Job market good for some majors
By Ashley Miller Special to the Kansan
Amy Grazier, Loveland, Colo., graduate student, walked down the hill in May, but she decided to attend school for another year because the job market was bad and because she was close to a second degree.
"My job paid enough for another year, so why leave?" she said.
Grazier is a political science and Russian/East European studies major. Right now, she is looking for a job in the department of student housing.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they are (getting paid the most)," said Barb Woods, instructor of pharmacy practice. "The only difference is they don't progress much further."
If all Grazier was interested in was money, she might have pursued a degree in pharmacy. That's the highest paying degree this year for first-year salaries, according to the College Placement Council in Bethlehem, Pa.
Terry Glenn, director of the University Placement Center, said that any health-related field was promising this spring, especially pharmacy, nursing and physical therapy. However, numbers from the council showed that salaries for all three concentrations were decreasing. Starting salary offers for pharmacy were down 3 percent, and those for nursing were down 13 percent.
"Most people still have a fairly tight market at this time." Glenn said.
The council also showed that in September 1993, first-year accounting majors were earning $27,493. In March 1994, they were up to $28,371.
Fred Madaus, director of the Business School Placement Center, said the data was on target. Accounting degrees are promising, he said, but the emphasis has shifted from public to nonpublic accounting.
Glenn said careers in sales, marketing and retail also were promising. However, the graduate's degree doesn't necessarily have to be in such a field, he said.
"It depends a lot on the employer,"he said, adding that most employers are flexible in hiring people with degrees in different fields.
"Communication studies majors in sales positions do well," he said. According to the council's survey, first-year communications majors were offered $22,591 in March 1994, up from $21,498 in September 1993.
The University also has more employers coming to its teacher interview day than ever before. Glenn said.
"More than 100 school districts." he said.
The Lindquist-Endicott Report, a 1994 survey of 264 businesses and industrial organizations by Northwestern University, said employment in the chemical sciences and engineering fields was grim.
But Julie Cunningham, director of the Engineering Career Services Center at the School of Engineering, said engineering students were going to be fairly successful this spring.
"Civil engineers are seeing a very open job market," she said. "There are lots of transportation openings."
Mechanical engineering picked up this semester, she said, and more architectural engineers were hiring at consulting firms and construction companies.
The council's numbers showed that Cunningham was right on track. Mechanical engineers were earning $34,518 in March 1994, up from $34,460 in September 1993.
The following are ten average first-year salaries for areas of study offered at KU.
Real life
In fact, six of the top 10 starting salaries listed in the survey were engineering degrees.
Cunningham said most of last year's engineering graduates had not had a job by May or June when the school had checked up on them. They also were getting fewer offers, usually one or two rather than five or six, she said.
"When a person gets a job depends on when they start looking," Cunningham said. "The process itself takes a while."
Actually, it can take from two to 10 months for engineering students, she said. Many students knew this, Cunningham said, and started the process late because they were discouraged.
All three advisers from the placement centers agreed that the number of recruiting employers hadn't changed, as many people thought. There aren't as many Fortune 500 companies to choose from, Glenn said, but the overall number is the same.
Madaus said students weren't going to see big corporations on campus this year, either.
"This year they may join companies that didn't exist four years ago," he said.
"Opportunities lie with small employers now who don't make the trip to campus," she said. "Students must take the initiative in the job search and sell themselves. It's toughest for engineering students."
Cunningham agreed.
Employers used to come to campus and seek them out, she said.
No matter what degrees are promising this spring, Madaus said, he thinks work experience is important.
"We try to make the internship process like the job process," he said.
That way, the student may not be the best qualified, he said, but will be the best prepared.
May 2,1994 THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • GRADUATION
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