Approximately one-third of graduating Dartmouth students surveyed by Career Services have secured future employment, according to Monica Wilson, the College's director of employer relations. This figure represents a decrease from previous years, but is above the nationwide average of 20 percent.
About 34 percent of seniors who responded to the survey, conducted during the first two weeks of May, had obtained jobs for after graduation, while 32 percent were still seeking employment, 23 percent planned to pursue graduate studies and the remaining 11 percent were either unsure or had other plans, such as travel or unpaid volunteer work. Career Services conducted the poll by sending a mass e-mail to all members of the Class of 2009. About half of the class, 444 students, responded to the survey, according to Wilson.
Wilson said she was unsure if the survey accurately represented the total number of students who have plans after graduation because a large portion of the class did not respond and because the survey was voluntary.
A survey of Cornell University seniors yielded "similar" results, according to Rebecca Sparrow, director of Cornell's department of career services. Cornell's survey data found that 35 percent of students who responded had accepted employment offers, 33 percent planned to attend graduate school, 21 percent were still seeking jobs and 8 percent were applying to graduate schools. The results reflect a 43-percent response rate, Sparrow said.
Sparrow said she was unable to comment on survey results in past years because she did not have access to the data.
Representatives from the other Ivy League universities did not respond to requests for comment. Dartmouth's Career Services office conducted a similar survey of the members of the Class of 2008 last year, Wilson said. She explained that the statistics obtained from that survey were less meaningful, as barely 200 of the seniors responded. Of those 200, about 150 had found employment prior to graduation, according to Wilson. Nationwide, 20 percent of graduating college students seeking employment have been offered jobs, according to a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. About 26 percent of college students had found employment before graduation in 2008, and half had in 2007, according to the NACE's web site.
"I think that the candidates that had the complete package, high [grade point average], leadership experiences, have tended to be successful even this year," Wilson said, "But people who are a tier down are finding more difficulties."
Wilson added that there are currently few jobs available in fields where Dartmouth students have traditionally sought employment, such as investment banking and consulting.
Sparrow said this shift in the job market has encouraged her students to apply for positions in other fields.
"Cornell has definitely also seen a diversification of student interests," she said. "Students who majored in business are looking beyond Wall Street."
More Dartmouth students have recently expressed interest in positions with the federal government, Wilson said.
"It's the hot thing to do, and because of the new administration, those jobs are out there," she said. "People tend to get excited about what they hear about, and there's buzz about jobs in the federal government, or people were inspired by the campaigns to pursue jobs in public policy, community service or education."
Other students have decided to try and start their own businesses, Wilson said.
Matt McDonald '09 said the job shortage pushed him to pursue his own business venture.
"I realized that, realistically, my best job prospects were with firms that I didn't particularly care to work for, as the better firms were so competitive," he said. "I thought about law school and decided I didn't want to be a lawyer. Then, I thought I would intern on Capitol Hill and travel for a bit. I ended up pursuing a business venture with some friends, as I figure what else do we have to do?"
Following graduation, McDonald said he will move to New York City where he will work with two other Dartmouth students and recent graduates from Harvard University, Columbia University and Washington & Lee University to develop an online technology related to nightlife.
Lee Cooper '09 also participated in corporate recruiting, but said he became disenchanted with the available opportunities and will instead spend six months working with a nonprofit organization providing micro-loans in Chile following graduation. He said his work in Chile will be funded by the Dickey Center for International Understanding.
"I did a bit of corporate recruiting for some of the consulting firms that come through Dartmouth and didn't get any offers, a few explicitly because of hiring freezes," Cooper said. "I didn't pursue that industry too much afterward because I realized I wanted something a bit more adventurous and formative for my first experience out of Dartmouth,"
Cooper said he believes that many students in his class started their job search with career fairs and corporate recruiting, but had to work much harder to find employment than students did in previous years.
"Many people I know seem to be scrambling around for ideas and networking connections more so than equally qualified friends from years past," he said.
Cooper also said that he might not have decided to apply for funding to volunteer in Chile if more job opportunities had been available.
"I would most likely not be doing what I am now if this were the job market of the last three or four years," he said. "But I am genuinely optimistic and excited, because had there been more financially lucrative offers in the waiting, then the opportunity cost for this awesome fellowship might have seemed too prohibitive."
