You, my dear, are an idiot!

Umm new grad, I'm not sure what the basis of your comment is? Considering you didn't really state which part of the article you disagreed with, I'm having trouble identifying what you think is so wrong? There are hundreds if not thousands of employers that hire students and new grads each year, and 2009 is no exception. Pro-active companies know the importance of recruiting and retaining the best young talent on-campus each year. They have been through recessions before, and know that a hiring freeze of students can be detrimental to the development of sustainable organizations. Sure students may not have the experience and skills of older workers right out of school, but companies are hiring students to groom them as the next great leaders of their companies. And companies know that there is more to great talent than just high marks. A well-rounded resume and skill-set can be the difference between getting and not getting the job.

If you are actually a "newgrad", I would suggest quickly changing your attitude, especially if you are job hunting. Or at least provide some further insight to your comment??

Hey Lauren, I've been following Talentegg and I think what you're doing is really great. Thanks for the tips, it's really interesting to see the recruitment process from the employer's point of view. I'm actually looking right now (for a change) and I'm finding that there are plenty of amazing Canadian companies hiring, even if they haven't posted roles, they're interested in having a chat to see if there are any synergies.

'Newgrad', can you offer further insight into your opinion? It doesn't really leave room for intelligent debate. Leaving us readers to only assume you are a) a DOUCHE b) Jealous c) Bitter d)Really, really intellectually challenged. All options don't bode well for you!! haha, loser!!

To balance the cheery optimism with some a couple points:

1) The boomers will not being retiring on schedule. The recent market crashes have delayed retirement plans.

2) You are now in a world-wide labour market, not merely a Canadian or North American pool. If wages rise too high, foreign labour will either flood in or the work will be off-shored.

3) This is not an ordinary recession and there are globabl re-alignments happening.

Not all is doom-and-gloom by any measure but keep your expectations realistic and plan your career choices carefully. For example, be wary of careers that can be too easily off-shored and always keep an eye on the job market. Complacency kills.

Please avoid personal attacks. Thank you.

Just one quick point about baby boomers delaying retirement:

Although the boomers may not be planning to retire this year or even in the next few years, they will have to retire eventually. Strategic organizations don't (or shouldn't) simply hire students WHEN the baby boomers leave -- they should be hiring students five to ten years AHEAD of when they expect the baby boomers to retire, so they have experienced people to fill these important roles.

Organizations that stop hiring students and new grads now will be kicking themselves when they are scrambling to find qualified candidates a few years down the road. Meanwhile, organizations that remained active in student and new grad recruitment will have a workforce of suddenly "experienced" employers at their fingertips, while other companies are struggle to find top talent.

I like this idea:

"the real problem isn’t the economy but rather the expectations that have been set for grads"

It would be nice to have a job now though.

“Yes, we’re in a recession and yes, the job market is currently flooded with people who have more experience than you, but that’s just one economic force… Every other force out there is pointing to the fact that hiring new and recent grads is actually a very smart, forward thinking, ‘new economy’ thing to do.”

Try selling that one to the kids who graduated with a degree in liberal arts…

Here’s an interesting fact – philosophy graduates, on average, score higher than business graduates on the GMAT, LSAT, and GRE (among others). Yet, when competing for entry-level positions, business graduates usually come out on top (all other things being equal). Clearly, when it comes to securing employment, being an excellent candidate may not be good enough.

While there is little reason to panic, we must take care not to downplay the very real and present difficulties faced by recent graduates…

mike's posts are hugely ammusing. Sorry to burst you bubble mate but there are a couple of trends that will kill your job prospects. First, when was the last time a company, especially a Canadian company planed more then 3 years ahead? Most are just trying to keep their heads above water right now so no, they will not be looking for "future leaders". Most of these so called leaders got us into this problem in the first place and most are hired from outside the company not promoted from within. Second, boomers (sorry zoomers) don't want to stop working because its all they know. They will push the envelope and then they will "voluenteer" (free labour) and work part time just for giggles. Watch it happen... Finally why would a company want to invest in a new grad when they can have experienced tallent for about the same price that they don't have to train? Its a no brainer and since companies are not interested in making your like better get used to it. Good luck cause you will need it and remember, retail will kill your soul.

JH

I am going to graduate in may 2010 with accounting degree. I got bunch of degrees, ex Bachelor in Engineering, Masters in Science and this is my second degree program. If I dont get decent job after this degree then I am gonna sue university for taking all my money..

Let me get this straight: the president of an employment agency is writing articles for a national newspaper telling students that their job prospects are 'theoretically' good? Is this what passes for news these days? I hope you paid the Globe for these column inches, because this sure looks like advertising copy to me.

Quick reality check: Unemployment is at 8.5% and rising; soon it won't be just auto makers haemorrhaging jobs, it'll be the service industry, too. Average Canadian household debt is at 140% of disposable income, which means that those boomers won't be going anywhere soon. And as for what 'smart' companies 'should' be doing, well. Even if it weren't the case that trimming every conceivable margin just to stay afloat were the new corporate policy (and make no mistake, it is -- there are hiring freezes across the board), the current glut of labour means that employers are free to offer depressed wages, or even unpaid internships, to a bumper crop of overtalented and underemployed grads desperate to pad their CVs in order to stand out from the crowd.

Make no mistake, the situation is dire. Anyone who tells you otherwise, particularly with a vested financial interest in doing so, is lying to you. Ms. Friese's piece isn't an editorial, it's a commercial.

Hi Stephen - Thanks for your comment. TalentEgg is not an employment agency, and we have no financial interest in telling students that their job prospects are any better than they actually are.

JH - Many Canadian companies are planning for the future with large grad intake programs designed to ensure that, when the boomers do retire (or go to part time work, etc), their workforce is ready with, stocked full of capable, ambitious leaders. Regarding experienced workers - absolutely, that is an extra challenge, however, in future columns we will be covering how grads can find their 'competitive advantage' in a competitive workforce in order to be successful in the job hunt.

JPF - I'm an Arts grad myself (twice over!) and I agree with a lot of your points...In fact, it is one of the big reasons I started TalentEgg.

Overall, while I agree that there are certainly unique challenges associated with finding a meaningful entry level job in a recession, my point in this entry is that the act of finding a meaningful entry level job has been a challenge for students every year, and that 'pain' is not unique, and that recent grads should look to their advantages in a work force and job market that is not dictated by one economic force alone.

Ow, since writing my comment yesterday I've been following this.

I think there's some confusion. This post is directed at students and recent grads, not the general population, no? So why are we being hit with stats on the mass population? Why not give us some stats on grad intake? Show me that the pain of me looking for a job before before the recession is different to the pain now! In my short experience of the work force, it's never easy!

Grads, students - moving onto something more relevant to us as a group, I'm a recent grad, and I've just handed my notice in because the role I was doing didn't suit me or my future career requirements. Clearly, I'm not going to let a recession get in the way of my career path. Whilst I appreciate I have taken a 'big risk' (or so people keep telling me), I expect that even in a great, high rolling economy it will still take me some time to find the right role. And so armed with this opinion, I'm curiously optimistic and excited about what's out there. In fact, I've already applied for another role which if I get it would suit me perfectly. 2 weeks, that's not a bad turn around to find a 'perfect' role to apply for eh?

Coming down from the macro stats that are being dished out here, on the micro scale, FACTS: the SMALL firm I work for has in the past 5 months, hired 6 co-op students ( 4 more than any other year), is currently looking for recent grad with small amount of experience, and lastly is looking (and had taken very real measures) to take every single opportunity possible to get a competitive edge. Read this:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fpmagazinedaily/archive/2009/06/01/playing-forward-companies-that-are-making-gusty-innovations-and-possibly-shaping-the-futures-of-their-industries.aspx

(sorry Globe for posting a financial post article, but it's really relevant!).

I'm taking D.Simpson's advice and keeping my eye on the market without being complacent, it's great advice in any economic situation. Get well read up on the environment you're going into and form your own opinion, and take the risk if you can / want to. Stay excited and optimistic about your prospects because getting all Nostradamus about the world won't help.

Lauren,

I am unclear as to why you think I'm mistaken about your motivation. Companies pay you a headhunting fee to attract, sort, and vet potential employees in order to facilitate their hiring process. In order to entice them to do so, you claim that "We attract top students" and "We're plugged directly into the student market." How so? By writing articles for the Globe & Mail promoting your business, both directly (by having a large banner for your website facing it, linking to it in the article), and indirectly (by promoting a myth that the job market is no worse today than it ever was, and that by implication going through your organization will produce the desired results).

This is all pretty straightforward; none of us was born yesterday.

It is certainly your right to promote your business, and the Globe's right to publish you. My problem is with the untrue depiction of the economy that you present. It is nothing less than false advertising.

Consider, for instance, Enbridge Pipelines, a significant oil shipping company based out of Calgary. It initiated an across-the-board hiring freeze in early 2009. At the time, oil was at $30/barrel. Fast-forward to five months later and oil is back at $70/barrel. Think the situation's changed? Nope, and if you don't believe me, try to get a job there. In April, the company needed to fill a vacancy left by someone going on maternity leave; it received over a hundred applications, and the temp they finally picked has twice the experience of the woman being replaced. If this is the situation in an resource-based organization whose prime commodity has more than doubled in value over the past six months, imagine the rest: tourism, manufacturing, industry, retail.

I read articles about humanities majors working in rural fertilizer treatment plants for minimum wage because there's nothing else for them to do. That you claim your company is doing brisk business is no kind of objective indicator of anything.

It is a fact that the world economy is undergoing its largest contraction since the Great Depression. It is therefore also a fact that the difficulties now associated with finding a job for new grads (and everyone else, but especially them) are unique and require anything but a head-in-the-sand attitude to be resolved.

Ultimately, the consequences will not be good. Many will move back in with mom and dad. Those same boomers who are already delaying retirement for reasons of financial insecurity will therefore be pressured to hold off even longer as they float their insolvent children. The increased time it takes to find a job will eat into savings, depressing net worth and exacerbating personal debt. The increasingly rare positions that exist will command lower wages. Because of layoffs, both current and new employees will be doing more work than ever before for the same (if not less) money.

Does this sound like the situation you described? You didn't outright say that we're not in a recession, but to say posit that "the real problem isn’t the economy but rather the expectations that have been set for grads" is a denial by omission. We are now squarely in an employer's market; companies don't need to compete for new hires because they're already banging at the door in droves.

When that happens, both they and employment agencies like yours win. But the man on the street loses.

Guys,
Think about working overseas. I graduated in '88 & '95. I could only got jobs I could've done with a high school diploma. Came to Asia in '95, had a career I couldn't have dreamed of in Canada and was able to retire last year.

A bachelors degree has about the same value today as a high school diploma 25 years ago. Canada, has the highest amount of university graduates in the world without the type of economy to support them. The solution would be to enact laws that only people with university degrees can qualify for government jobs(Canada's biggest employer). In fact, I think most high paying jobs should require a degree.I live in Taiwan(a highly educated country) and you need a degree here to drive a train.

This blog sounds too much like a real estate agent blog talking about the housing market.

Ie. "It's ALWAYS better to buy then rent.. ALWAYS. It doesn't matter how much money you really saved, nor the timing of the market cycle, interest rates and all that other stuff. Home Ownership will set you Free.. Praissse the Lawwwd!!"

It IS harder then recent years and no matter how you twist it, what overstretched assumptions are presented, this 'President' obviously has never had to look for a real job.

Stephen - TalentEgg is not an employment agency, we do not collect head hunting fees. TalentEgg is a website.

I agree with a lot of you who say that we are in a recession and that the job market is harder than it was. I have been told by a lot of contacts in companies I was interested in working for that they were on hiring freeze for a few months to a few years. However, I have also been able to secure a few interviews for only a few resumes actually sent out for jobs in my field. Therefore, I would agree that despite the economic melt down, "it's not all gloom and doom". The real thing is to beef up you resume, network a lot and try hard.

Lauren,

Fair enough. I don't want to be accused of misrepresenting you. Nonetheless, your company surely has a revenue stream which comes from somewhere. To my mind, that represents a vested interest.

In any event, it's mostly beside the point. What are relevant are the other issues I raised. When are we going to hear your reply to those?

Hi Stephen,

Glad that's cleared up.

Regarding your other points, and a few of the other comments on this article, the job market you're describing is far broader than the specific situation for the new grads of 2009.

Like I've said a few times now - yes, there are unique challenges for the grads of 2009. That being said, there are also unique opportunities (hiring freezes at some companies, yes, but expansion at others. not as many full time jobs for new grads, maybe, but some interesting contract opportunities - and these are just examples).

To illustrate my point - that transitioning from school to work is consistently challenging, regardless of the year:

In May of 2005, I was a new grad myself. It was challenging. It's why I launched TalentEgg in the first place.

In May of 2008, I was running TalentEgg, and the situation for new grads was challenging.

And in May of 2009...Still challenging.

This is and always has been my point - this isn't so much a recession article as a note on the misconceptions of timing in the transition from school to work. Students and new grads EACH YEAR face challenges, and a lot of those challenges are rooted in the expectation that work will come quickly and easily.

Natrix, it IS always better to own than rent. Why would you waste your money to fiance someone else's morgage instead of putting it towards your own? Renting is essentially that.

Good tips in the article, but honestly, unless you have something else under your belt, you're not going to get that high paying job you think you worked so hard for. I graduated university (arts degree) 2 years ago, and it took me a year of working minimum wage jobs plus taking a college course, before I landed my dream job. The pay could be a bit higher, but it's everything else I'd ever want. Oh, and I have a house too, and I'm not even 24. Grads just have to realize that they may be screwed for a year, but they should use the time to bolster their skills, as the author said - work for free, etc.

Lauren wrote:
"This isn't so much a recession article as a note on the misconceptions of timing in the transition from school to work."

If that’s the case, then why do you identify the various economic factors presently affecting recent graduates, and why do you suggest that there are ways to navigate or circumvent them? Let’s be realistic – you’re trying to convince recent graduates that things aren’t that bad, yet the facts clearly indicate otherwise.

At this point, my “dream job” is anything that pays the bills. I have excellent work experience, impeccable references, and a stellar academic record. Yet, for some reason, it is extremely difficult to land a minimum wage job for which I have relevant work experience. If that’s not cause for “doom and gloom”, then I don’t know what is.

For the record, Lauren seems like a genuinely kind person with good intentions. But as a wise man once said, “Don’t piss in the wind and tell me it’s raining.” :o)

New grads have to set realistic expectations. I see too many resumes and interview too many grads who expect to bypass multiple rungs on the corporate ladder.

Hint: Before you get that awesome engineering position, expect to spend some time at the helpdesk and in the mailroom.

Anne,

Guaranteed without a doubt I could do your job twice as fast, twice as well, and all the while not being a twat about it.

Guaranteed.

You want to know why we want that engineering position? Because we are highly educated, driven, and capable. We're sick of shit like this where ignorant, has-beens like you stifle creativity, productivity, and good ol' fashioned work ethic.

Hint: Expect to be working in that mailroom in the near future when I surpass anything you could ever accomplish and demote your pathetic attitude ALL the way down.

Lovingly,
Young N. Vital

Young N. Vital,

Gosh, you must be the first highly educated, driven, and capable person to ever hit the workforce. I'm sure the world has been holding its breath just for you and your wonderkind generation.

Or not.

Hint: being highly educated, driven, and capable doesn't actually get you very far. You're a dime a dozen. There is a tremendous amount of creativity, productivity and hard work in my workplace, its nothing new and you're no more special than the rest of us. You just have less experience and more attitude.

some good comments, amongst the whining "do me something" attitude..

Gen. Y must be the whiniest generation yet.."do something for me" " I desrve it, I got good grades in school, so I should be president next year" "waaah" "woe is me"

why do so many kid son the street taht I see ahve a perpetual pout, like they have the hardest life ever?

try living in Djibouti. Chad, Iraq or Afghanistan & stop your whining! It is REALLY not charming or attractive

unless you want a career as a Goth, or an Emo..

I have to agree with D. Simpson on Young N. Vital's post:

"Gosh, you must be the first highly educated, driven, and capable person to ever hit the workforce. I'm sure the world has been holding its breath just for you and your wonderkind generation.

Or not.

Hint: being highly educated, driven, and capable doesn't actually get you very far. You're a dime a dozen. There is a tremendous amount of creativity, productivity and hard work in my workplace, its nothing new and you're no more special than the rest of us. You just have less experience and more attitude."

As wonderful as MySpace and Facebook are they do not even begin to replace old-fashioned networking; cold calling; volunteering; charity work; etc. as a source of contacts that can lead to real, meaningful employment.

Gen R is going to need a lot more than social networking sites and virtual gaming skills to compete against age and experience in the real world. Even MySpace and Facebook are laying-off their Gen R workers as their business model proves unsustainable as in unsound. Reality check. Giving away stuff for free does not pay the bills. Duh!

As my Professor once told me, "There is always room for the Top 10-Percent." Even in a recession.

Good points by MrBill, above.

It seems that every generation thinks that they are the only 'relevant' generation, and all previous ones are automatically 'obsolete'..as well as 'previous' methods of networkiong..why not jsut have a listing on Myspace?Facebook & 'network' online?

because that 's the lazy way out...? perhaps?

Sorry guys but baby boomers are NEVER retireing.

Hello Gov'ts now have removed all retirement rules to keep them in the work force, the pension system won't support them all retiring. Their house values and savings have all tanked with this downturn.

Plus they work few hours, play golf and have all their ''BUDDIES'' in the workforce whom which they 'liaise' and Lunch with.

Why would they ever want to leave such high paying and fun respectable lifestyle ?
Get ready to see people in their late 70 at their desks.

Yes they're not fast or even productive. but everyone is buying their experience.

Also downsizing tends to happen to those who occupy positions that won't be filled anymore to begin with. or even if they are partially filled they won't ever be as high paying or reputable as they once were.

The good jobs that are required to be active will never be vacated.

Also for those generation Y's (typically children of boomers) you're also in a numerous group. So you'll compete your brains out all the way and that'll keep salaries down.

Generation X's (the older cohort than Y's.) are a bit in a better situation because they'll have a few years experience and be in the firm and enjoy opportunitites prior to the Y's. Especially those X's who've done MBAs or other post grad development could potentially see senior responsibilities after they've worked for 10 years or so.

But for young people. Nobody likes young people, I sit in meetings and 99% of the time I'm the most educated but youngest and guess what.. I have to keep my mouth shut. so the seniors can enjoy their bolony theories amongst themselves.
Also when they're talking about their kids and elderly parents or old music. what the heck am I supposed to say anyways.

This is our reality young guys we have to stay in the desk and produce results and nobody cares about us as individuals because everyone is buys giving pedicures to the older people who have a say.

Good luck

I'm one of those Boomers blocking your way ... but the reason i am not planning to retire any time soon is nothing to do with falling pension plans and everything to do with the fcat that after 40 years in my profession I am finally beginning to think that I am getting good at it and so why quit when I have no need to and am enjoying what I do?

All my friends of a similar age say much the same.

What i do recall from the days when i graduated was that entry level jobs were much the same as today - ie: you had to prove your ability and get some experience. Companies hire staff to produce results and make the business succeed, anything else is secondary.

Welcome to the real world - we've all been there, we sympathise, we recall feeling as you do once upon a time but all it takes is patience and applicaiton and you'll get there. Just be realistic in your ambitions - you've got 40 years ahead of you to achieve your goals, why the rush?