Welcome to the Fall of 2009, where recent graduates are being advised to put their full-time career aspirations and goals on hold temporarily. Instead of the expectation of making the salaries that past graduates have typically made in their first year out of school, young professionals like myself have come to the harsh realization that we will have to work even harder to reach our goals.
Even if you graduated from a “Top 50 Business School” like Miami University’s Farmer School of Business in Oxford, OH (my alma-mater), there is no guarantee of full-time job placement in these tough times. What I believe is that professional networking and furthering your experience with additional internships out of school will help someone get to where he/she wants to ultimately be.
Here is what I have done in the last year since I have graduated (You can be the judge of whether or not I am on the right path to a full-time job opportunity): First, I was originally slated to graduate in May of 2008, but decided to take an additonal business practicum course in marketing. Once I officially graduated in August of 2008, I had already been offered an internship at start-up company in the business of sports, Legacy Direct. Although there was no guarantee of full-time employment, I worked at Legacy Direct for nine months and was able to get paid on a part-time basis between December of 2008 and March of 2009.
In 2008, the job prospects were slightly better than those in 2009. Although, the document below from the Farmer School of Business suggests that 82% of my classmates achieved full-time employment, I felt very lucky just to be offered an internship in the sports field, whereas most of my peers went for the traditional jobs in accounting, finance, and other such fields. Here is the supposed breakdown for 2008 graduates of the Farmer School and their job placement:
http://www.fsb.muohio.edu/fsb/content/about/class-profile/2008-class-profile.pdf
While at Legacy Direct, I worked hard at my job, especially in social media and its applications for a fledgling business. Using my writing and social networking skills, I succesfully launched the Legacy Direct company blog, which is still going strong at around 16,000 unique visitors (http://legacydirect.wordpress.com) After Legacy Direct, I was now competing with graduates in the class of 2009 and was once again unable to land a full-time job. With the economy in the midst of a terrible recession, I wanted to make sure I had some money saved up for summer activities, so I took a job as a server at Greenwich Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Between May and August of this year, I continued to fully use my resources and connections in hopes of landing something full-time, but I inevitably realized that once the Fall of 2009 rolled around, it was important for me to continue to gain all the experience I could get in both the business of sports and the field of marketing. Thus, I decided on two separate internships (both unpaid) to keep me on my feet and working hard. One internship is a “Marketing and Events Internship” at nightlife production company known as Joonbug. This internship has required me to commute to New York City 3-4 times per week at a cost of $239/month via a monthly train pass. Whatever the cost, my hope is that the work experience and the connections made at this three month internship will help lead to what I ultimately want: A full-time job.
The other internship is with a sports agency out of Gainesville, Florida started by a successful young law student, Darren Heitner. His agency is known as Dynasty Athlete Representation, and I am currently in a four month internship from my home in Connecticut that revolves around Dynasty’s clients (updating their peformance, progress, current status). So far, so good at both internships and I am very pleased at how each one is progressing.
Once again, if you are a recent college graduate in my shoes, don’t sweat it! Unless you are very well connected and have deep ties to certain businesses, you will probably be forced to take unpaid internships just like I have. The hope is that these experiences will help shape your career goals and aspirations and ultimately lead to full-time employment. ”Just keep plugging away and good things will come,” says my mom, a successful children’s book author.
