Graduates with majors in business, engineering and computer and Information sciences will fare well in the job market, if they ace the interview process. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Lucky graduates. They're leaving the halls of academe just in time to hit the best job market in over 10 years, with more employers than ever looking to hire recent college grads.
A CareerBuilder survey finds that not only do 80 percent of companies plan to bring on college graduates—up from 74 percent last year—but nearly half of them plan to offer more money in starting salaries than they did last year. Additionally, 47 percent plan to up what they offer, and 74 percent say they're willing to negotiate with applicants when they find a grad they want to hire.
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Conversely, 8 percent say they actually plan to decrease what they're offering, while 45 percent aren't planning to up the ante. Starting salaries of under $30,000 will be on the table at 21 percent of survey respondents and $30,000 to less than $40,000 at 23 percent. A full third will offer $50,000 or more.
Bosses are looking to fill more jobs in some fields than others, with 31 percent looking to hire for IT positions; 26 percent have customer service needs; 20 percent want business development and 18 percent want sales or finance/accounting.
Among the majors most in-demand positions:
- Business, with 35 percent of employers seeking those credentials
- Engineering, 22 percent
- Computer and information sciences, 18 percent
- Communications technologies, 11 percent
- Health professions and related clinical sciences, 11 percent
But not all grads will successfully get past the gatekeepers. Some fall notoriously short of so-called soft skills, with employers citing some common job-seeking faux pas committed by more than half of college graduate candidates just in the last year.
Any of these might end up costing an interviewee an opportunity:
- Didn't send a thank you note, 37 percent
- Didn't know anything about the company, 35 percent
- Didn't submit a cover letter, 31 percent
- Didn't ask any questions in the interview, 29 percent
- Didn't have professional references, 26 percent
- Had poor grammar on their resume, 26 percent
- Had unprofessional pictures on their social media profiles, 21 percent
- Checked their mobile phone during the interview, 19 percent
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Marlene Satter
Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.
