[Among the things Americans took for granted 40 years ago were relative job security, good health care benefits and reliable pensions. Gone, gone, gone.]
May 30, 2004
'04 Graduates Learned Lesson in Practicality
By EDUARDO PORTER and GREG WINTER
COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Jim Moore visited Ohio State University this year on his annual recruiting trip for Ford Motor, he expected the usual barrage of questions from graduating seniors about salaries and vacations.
What Mr. Moore did not expect was a band of students armed with Wall Street analysts' reports. The job candidates came on like hard-nosed investors, peppering him with questions about the company's layoff prospects and its plans to combat Japanese competition in the full-size pickup market.
"They had independent research, and they were trying to put me on the spot," said Mr. Moore, an Ohio State alumnus who has been recruiting here for almost a decade. "This is a level of inquiry that I didn't use to see from a bachelor of business administration."
Thorough preparation for careers after college is shaping up as a defining characteristic of the class of 2004 — not only at Ohio State, but at institutions big and small, public and private, around the country, according to national surveys and interviews with recruiters, administrators and students.
This spring's graduates are among the first of what many call the "millennial generation" — students born since 1982, who have come of age in the 21st century. And experts say their strategic, pragmatic approach to entering the work force speaks of a coming wave of adults bent on entering the mainstream — and staying there.
"A lot of the things that we associate with the generational break come from this graduating class," said Neil Howe, a co-author of the best-selling book "Millennials Rising."
"Millennials believe in preparation, in their track records," Mr. Howe said. "They're thinking about what kinds of careers they're going to have."
Kristen Callaway, a 22-year-old business major at Ohio State who is set to graduate on June 13, focused on bolstering her résumé with extracurricular activities. "Recruiters are going to ask you, `What did you do? What do you have to show for yourself?' " Ms. Callaway said.
On campuses, after two years of rising unemployment and dismal job prospects, company recruiters and university officials say seniors are more eager and better prepared for the job hunt than their predecessors. But there are longer-term trends at play, too.
The days are long gone when a college graduate could expect to go to work for a paternalistic employer and spend an entire career there, with a generous set of benefits and a comfortable pension upon retirement. Today, fears are growing about job instability and increasing competition, here and abroad, for the best white-collar positions. Rising health-care costs and increasingly pessimistic outlooks for pensions and Social Security have added to the general uncertainty.
"I need to have job security," said Carlos Maldonado, who graduated on Saturday from Fitchburg State College, in Massachusetts, with a degree in business management, and is still looking for work. "I need to have something where I know I am not going to wake up in the morning and they say, 'We're going to cut your hours.' " ...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/education/30GRAD.html?hp>
Carl
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