Recent graduates having trouble in job market
Lee Hernandez - March 6th, 2008For about two years, beginning even before he graduated, NAU alumnus Frank Alvillar Jr. scoured Internet job sites and numerous postings for a job in his field.
“At first, nothing, nothing, nothing—the market was pretty slim,” Alvillar said.
Alvillar’s job hunt was fruitless; he found mostly part-time, low-paying jobs—usually without benefits. Alvillar mainly looked for jobs in the museum and library fields, searching for anything that fit his degree in history with an anthropology minor. According to Alvillar, people with his degree and skills were not exactly in demand.
Alvillar is part of a small percentage of NAU graduates who have had difficulty finding jobs in fields related to their major. According to a report released by the NAU Office of Planning and Institutional research, 67 percent of recent NAU graduates said their plans after graduation included a job opportunity in an area related to their major. Alvillar is part of the 22 percent of recent graduates who are in sort of a gray area when entering the job market.
Alvillar took his degree and hit the job market with a sunny outlook, ready to put his four years of all-nighters, midterms and countless pages of research papers to good use. What he found, however, was not what he expected.
“It took about 20 months to find anything even related to my degree,” Alvillar said. “The job market was pretty slim and I could not really find a job that required anything less than a master’s degree, and doing anything with my minor was out of the question.”
With degree in hand, Alvillar said he was tired of school and did not want to return after graduation. Alvillar was persistent though. He continued his search well into the next year, while keeping his job with the NAU grounds crew, a position that he still holds today. After realizing his hopes of starting a career with his history degree were becoming less likely, he took what he thought was the logical next step: graduate school.
Alvillar is now a graduate student at NAU majoring in secondary education, a degree that will take him into a field he is sure will net him a job: the teaching industry. Alvillar said he can relate to young students getting ready to go to college.
Alvillar said he attributes his job-hunting woes to a job market that does not value degrees like his.
“People do not appreciate my kind of education. It seems to me employers lean more toward capitalist majors, business things,” Alvillar said. “It is like they want people to make a lot of money to boost and put back into the economy.”
Graduate student Leilani Aguirre went through a similar ordeal. Aguirre said she took her degree in Spanish with a biology minor out into the workforce with hopes of becoming a teacher. But much like Alvillar, she found this to be harder than expected.
“At first I was looking for anything and everything,” Aguirre said. “I did not get to finish my teaching certificate at NAU, but I hoped my undergraduate degree would be enough to land me a teaching spot.”
Her bachelor’s degree was not enough. After three months actively looking for a job, she landed a full-time job with the City of Nogales in southern Arizona. Aguirre said it was nothing like she imagined her post-college life would be.
“It was at a nine-to-five ob that was not satisfying or challenging,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said her dissatisfaction in the working world changed her plans and those changes sent her back to school.
“I wanted to teach for a few years before going back for my masters,” Aguirre said. “I was frustrated in a dead-end job and that drove me back to school earlier than expected.”
Aguirre is now pursuing a master’s degree in education with a counseling emphasis. She said applying any major that is not a trade or an established industry would be difficult for anyone.
“It was hard because I did not have a trade; there are no jobs out there for Spanish and biology majors,” Aguirre said. “Those of us who have graduated know the value of our education, but I would not expect to find that dream job right out of college.”
Even some students who graduate with a degree in a field with a high demand for workers have difficulty finding jobs.
Jorge Martinez is a software engineer in Yuma, Ariz. After graduating with a degree in computer science in spring 2007 from NAU, it took Martinez nearly a year to find a job in the technology industry.
Martinez said despite the rapid growth of the technology industry and its need for college graduates, he was still nervous about finding a job.
“I knew there were jobs out there, but what I found was that companies were looking for experience and I did not have that right out of school,” Martinez said. “I had the skill and the knowledge but no experience; I was scared.”
Now that he has his start in the field, Martinez said he will not worry about finding jobs in the future.
“Because you need specialized skill in the technology industry, not everyone can do this kind of work, so employers are willing to pay for that knowledge,” Martinez said.