FAYETTEVILLE : Field of study tells all in job prospects
Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008
Nicholas Robbins spent time during his final year at the University of Arkansas counseling fellow students at the Career Development Center as he finished degrees in international relations and Middle East studies.
But like most graduating seniors he knows at the Fayetteville campus’s Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, he’s still looking for a job.
“That’s because a lot of arts and science majors don’t have a lot of skills, in terms of a business background or technical background,” said Robbins, 23, of Fort Smith.
Most engineering, architecture and business graduates he knows already have landed work.
But with a background that includes the two bachelor of art degrees, a fall 2006 internship with a U. S. ambassador at the United Nations and studyabroad experience in Beirut, Lebanon, teaching English to Arabic-speaking people of all ages, he is confident.
“Sometimes I feel down, but I know I’m not behind — I am part of the norm at the moment,” said Robbins, who is seeking public relations work with an international twist in the Washington, D. C., area.
“I’m moving to D. C. June 3, with or without a job,” he said.
In general, students graduating today and entering the job search can expect some bright spots despite the economic downturn, economists and career counselors say.
Kathy Deck, director of UA’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said that when the economy dips or dives, companies try to squeeze out more efficiency. They value the salary savings and energy of new workers as middle management jobs are cut, she said.
“Every company is looking for savings where they can find it,” she said.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers found in its spring survey that the average salary offer to all graduates rose 5. 3 percent compared with spring 2007, said Edwin Koc, director of strategic and foundation research for the Bethlehem, Pa., organization. College majors that have experienced even higher increases include computer science and engineering specialties, although Arkansas graduates likely will have to look beyond their home state for fertile jobhunting ground. The association highlighted some of the bright spots for graduates: Computer science graduates are seeing the average annual salary offer increase by 14. 7 percent to $ 59, 873, and those who specialize in software design and development got an average of $ 65, 379. Chemical engineers had an increase of 6. 5 percent to a $ 63, 616 average salary.
Civil engineering majors experienced a 6. 7 percent increase in average salary on the survey to a $ 50, 940 average first-job salary offer.
Mechanical engineers saw the average salary offers increase by 5. 7 percent to $ 57, 821. But in Arkansas, most of the higher-paying jobs with significant salary increases didn’t make the top tier of the state Department of Workforce Services “Hot 45” list of demand occupations because the number of openings each year is small.
The list is divided into tiers of high-, moderate- and basicskill jobs, with 15 types of jobs that employers demand most in each of the tiers. The openings include entry-level and more advanced jobs.
The closest thing the highskill tier has to computer software work was its No. 10, “computer support specialist,” a job requiring just an associate’s degree and paying a mean wage of $ 35, 870 that is projected to have 142 annual openings.
“Chemical engineers — we’re showing eight,” said Ron White, manager of labor market information. The same data projection showed 21 annual openings through 2014 for electrical engineers, two for biomedical engineers and four for computer hardware engineers.
Accountants are in hot demand in Arkansas, but with no change on the national level in an annual average salary offer of $ 47, 429 for graduates. Accountants were lumped with auditors on the state’s top 15 list, with a minimum training and education of a bachelor’s degree, and a mean wage of $ 47, 660.
Though the overall job opening statistics can appear daunting, an official at the UA career center says they’re just a beginning.
Graduates, like Robbins, who’ve built a resume and contacts while earning a college degree will have an edge.
“There are more jobs out there — that are in what we call the ‘hidden job market’ — than there are that are advertised,” said Becky Vianden, associate director for program development at the career center.
The center offers right-place, right-time advice that includes encouraging students to network and to find an internship each summer after they declare a major, with work directly related to their field. Counselors say that while some companies come to campus to recruit, they like to see students get out and look.
“We’re trying to get students to go to community events or professional association events, to get them to build some contacts,” she said, adding that sometimes employers will create a position after chatting with them at such activities.
Vianden said the current crop of graduates is seeking more flexibility than their predecessors.
“They’re trying to find a good balance between merging the work life and the home life,” she said. “That might mean flex time, or being able to telecommute — especially with gas prices. Setting their own work hours, so they can get to other things in life as well.” Tera Thompson of Lincoln was able to get a job at the first place where she applied.
Thompson plans to put her bachelor of science in nursing degree from UA-Fayetteville to use June 9, after she takes her board exam, at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville as a labor and delivery nurse.
“That was where I wanted to go,” she said.
Thompson’s education exceeds the minimum requirement of an associate’s degree on the Workforce Services Department’s hot list, where the position “registered nurse” comes in at No. 1 on the tier of 15 most-in-demand high-skill jobs, with a $ 51, 330 mean wage, and 1, 008 annual openings projected through 2, 014.
But even in the wide-open nursing profession, Thompson said she knows graduates who can’t find the exact nursing job they want or at a particular hospital.
Even though Thompson doesn’t need a backup plan, she has another passion besides her chosen profession.
A singer, she fronts a country, classic rock and blues band, SouthernBound. She sang the national anthem at a Northwest Arkansas Naturals baseball game in Springdale three days before graduation.
Thompson also trolls the Internet to see when the next and nearest American Idol tryouts are.
“They usually have one in Texas every summer,” she said, adding that she’d have to become famous or successful in music before she’d give up nursing to sing full-time.
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