare and secondary education have created a good range of opportunities for certificate- and degree-holders in these fields, according to numerous industry reports.
(However, taking advantage of the good, better-paying opportunities in these areas may mean
widening a search to jobs outside the most popular locations, looking at businesses in new
regions that could require relocation.)
In many other industries, however, the bright spot for new grads is the result demographic
trends: The retirement of workers from the "Baby Boom" generation that has been forecast for a number of years is now clearly upon us. As retirees leave the workforce, many employers are
retooling their approach to hiring to fill vacant positions with young candidates, sometimes
following a period of "probation" and additional training, or sometimes directly hiring out of their intern pool.
In fact, this year, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN's annual Top Employers survey
showed that many national organizations and smaller employers had planned robust college hiring activities for 2008. Among the Top 100 hiring employers ranked in our survey, some indicated in our follow-up survey that they were still accepting applications from students and new grads even after their campus recruiting was over for the season. As a result, we are holding a spring 2008 Pre-Graduation Virtual Career Fair, creating a space to connect jobseekers with those employers who specifically told us they are still actively considering entry-level applicants for open positions.
The Fair begins March 15, and will be updated on an ongoing basis in the run-up
right until graduation at the end of April / beginning of May. Students who still need a
post-graduation job (or, in some cases, a summer appointment or internship) are encouraged to
make repeat visits to the Fair, as it is updated during this period, and review and apply to
open positions right away. Time is of the essence, in most cases, which is why we have
decided to circumvent our normal, paid job listings and publish the employer-provided,
direct-access links to the relevant open positions where students and grads still have a shot.
We extended our congratulations on making it through the school year, and our best wishes in
your search. We also encourage you to let us know if you land a position for an upcoming special feature we will be publishing.
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