Graduating from college is a major life milestone most college students look forward to experiencing one day, but getting a job after graduation is becoming more difficult than graduating itself.
Wayne State College is making an effort to increase the number of students getting jobs after graduation. The team at the Career Services Center on campus actively works and meets one on one with students on their potential and current job offers. The nation is coming together to raise the national average of graduates getting jobs after graduation since it has been decreasing in recent years.
Phil Myer, the Assistant Director of Career Services at Wayne State, said 97.7% of 480 students surveyed graduates from WSC’s 2022 graduating class were employed or going to graduate school. A total of 74.4% of graduates from the 2021-2022 school year got a job in their field of study ranging from Arts and Humanities to Science, Health, and Criminal Justice majors according to the WSC 2021-2022 Graduate Survey.
Looking through the last three years of surveys, the number of graduates with jobs has been decreasing.
“I have seen articles about hiring going down due to Covid,” Myer said. “It went from 100% to 97% in the last three years.”
The survey sent out to students via email asks them to answer many questions through a Microsoft form. If students do not fill out the survey, the Career Center checks on their LinkedIn or calls them personally to get the information. Questions include what their major was, if they have secured post-graduation employment, if they are attending graduate school, and where their post-graduation employment is located.
“About 80% stay in Nebraska, and most stay in the Midwest,” Myer said.
The Career Services Center on campus reaches out to students to help them network and get interviews. The biggest event every semester is the career fair where a variety of businesses come to campus and talk with any student that would like to talk.
“We do tons of presentations in classrooms and that expands our outreach,” said Tracy Lungrin, the Director of Career Services, said. “The biggest strategy in Career Services right now to increase outreach and engagement and career readiness among college students is for my team to build great career services.”
Career Services hopes to put those career tools into the hands of professors and faculty on campus. Faculty will be able to assign career readiness assignments to their classes and report those to the Career Center.
“The reach of that would really get students engaged and involved in career readiness,” Lungrin said.
According to the National Assocation of Colleges and Employers, 59.1% of bachelor’s degree graduates got post-graduation employment, with master’s degree students having an average 76.8% and doctorate students with 82.7%.
Forage released an article stating only 24% of college graduates use career centers for their career research, and 57% of college students are either not confident or only somewhat confident about finding relevant work experience during college.
“Forage, in partnership with Knit Research, surveyed 1,000 students pursuing a four-year undergraduate degree at a U.S. college or university in April and May 2022,” according to Forage.
Out of 1000 students surveyed, 330 of them used Handshake to research careers for after college. WSC switched to Handshake in 2022 to connect students directly to employers. Having a good system or service for connecting students with these potential employers is vital to the students securing post-graduation employment.
“The first thing we are building is a digital handbook to improve our coaching with students,” Lungrin said. The Career Services Center is hoping this handbook will assist the students that need help at late night hours or are unable to talk to someone in person.
