Though the effects of the economic downturn have yet to significantly impact the rate at which Hopkins graduates secure new jobs, and in spite of recent government graduate hiring rising by double digits, the prospect of a recession has left many seniors feeling less secure about their post-graduation employment prospects.
Mark Presnell, director of the Career Center, said that between 90 to 95 percent of the class of 2009 either will be employed or enrolled in a post-graduate degree program by this time next year.
While it has always been daunting for graduating seniors to conceive of a life not centered on studies, a recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that new hires for the class of 2009 are expected to grow by only 1.3 percent this year. According to a NACE representative, six percent growth in post-graduation recruiting has long been considered the benchmark of healthy growth.
According to the most recent data compiled by the Career Center, 27 percent of the class of 2007 who secured employment after graduation did so in banking, financial services or consulting, while only 12 percent of employed grads found work in government or non-profits.
Other industries which attracted a high percent of '07 alums were engineering and information technology as well as science research positions, both at 14 percent.
While statistics are not yet available for 2008, Presnell stated that the class of 2008 was able to secure employment similar to those who graduated in 2007.
Many of the industries which the study projects will decrease hiring are not ones which traditionally attract Hopkins graduates. These include construction, agriculture and utility companies.
The survey did, however, record a 6.2 percent drop from earlier estimates of expected new hires in financial services companies surveyed in October.
The survey also revealed that the government upped its expected new graduate hires figure by 19.8 percent from August to October.
"From the Career Center's perspective, we don't anticipate overall outcome [for the class of 2009] to be different from '08. Ninety-five percent will be placed, the other five percent will still be searching or applying to graduate or medical school. This number is fairly stable. The worst case scenario would be 90 percent [securing employment or admission to graduate school upon graduation]," Presnell said.
Presnell also predicted that because of the national economic turmoil, the number of students heading to graduate school or volunteer programs will be slightly up for the class of 2009, which will also make admission to elite programs even more competitive.
Career Center data for the class of 2007 show that 45 percent of graduates that year planned to enroll in graduate or professional schools after graduation.
Hopkins students can access a broad array of services and support offered by the University when preparing for life after graduation. In addition to the counseling services provided by the Career Center, there are job fairs and a newly-launched Alumni Association networking Web-site which allows alumni, students and faculty to connect with each other and post employment opportunities.
This system, inCircle, is less than a year old and according to Angela Baldwin, associate director of Alumni relations, has yet to be utilized to its full potential.
"We want people not to log in once and never come back, but to build their profiles, communicate with one another and post opportunities," Baldwin said.
For seniors now actively searching for employment, Presnell stressed the importance of starting the process early, especially because some firms will be decreasing their new hires this year.
It was therefore surprising to him that attendance at the fall career fair did not increase significantly over last year, even though a much broader array of industries sent representatives this year.
"There seems to be an attitude [on the part of seniors] that there aren't any jobs out there. We would have hoped that students would have felt a little sense of urgency and looked at opportunities that are out there. As director of the Career Center, I want students to know that opportunities are out there," Presnell said.
Many graduates of the class of 2008 will still be heading for jobs in finance after graduation. Even students who have already secured a position for next year feel that it is a tight market.
"It's not a very bright future, for people thinking about getting into finance. I feel like it's as much a problem for seniors as it is for juniors. It's an even bigger problem for juniors because firms are not hiring a lot for summer internships," Hopkins student Wesley Hung said.
Members of the Hopkins student body may fair better than their peers in an increasingly competitive environment, thanks to their diversity. Hung, a native of Hong Kong, believes that his cultural and linguistic background has helped him convert his summer internship into a full-time offer.
Even students who never planned to enter the cutthroat world of international finance are feeling less secure because of the nation's uncertain economic future.
"I have been interested in education my whole life [but] the idea of living on a teacher's salary has become a lot scarier. It seemed difficult two years ago and seems to have become more difficult now," Hopkins student Frances Brandt said.
This general sense of unease was echoed by Chethan Mallela, who is an applied math and economics double major planning on going into finance after graduation.
"Fewer firms are [aready] looking to hire fewer people; [this event] that none of us thought was possible has already happened," Mallela said.
Even if the current financial crisis becomes a worldwide recession, students with skills that can be applied to a wide variety of professions feel more confident than others.
Dusty Franklin will graduate this spring with a degree in computer science. He currently has an offer from a software design company, but is confident that if it should fall through, he could easily apply his software engineering skills to a job with the government.
"We are never going to leave Iraq, so the defense industry will always be strong," Franklin said.
