How To Get Ahead After College

The job outlook for 2016 college graduates is looking pretty rosy, according to a recent report issued by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The report says employers expect to hire 11 percent more of this year’s crop of fresh-faced job seekers than last year.

That’s great news for Millennials who are facing the best overall job market for college grads in years, according to articles in the Wall Street Journal. However, the welcomed forecasts are in high-wage sectors, jobs for which a bachelor’s degree is an important piece, but certainly not the whole career-development package. “Having a bachelor’s degree in this competitive job market is not enough. It is how you use the degree to benefit you that matters,” said Katie Nunez, a career counselor for Whittier College’s Center for Career & Professional Development.

Nunez said that even with a good hiring forecast welcoming 2016 graduates, students should be preparing themselves sooner than they think for the rigors of job seeking. “Some misconceptions are that the job search process is short; it’s not,” said Nunez. “It’s about six months to a year. A lot of students don’t realize that they should be thinking about their first destination after they graduate in the fall of their senior year.”

The Career Center recommends completing internships as a way to gain a competitive advantage in the job market. “Internships are essential for entering into a competitive job market because employers do not trust that you are honing all of your skills in school,” said Nunez, explaining that while employers are aware that students are learning skills in college, being able to act on and develop these skills is a different thing. “It is important to apply the knowledge that students are learning in the classroom to real-life scenarios,” she added.

Michelle Ponce, the Associate Director of Internships at the Career Center, recommends that Whittier students attempt to complete multiple internships before graduating. The idea of adding an internship to schedules that include classes, homework, extracurricular activities and jobs can be daunting, “but it doesn’t have to be a hundred-hours-a-week internship; it can be five hours,” said Ponce.

In addition to internships, Nunez recommends experiential learning, such as working at a part-time job on or off campus, studying abroad or completing undergraduate research projects. All of these provide students with hands-on experience, so when they walk into their job, they will know how to use the skills they are being taught.

One of the most important things Whittier students can do to prepare for the job market, added Nunez, is to take advantage of the close-knit relationships between students and alumni that small liberal arts colleges provide. Nunez likened the job market to an iceberg where only the tip is visible. Similarly, said Nunez, the vast majority of job opportunities are not out in the open and are getting filled through networking. In fact, according to The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System’s article, “In the Shadow of the Great Recession: Experiences and Perspectives of Young Workers,” sixty percent of young people between the ages of 18–30 got their first job through personal connection.

Nunez likened the job market to an iceberg where only the tip is visible.

“Networking allows you to share with the world your brand and what makes you a unique professional and exposes you to the hidden job market,” Nunez said, checking over the next day’s schedule while afternoon sunlight streamed through the window. “The jobs that are not posted online or advertised anywhere, they’re all through word of mouth.”

While networking may sound like a business administration term, it’s simply the process of developing and maintaining relationships. It’s about “who knows you and your value,” said Nunez, adding that, “alumni are often interested in supporting fellow Poets and are great networking resources.”

The staff at the Center for Career & Professional Development have created a strong alumni network in the Los Angeles area for Whittier students to take advantage. Alumni will sometimes return to Whittier for visits, “specifically seeking to hire Whittier students,” Nunez said.

Even when they don’t have jobs to fill, Nunez noted that alumni often have valuable information to share. “Alums are more apt to support a student with information than any other way, so informational interviews, sharing of advice (and) mentoring are all ways that alumni help give back to current students,” Nunez said.

Some people assume that attending a liberal arts college limits the fields that students will be successful in, but Nunez and others say the opposite is generally the case. “There are so many [areas] from the non-profit sector, to the private sector, to education, to government — that’s what’s so great about having a liberal arts education — the skies the limit,” said Nunez. “There are no arenas that you couldn’t potentially wade your way into.”

Senior Laura Van Druten agreed, saying, “I feel like the liberal education, especially the Whittier Scholars Program, where I’m coming from, focuses on so many disciplines, from creating my degree, to sharing with me a variety of approaches, and a variety of knowledge. I am less narrow-minded because I am attending a liberal arts college.”

According to the 2014 Higher Education Data Sorting (HEDS) Alumni Survey, which Whittier College’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment sends out to students one year after they have graduated, 28.6 percent of alumni began working at their first career destination while enrolled as an undergraduate. The majority of Whittier alumni, 57.1 percent, got their first job within the first six months after graduation, while only 3.6 percent of alumni seeking a job had not yet found one.

Almost half of alumni, 45.8 percent, revealed that they entered into a field that was related to the major they graduated with. That number decreased slightly over time. The most popular undergraduate majors for students who graduated in 2014, were social sciences, with 42.1 percent, and Business and Management with 23.7 percent.

There’s also good news for Whittier student who may wonder if their higher education is worth the time and cost. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scoreboard, which is a website that compiles critical information about U.S. college student performance, Whittier College graduates earn more than most in entry-level positions. The average income that a college graduate will receive for his or her first job is $34,343, while Whittier graduates earn $45,100 on average.

Who says being a poet doesn’t pay?

Sommer Hernandez is an office assistant at the Career Center.