Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies
NEWS

Get a life

Chelsey Telliard

Miami University senior Nicholas Boxhold returned from a regatta in the Long Island Sound last fall with a new love-New York City. It was after a night of exploring the city with the sailing team that he began saying he could spend his future there.

"I love the diversity, I love how many tons of people there are, there is just something about all the little things that would never happen in any other place," Boxhold said. "It was love at first sight."

From the sidewalk shows to an a cappella group singing down the subway, New York City has Boxhold saying with 100 percent certainty: "This is where I want to be after graduation."

We know what we want

This type of confident city choice is becoming common with Miami students and the 79.8 million boom of Americans between 1977 and 1995 that composes Generation Y. According to the Sept. 4 New York Times article "Life's Work," this generation puts more of an emphasis on quality of life and gut feelings, changing the job search process from the traditional means of migrating wherever the best offer may lead.

Miami's assistant director of career services, Nickie Esinduy, has been surprised by the strict geographic preferences students are setting.

"More than you would think students are looking to limit themselves by location," Esinduy said. "Some of them are extremely open, but yesterday I had someone say either L.A. or New York."

In the two years Esinduy has been working with Miami students, she has seen range of requests for post-graduate locations from staying close to parents to going elsewhere, including overseas.

"It could be that that's where they see the best opportunity for what they want to get into, Esinduy said. "Occasionally it's, 'that's where my friends are going,' (and) that's most common with Chicago ... folks that come from East coast often want to go back, or I guess it could be quality of life."

While Cincinnati wasn't mentioned in the New York Times article for making strides to attract graduates (even though the city was ranked 18 on www.forbes.com June 16's list of best cities for young professionals), according to administrators it is consistently working to retain Generation Y.

Mayor Mark Mallory's office feels that all cities are facing the challenges of retaining young professionals and it is important to be proactive. One way the city is maintaining and improving its retention according to Ryan Adcock, legislative liaison to Mayor Mark Mallory, is through the Young Professionals Kitchen Cabinet, which just finished it's first year.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

"(Mallory) put it together a group of 100 young professionals and their mission is to help the mayor develop programs, policies and initiatives that attract and retain young professions to Cincinnati," Adcock said. "So rather than the mayor finding out what is hip and cool, he goes to the people who are hip and cool."

According to a study done by CEOs for Cities titled, "Attracting College-Educated Young Adults to Cities," what is hip and cool for cities across the country is being "clean, safe and green."

Mallory has been adding green initiatives, including Green Cincinnati, which launched Sept. 12, as the start of a citywide climate protection plan. However, Cincinnati hasn't yet made it on the list of urban areas nationwide that saw more workers move in than out.

The 14 on the list are: Las Vegas, Nev.; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Portland, Ore.; Denver, Colo.; Orlando, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; Dallas, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Miami, Fla.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Greensboro, N.C.; and Winston Salem, N.C.

Esinduy has seen Miami students recently drawn to Denver, Atlanta, a few to Portland and cities in Florida and Arizona.

All 14 of the mentioned urban areas have Miami University alumni chapters, most of which are active chapters right in the city, and each has at least a chapter in the respective state, according to the alumni office.

Boxhold is still stuck on New York, and even though it may not meet the survey's "clean, safe and green criteria," he still feels it is right for him.

Making it happen

While Esinduy hopes geographic limitations won't hold students back, ultimately she feels that post graduation plans are a values decision. For students that do want to go to specific destinations, she encourages visiting career services and utilizing the tools they provide.

"You have to decide what is right for you," Esinduy said. "But if you are completely inflexible you are going to lose out on opportunities."

Allison Bradlee agrees. She is manager of college recruiting at Wolseley North America, which is one of the 212 companies planning to be at Career Fair Wednesday.

"If they said Cincinnati is it for me, it's the only place I want to be, we probably wouldn't continue the interview process," Bradlee said. "Wolseley has 20 to 30 Miami graduates currently and none of them have said that."

Boxhold plans to attend Career Fair, even though he has no intention of taking his economics and accounting majors to join the 79.8 percent of last year's Miami business graduates in the Midwest.

"There are definitely a lot of opportunities that come through from the area," Esinduy said, "but we definitely have national recruiters (at Career Fair)."

Boxhold has already found a few companies in New York from the list career services provides and plans to speak with them.

"I don't expect to come home from Career Fair knowing what I want to do," Boxhold said. "I just think it is a great opportunity to be able to go around and talk to people and have mini interviews."

Esinduy also feels having a Plan B is important.

"Sometimes you can get the right experience and have leverage down the road to end up in that city," Esinduy said.

Wolseley will be in attendance at this year's Career Fair and has locations in all 50 states, but one thing Bradlee has noticed on the employer side of the equation is that students want to stay closer to home.

"Students are closer to their parents than past generations, so we see a little more reluctance to relocate, many of our Miami graduates do work in our Cincinnati market," Bradlee said.

A dream is where you make it

Like many, Boxhold feels it will be easier to find a job in his city of choice once he is there and has no problem moving to New York to find a job in New York.

Esinduy emphasizes importance of doing at least a little preparation before picking up and moving to a new destination.

"There is groundwork you can lay to make sure that ideally you land that job before you get there, different industries have different hiring cycles and there is a lot that you can do with to secure a position before arriving," Esinduy said.

In her past job Esinduy recruited at Miami, so she is familiar with employers' concerns about retention rates and stresses the importance of showing a connection to the city of choice.

"Spend fall break, spring break, interning-the more you can do to show that connection with the city," Esinduy said. "Better have support, have been there and have done some research; more that just want to go there, the more you can show connection better the odds."

Boxhold has been building his connections.

"I've been back three or four times for weeks at a time," he said. "My sister lived there, graduated with a degree from the New School, so every time I have been there I just loved it."

While Boxhold's grew up in Cincinnati he feels no pressure to stay close to home.

"My parents have always said whatever you want to do you can do it, do whatever makes you happy," Boxhold said.

Like many of his generation, Boxhold simply doesn't want to do something he doesn't like.

"I do want to be successful, but I don't think my success is dependent on me finding a job after college, it is on me being happy," Boxhold said.

Esinduy agrees: "It is all about dreams."

Like many students, Boxhold plans to follow his dream far from Oxford.

"I think I will be happy in New York and I'm wiling to move there and I think I can succeed," he said.


Read More

Trending