Job Market is Tough, but NC State College of Management Undergraduates Beating National Average

Just over a quarter of the students who graduated with bachelor’s degrees from the NC State College of Management in May 2009 – 25.5 percent – had a job offer by the time of graduation, according to surveys completed by students at time of graduation.

That is just about half the 58 percent employment rate for the 2008 graduating class but above the national average of 19.7 percent reported by National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) for this year’s graduates, McCarthy said.

Of those who did get a job this spring, 83 percent had participated in at least one internship experience, she said.

“This statistic alone reinforces the value of gaining real world experience through meaningful internship programs,” McCarthy said.

The college encourages all students to secure an internship and offers academic credit for students successfully completing an internship experience. “We continue to actively seek corporate and other business partners who can offer opportunities for our students,” she said.

McCarthy also offers workshops for employer groups or organizations interested in developing internships for their companies, and works with individual employers to develop an internship program that brings value to both the student and company.

Graduate school was the option of choice for nearly a fourth of this spring 2009 graduating class – 21.1 percent, McCarthy said. She also noted that while 29.4 percent of the students reported having applied for jobs up to three times, the student survey showed that 25 percent had never applied for a job prior to graduating.

“Graduates may be discouraged by unemployment rates, increased chances of rejection and the proliferation of financial crises,” McCarthy said.

The declining number of job opportunities required more intensive work on the part of the career development staff at the college, to help connect those employers who were hiring with qualified students. “We are working with employers to develop internship and training programs so that they will have qualified student candidates in the pipeline once the economy rebounds,” McCarthy said.

“We developed events to build students’ interviewing and networking skills, bringing in people from companies such as Caterpillar, Carolina Hurricanes, Bank of America, WNCN-NBC 17, Credit Suisse and the N.C. Department of Commerce,” McCarthy said.

Her office also presented a week-long series of workshops in the fall and spring semesters which featured employers talking about strategies for success in challenging economic conditions, covering business attire, etiquette and professionalism, networking, and “how to land the job at a career fair,” McCarthy said.