by Sarah Raymond, Montana Tech, and Toni Burrell, The Cooper Union
Through regular communication with STEM colleges, common themes about STEM students have emerged. Students’ expectations are the same whether in major metropolitan areas or rural campuses, small niche institutions or major land-grant universities. A common concern heard by many at the end of the semester: “I don’t have an internship or full-time job set-up for next summer, so now what?”
A rising trend seen by STEM career centers is the increased competition for qualified candidates [see: “The Super Bowl of Recruiting” blog]. Recruiting starts earlier, not only in the calendar year, but also by engaging students earlier in their academic career. College career fairs and fall recruiting are a very public way STEM students get connected with employers. Several STEM colleges indicate their campus has a rich tradition of a robust fall career fair for students. This makes it easy for some students to walk away from the career fair with several options or even offers early in fall semester. Competition within STEM programs is fierce and this can leave some students feeling anxious about not securing something after the “BIG event.”
At The Cooper Union, Jolie Woodson, director states, “We have seen an uptick in students with anxiety who have not secured either full-time or summer internships by December. Through one-on-one counseling appointments, students are advised that the job search is a process and takes time. The recruiting process is ongoing and does not end after the fall semester is over.” Across several college career centers, similar tactics are taken to help alleviate the anxiety that students have regarding not securing either full-time work or a summer internship. At Michigan Technology University, they reiterate, the job search is a process and encourage specific steps including, “Practice telling your story and review questions that could be asked about struggles you have had and how you have overcome them,” according to Steven Patchin, director of career services.
STEM students appreciate data and providing it to them can help to reassure those anxious feelings. Valerie Quatrini at Carnegie Mellon University uses data to encourage them. "For a large number of our programs, the percentage of students who find employment within the first six months of graduation is very high—often times it is reassuring for students to see these numbers and feel more at-ease in their search,” she says. NACE’s First Destinations for College Class of 2016 states, 81 percent of 2016 bachelor’s degree graduates were employed or in graduate school within six months of graduation. The job-search process can be very long for some students. As time progresses they will understand no job-search experience is the same.
When students don’t receive positive feedback from the employers after the career fair or a robust recruiting season, it can be challenging. Sometimes students don’t realize that there are more activities they could do to be proactive in their job searches or that they can enlist their career centers on campus can help. STEM students are busy and want to get the job checked off their list so they can focus on their classes. Albeit easier, fall career fairs are not the end-all, be-all event for students to connect with employers. Several career centers also promote to students to be ready for the spring recruiting and use that as an opportunity to help them prepare to make the most of it. Student should also be aware that organizations have different recruiting timelines. Positions that weren’t available in the fall may open in the spring.
Students that are drawn into STEM majors often have similar personalities with a precision-like focus. While well-educated, they learn best through hands-on experiences and driven to do well in the classroom. The fact that engineering is hard helps to instill an inherent competition between students that can been seen in various settings. When classmates return from internship experiences with offers or other students seem to get all of the interviews, it can be discouraging or even frustrating.
The proactive job search is just as it sounds. Students can take some specific steps to make sure they are using all of the possibilities when companies are on-campus. B.J. Engelhardt, director at Illinois Institute of Technology, reminds students, “The end of the fall semester is also a good time for industry research and building a target company list, which goes hand-in-hand with outreach to industry professionals for informational interviews. It also allows students to keep tabs on companies they are interested in working for as new opportunities post-graduation come about in February and March.”
When possible, if an employer is recruiting on campus outside of the career fair, students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities to attend an information session to learn more about the company and other specific details to glean more about the company culture, possible future positions, or what qualities the employer looks for in new hires.
Advice for students to start building their networks come from all the career centers. Valerie Quatrini put it best, “As we all know, this is one of the most important aspects of any job search these days.”
This may intimidate some STEM students, but the ones who are successful practice with recruiters and use alumni. “There are two question that are must-asks,” according to Sarah Raymond, director at Montana Tech. “What advice did you wish you would have known before you graduated?” and “Is there anyone else you know with whom you think it would be good for me to talk?” Students should also use the winter break to not only network but to have their resumes reviewed and to work on their interviewing skills by doing practice interviews with the career center.
Several institutions also have a newsletter or periodic announcements to promote resources for the job/internship search, as well as pull positions listed with the offices, including REUs and information about graduate schools. In some cases, this promotes upcoming events for the semester and is shared with parents.
An innovative strategy implemented at Carnegie Mellon University, is hosting an online live question and answer session held in January before the students return to help prepare students on a wide variety of career-related topics for the spring semester.
At Montana Tech, STEM outreach has been very intentional and career services works closely with the freshman engineering program. In the first week of labs, a staff member presents an interactive session that tries to achieve three main points: awareness of the services provided by career services, registration and a brief tutorial of the online career management system, and an overview of resumes and things to starting thinking about. These deliberate activities are done with students as an individual, in pairs, and in small groups to get them talking and meeting people in their lab session. Later in the semester there are additional presentations and assignments about major exploration, informational interviews, and writing a good resume.
“It is early, but the overwhelming benefit is a consistent message from career services and an introduction to help the students know we are here to help them through the process,” states Sarah Raymond, director of career services at Montana Tech, “I tell them and their parents at Orientation, ‘Their career starts now!’”
The ultimate goal of any career center is to help students be prepared for their personal and professional goals. We are more than just matchmakers through the public events of a career fair or on-campus recruiting [see: Managing the Relationship and Recruiting Needs blog] or the data repository of outcomes. There are opportunities for students to grow and develop themselves with many services across the career continuum of services. B.J. Engelhardt summarizes, “It is important for our soon-to-be graduates to use the slow time to reflect on the skills they have gained through projects, coursework, internships, etc. over the past semester or year. The ability to articulate the value of these experiences—on paper, through social media, and in-person—is essential to a successful job search.”
Authors: Sarah Raymond, Montana Tech, and Toni Burrell, The Cooper Union
Editor: Derek Musashe, University of California - Santa Barbara
Contributing Universities:
BJ Engelhardt – Illinois Institute of Technology
Steve Patchin – Michigan Technological University
Toni Burrell & Jolie Woodson – The Cooper Union
Valerie Quatrini & Raymond Mizgorski – Carnegie Mellon University