If it didn’t feel hard enough to be in college, the current economic decline has left many students wondering if they will find a job after graduating. Loyola’s Career Development Cente is helping to appease fears by offering a university Career Fair in conjunction with Tulane on Sept. 30.
It’s difficult to ignore the dismal state of the current job market. Unemployment rates are skyrocketing, and the possibility of finding a job seems grim for many students who are on the cusp of graduating.
Not only do they have to compete with each other for jobs, they have the added challenge of competing against recent graduates, many of whom have yet to get hired.
Of those students, how many used the assistance of the Career Development Center? The Career Development Center provides an array of resources to help make students better contenders in the workforce, but not enough students seem to utilize it.
Few, if any, graduating seniors, have a job lined up after graduation, but how many Loyola students will actually attend the Career Fair?
This raises the issue of how well students are prepared when they graduate from Loyola. Many students remain in a comfortable bubble while in college. They have little gauge on the future, or on what they plan to do after graduating. They invest little time in internships or joining student organizations.
There’s no denying how much easier it is to remain that way than to consider the gravity of life after graduation. But by putting off reality, students will only suffer.
In addition, many Loyola students do not search for jobs that will help build on their career. Instead, they are willing to accept any job that will hire them. By doing this, they miss out on the bigger picture.
Granted, there are some students who begin to think about their careers long before graduation day and who still end up jobless. In these cases, it’s hard not to blame external circumstances. Instead of bringing up the question of how these students could have better prepared themselves, it leaves open the matter of who should be held accountable.
Perhaps Loyola is not preparing students enough. But it is clear that the issue of unemployment extends beyond this university, or any university for that matter.
Unemployment seems to be affecting an entire spectrum of people. Currently, the state of the economy is the greatest factor to blame.
Yet Loyola’s Career Development Center is doing its best to counter this and get Loyola graduates hired. The university is working to support students through such services as the upcoming job fair, presentations, individual appointments and the online recruiting tool, Employola.
Similarly, many professors are supportive and try to help students find internships and jobs. They can also stress the importance of life after college, not just in the classroom.
Unless students make use of the resources available, their chance of finding a good job is minimal. Loyola can only prepare students to a certain extent. What is really necessary for employment is self-motivation.