8B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
GRADUATION
MONDAY, MAY 5, 2003
Job search difficult even for college grads
By JJ Hensley
jhensley@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Much is made in the media of the sour economy, but it's sometimes difficult to realize the scope of the recession on campus. Reality sets in, though, when graduating students start looking for jobs and internships. Students from professional schools like business, architecture and engineering have an especially tough time, said Mary Andrade, assistant director at University career and employment services.
It's a reality Frank Louis, a Chicago graduate student in architecture, knows all too well.
"I don't know what I'm going to do in June," Louis said. "Maybe just go back to Chicago."
Louis isn't the only architecture student with an uncertain future. He estimates only 20 percent of the people he works with in the school have jobs set up next year.
For many students, it's a matter of finding time to look for work between classes and the part-time jobs they depend on. Once school is over, however, many find a minimum number of opportunities on the other side, said Cindy Muckey, an advisor in the School of Architecture.
"There have been a lot of requests for job opportunities, but there's not been a lot of information to give them," Muckey said.
One of Muckey's jobs in the school is to give information from prospective employers to the appropriate students.
"In the last few years there's just been less information to pass on," she said.
The school had a career fair last March, Muckey said, but many of the companies that came weren't hiring. The students who have been most successful finding jobs have turned part-time employment at a firm into a full-time career, she said.
With opportunities at a minimum, it's important to take full advantage of them when they present themselves, said Andrade. She still gets internship positions sent to the advising center every week, though her office doesn't work much with students in architecture, business or engineering.
There are less high-paid and more unpaid internships available, but they're still out there. Andrade said.
"I think it's improving a little. Right now it seems like employers are looking at their budget for summer and offering more positions than they might have planned on previously.
"There are still opportunities available, though. The harder you're willing to work, the more opportunities you'll create for yourself," Andrade said.
Most employers are open to an idea for an internship if a student presents it after doing some research into the company's needs, she said.
Or, if you have an idea and don't know which company to take it to, take it to career services.
"We can help," Andrade said.
- Edited by Anne Mantey
Heard on the Hill What do you plan to do after you graduate?
Compiled by Mandalee Meisner
"I'm going to make movies, get paid lots of money for doing them ... independently." Ed Minges San Francisco senior
"I'm going to student teach in Tonganoxie."
Astrid McMullen- Baker
Lawrence senior
"I'm going to try to get a freaking job.In mechanical engineering." Jake Albers Lawrence senior
"I'm going to go work for my Grandpa's casket factory." Matt Sargent Edwardsville senior
"I'm going to work here over the summer, working on my resume and going to do a job search in San Francisco."
Willie Lanz Gurnee, Ill., senior
"I'm working for the Kansas Biological Survey this summer, then going into the Peace Corps, then studying aquatic
ecology in grad scho Jason Robertson Kansas City, Mo., senior
"I am moving back to Chicago and getting a job with an event planning company." Candace Hecktman Highland Park, Illinois, senior
"I'm going to grad school at KU for sociology and then joining the Peace Corps."
Kansas City, Mo., senior
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