Students struggle to find a job come graduation

By Caroline Boden

It’s said that going to college will open doors of opportunity. However, as the end of the semester approaches, many students find those doors to be locked.

With less than three weeks until fall graduation, many of the graduates do not have a job lined up. This unfortunate reality is represented in departments across the University of Houston.

“Applying for a job is a full time job,” said graduating senior Cynthia Cogan (22). “So trying to juggle that while finishing your last semester of school is a real pain. It’s not like I’ve been sitting around and waiting for something to fall into my lap.”

Students are finding that companies aren’t very responsive to their application and plea for a job. Many of which have created back up plans that are unrelated to their degree.

“I’ve been applying for the past two or three weeks,” said Gerardo Salazar (21), finance major. “No one has gotten back to me yet. I’ll just keep applying and if nothing comes up, I’ll just continue being a real estate agent for the time being.”

Because of the digital age, companies exclusively take online submissions and applications. Although the reasoning for this may be valid, many applicants never hear back because their application never gets reviewed.

“I’ve had interviews,” Cogan said. “I’ve followed up with employers. I’ve reached out to advertising agencies specifically and it’s either you get denied or you don’t hear anything back. It’s just a waiting game.”

A majority of students have career aspirations. Graduating senior Alivia Mikahiel (22), double majoring in marketing and finance, dreams of working for Google in New York City in corporate or brand marketing. Her struggle to land a job doing something similar is causing her dream to drift further away.

“I have been applying to a ton of jobs,” Mikahiel said. “I’ve looked on LinkedIn, company websites, Bauer Career Gateway, but jobs on there aren’t that great. I’m getting desperate. At first I was applying to jobs that I actually wanted to work at and cool companies I cared about. Now I’m like ‘yeah I’ll be a front desk assistant at a random cyber company.’”

To help students land a job, the University Career Services offers resources such as workshops, mock interviews, meet and greets and assistance with cover letters and resumes.

“UH does offer the resume workshops,” Mikahiel said. “They have all the stock things that they should offer. But if they didn’t offer those things, I’d still be in the same place.”

Another difficulty students have found is the qualifications and requirements for entry-level positions. Even though the description may read fitting for a recent graduate, the qualifications list at least a year or two of experience.

“I don’t think it necessary has to do with the amount of jobs available,” Cogan said. “It’s the amount of qualifications these jobs want out of students.”

Approximately 53 percent of college graduates are unemployed or working in a job that doesn't require a bachelor's degree, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. It takes the average college graduate three to six months to secure employment after graduation.

“When I was doing my job hunt, I noticed a lot of the jobs had a June 2020 start date,” Mikahiel said. “I definitely think that there’s not much of a market for people graduating in December. It’s mostly next June or beyond that. Even internship programs I’ve been applying to don’t want me until the summer and ask me not to apply.”