Jobs should be higher on graduates' radars
With a lackluster economy and jobs disappearing every day, college students should be genuinely concerned about finding a job after graduation. There is a great resource on campus for students to use, but not nearly enough of them use Career Services. The people in the Career Services office are incredibly friendly, and work to get students internships and jobs. Kirk Bixler, the Director of Career Services, makes his services available to all students to be sure they can be as successful as possible once they graduate. Career Services keeps tabs on alumni after graduation through a series of surveys. Graduates are given a survey before the commencement ceremony. This survey asks if graduates will be working full-time, going to graduate school, working part-time, still seeking employment or doing something else. Follow-up surveys are done to ensure all graduates are accounted for. So far, 143 of 185 graduates from the Class of 2009 have responded to the survey. Fifty-eight percent are working full-time. Twenty-nine percent are still seeking employment, with 15 percent enrolled in graduate school. Bixler said that over the next few months he anticipates the number of full-time employees will increase dramatically. Sixty-five percent of the Class of 2008 has found full-time employment, while 75 percent of the class of 2007 got jobs. These statistics are pretty good. In 2008, the graduating class from the University of Butler had 65 percent of its graduates finding full-time employment, which was exactly the same percentage the school had in 2007. Hanover College only had statistics available for the Class of 2008. Seventy-one percent of graduates had found work either full-time or part-time. Franklin’s numbers are impressive. Bixler estimates roughly 75 percent of a graduating class will come in to Career Services for help. But we can do better. The statistic should be 100 percent. The additional 25 percent need to check in and do everything possible to get a job. Not only should 100 percent of students get help from Career Services, but 100 percent of need to have a job or be enrolled in graduate school by the time they leave Franklin.
