By Anna Spagnolo, For The Miami Student
According to a 2015 Economic Policy Institute study, the unemployment rate for young college graduates is currently 7.2 percent, compared to 5.5 percent before the recession in 2007. However, Miami Career Services Director Michael Goldman said things are starting to look up for graduates.
"We are seeing the highest number of advertised positions we've seen since the Great Recession," Goldman said. "We had the largest career fair we have ever had this past fall. The market is very favorable to all of our students, not just business students."
Senior Catherine Caniglia has not found a job yet, but has been attending career fairs on campus with upper level management from financial firms. She has applied to companies online as well as networked with the firm she worked for this past summer.
She said she believes the competition for jobs can be hard because there are so many seniors looking for the same position. Caniglia has found that almost all employers are looking for strong leaders for their companies.
Career Services offers career fairs in the fall and spring, the CAREERlink online database with major-specific internship and job search links, networking opportunities with alumni and a seminar in the spring for students who have not found jobs yet. The seminar helps students to look for jobs on a more intense level than they have before.
Jack Onulak, a senior finance major who has found a job at Fifth Third Bank, said he believes Miami's Career Services are helpful, but no one can prepare you for the real thing.
"CAREERlink is helpful and all, but unless you show up prepared to job fairs and go to the networking lunches and show you know what you're doing at your interview you aren't going to find a job," Onulak said. "Companies know exactly what they are looking for in employees and unless you demonstrate to them that you have what they are looking for, then they won't offer you an interview."
Onulak had to go through multiple networking lunches to be offered interviews. After he passed the first round of interviews, he flew out to Chicago to go up against multiple candidates for a capital market analyst job. After long hours of testing and interviewing, Onulak heard back from his new employers.
Frequent employers of Miami students, such as J.P. Morgan, Proctor and Gamble, Fifth Third Bank and Key Bank Inc., all have rigorous interviewing processes.
Goldman noted that job recruitment is never personal. Different organizations and industries recruit employees differently. For example, employers recruiting communications majors usually do not come to career fairs and usually recruit in the spring compared to employers for business students who do come to job fairs and recruit in the fall.
"All students have the same core skills - critical thinking, problem solving, ability to process information and leadership - because this is all embedded in the Miami experience," said Goldman. "What is important is that students are able to articulate the skills they have acquired at Miami because there is a shortage of talent today."