Almost half of College undergrads still jobless in April and beyond

As the end of the school year draws near, some students’ job searches are still in full swing.

While there seems to be significant weight placed on securing employment early in the school year, approximately 45 percent of College undergraduates do not find employment — either in the form of summer internships or post-graduation full-time positions — until April or later. This number is slightly lower for seniors and slightly higher for freshmen.

According to Director of Career Services Pat Rose, many of the students who remain unemployed by the end of the year are looking for jobs in fields that use “just-in-time recruiting.” These types of jobs include those on Capitol Hill, in public relations and publishing and entertainment, among others.

“People may just be resigning in May and those positions open up,” said Rose. “There are a whole lot of opportunities that don’t hire nine months in advance.”

Some students take initiative to start their job hunts very early in anticipation of a long and capricious road to getting that perfect position. College junior and Biological Basis of Behavior major Laura Bustamante started applying for research jobs for this coming summer last August before the school year began.

“I just wanted to be really prepared,” said Bustamante. “If I were at this point in the year and didn’t have anything, it would be really stressful.”

The older a student is, too, affects the amount of pressure to secure a stable job.

“As a junior, you definitely get the sense that it’s much more important to find a summer opportunity that will lead into something post-graduation,” said Bustamante.

Other students who don’t yet have internships or other positions secured for the summer share this feeling. Sam Kallman, a College and Wharton sophomore, has applied to numerous jobs in Washington, D.C. but has not yet heard back. While this is a cause of concern, he’s “trying not to panic” about the situation just yet.

“I know that in D.C., many jobs are decided no earlier than April anyway,” said Kallman. “Hopefully I can still find one even though it feels late compared to most Penn students.”

Many find an atmosphere of apprehension at Penn over remaining jobless in April. College senior and linguistics major Leigh Garcia mentioned that the prevalence of on-campus recruiting — particularly in the fall — might add to this general stress.

“Because of OCR and how many people find jobs through that, I do think that there’s some pressure to find jobs earlier on in the year,” said Garcia. “I’ve talked to a lot of other students in the College who feel like maybe we should go into OCR-type jobs so at least we’re employed, but I just don’t see myself in any of those jobs.”

Rose emphasized that students should not feel pressure to go through OCR merely for fear of not finding a position through other means.

She also mentioned that job listings continue to be put up throughout the summer, and that, “in fact, there are more job listings now than there are, say, back in October — because if somebody is advertising a job in October and they want someone to start, most current students are not going to fill the bill.”

Rose added that graduates can still use Career Services post-graduation — and that more than 10 percent of Career Services’ counseling activity is with “young alumni.” She pointed out, in particular, that Career Services is willing to help any student at any point in the game, regardless of their preparation or previous use of the department.

“Whenever someone comes in here and says, ‘I want to start my job search,’” said Rose, “we say, ‘come on in.’”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.