This initiative is a reaction to students’ worries about finding jobs in the current economic climate.

In 2009, the Career Center interviewed and researched 25 premier employers, including Google and Teach for America, to discern how Washington University students could become more competitive in the job market. They found that, in nearly every case, 50 to 100 percent of the seniors hired by these institutions had previously interned there.

Jim Beirne, director of external relations for the Career Center, called this discovery an “aha” moment.

“From that moment we switched what had been an internal metric to [emphasizing that] our graduates should have multiple meaningful internships,” he said.

In pursuit of this goal, the Career Center has expanded its stipend program from $40,000 annually to $250,000.

While four years ago, the school offered only 20 WUSTL preferred internships, there are now over 100 on CAREERlink.

“For legal reasons, in the U.S., you have to treat every applicant the same way and document that they applied. But, by sending it in personally to the website, people feel like it’s a black hole. With the WUSTL preferred internships and the connections we have, we try to bring personalization to the process,” Beirne said.

Opportunities for Alumni Career Externships (ACE), which allow undergraduates to shadow prominent alumni of the University over spring break, are also a new offering of the Career Center. This year, the program includes the CEO for Lionsgate Entertainment, and the senior designer at Derek Lam.

Beirne said that he has already seen the results of new Career Center initiatives. The University has seen a rise in campus interviews, and both Goldman Sachs and Google recently made the University a target institution.

“One of the things we heard a couple of times from key recruiters is that WUSTL students were competitive with any undergraduate in the country, but they felt that WUSTL students didn’t have multiple meaningful internships. They would go back and teach swimming again like they did in high school,” Beirne said.

Beirne also noted the importance of students using the Career Center. “There is a direct correlation between students coming in here multiple times and students getting earlier offers, higher paying offers, getting closer to what they want,” he said.

Students with diverse interests agree with the Career Center’s message.

Shirlene Obuobi, a sophomore, noted internships’ value for pre-medical students.

“I think they are important if you go to a place with a medical field, because I know a lot of med schools want to see that you have experience in an actual hospital,” she said.

Katie Dobscha, a junior, interned for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in New York the summer after her freshman year. The internship was a WUSTL preferred one and was listed on CAREERlink. Dobscha also received a stipend from the Career Center in order to afford living in New York.

“It was very nice to be able to get some experience right away, because it steered me in the right direction in terms of my career path,” Dobscha said. “It gave me a picture of what it would be like to work in New York in marketing for a nonprofit.”

Working to redesign one of the foundation’s brochures influenced Dobscha’s future plans.

“It was something I loved, and now I’m applying to a lot of places that use design and social media,” she said.

Architects Lauren, left, and Eric Wendlandt, pictured September 10, 2009, are furniture, interior and landscape designers, who run their business Framework Design from their home in Kansas City, Missouri. (Mike Ransdell | Kansas City Star | MCT)

Nationally, approximately 30 percent of architects are unemployed. According to statistics released by the American Institute of Architects for July 2008, architectural firms across the nation were employing a total of 224,000 people. By January 2009, that number had dropped to 206,000.

Architects are now facing reduced work hours and loss of benefits. Others have lost their jobs altogether. Those affected include not only recent graduates and junior members of design firms, but also mid-career and senior members of the architecture community.

The current struggle in the architecture profession is giving the students at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts something to ponder.

“I am planning to go on to graduate school for two years right after college, so I am hoping that by then I would have waited out this economic downturn,” said Sarah Miller, a sophomore architecture student.

The economic turmoil, Miller said, has not hindered her from striving to fulfill her dream of becoming an architect. But she admits that she is trying to branch out to give herself an edge over her peers when the time comes to send out graduate school or job applications.

“Even though I am primarily an architecture student, I am trying to get more diverse skills, such as gaining experiences in doing background landscape architecture,” she said. “Hopefully, this will make me more marketable and grant me more opportunities to graduate school and the job market.”

While students like Miller plan to cross their fingers and hope for the best, some who are already in the job market have been forced to abandon architecture in favor of more stable professions.

“This past summer I talked to quite a few past graduates from Wash. U. Sam Fox, and it was shocking that some of them had to completely switch to a different career track and give up architecture,” Miller said. “Although, there were various reasons as to why these people gave up the architecture profession, from what I heard the economy definitely played its role.”

Despite this, Miller believes that Washington University’s undergraduate architecture program prepares its students well enough to be very competitive in the architecture world.

“I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t know that Wash. U. does an excellent job to produce successful architects,” Miller said. “Wash. U.’s architecture graduate school is very highly ranked in the country and that certainly reflects in its undergraduate program.”

According to Mark Smith, director of the Washington University Career Center, pre-professional majors may be more practical than other degrees in terms of finding employment after graduation.

“If you want to go into accounting, you’re not going to be able to do that without some kind of advanced degree in accounting,” Smith said.

Catalin Roman, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, also stressed the value of pre-professional degrees.
“Salary offers for bachelor’s degrees [in computer science] are as high as $80,000 or $90,000,” Roman said. “That’s just for a bachelor’s.”

Despite the lack of jobs for liberal arts students in highly technical fields, Smith said that students with liberal arts degrees can still pursue a variety of careers.

“Some will go into corporations that have a training program,” he said.

In addition to securing careers immediately after graduation, liberal arts students may also enroll in graduate school.

“Typically it’s around 40 percent that will go straight out, and then you’ll see another third of the class will do it in one to five years,” Smith said.

“The most common outcome for history majors is to go to law school,” said Andrea Friedman, director of undergraduate studies for the history department.

Besides providing students with job opportunities, liberal arts majors teach students crucial skills that employers look for in job applicants.

According to Jean Allman, chair of the department of history, studying history teaches skills that are valuable in the workplace.
“You learn how to do research, you learn how to think critically, you learn how to write, you learn how to reference, you learn how to analyze, you learn how to debate—and these are things that translate to all different fields,” Allman said.

“What companies are looking for is future leaders,” Smith said. “People always need people to problem solve.”

Still, pursuing interdisciplinary studies puts students at an advantage when applying for jobs.

“There is a huge need for people that can cross disciplines,” Roman said. “If you are an anthropologist and graduate with an A+ GPA, and you’re from a great school, you’re going to have lots of opportunities, but you’re going to compete with all the others.

“On the other hand, if you actually have combined that with something else that makes you distinctive, that’s going to put you in a much better market position.”

According to Smith, while liberal arts degrees “can be practical, there are things you can do to make your liberal arts degree even more practical.”

“I would encourage a liberal arts student to think about where they might want to go in terms of a career, then think about what skills would be highly valued,” he said.

Smith suggested that students build specific skill sets through coursework and extracurricular activities, while Roman emphasized that “it is very important for most people today to have a computing background.”

“It is not a matter of use of computers. I use a computer the same way you do. But you understand the world, and you understand opportunities because of understanding what could be done,” Roman said.

A motivation to pursue liberal arts that is perhaps more influential than the job market is a student’s personal interest in a certain field.
“You should study what you love,” Smith said. “College is a time to learn, to think, to expose yourself to new ideas. We don’t know what the job market will be like in 15 years.”

For the most part, students at the University are doing just that.

Sophomore Greg Papakyriakou enrolled himself in the Text and Tradition program.

“I enjoy reading. I enjoy learning about how ideas have developed and progressed,” he said.

Sophomore Ella Fishman plans to declare an English major because she loves to write.

“I’ve considered going to law school,” she said. “It’s not really my passion, which is writing, but if I have to go to law school and become financially secure before I can write a novel then so be it.”

With a weak financial market, Olin Business School graduates with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) degree, like their peers at other institutions, found it more difficult to receive a job offer this year. In the spring of 2009, however, as the economy began to recover, many employers realized they needed more interns.

“We got a little bit of a bump [as] we began to find a lot of just-in-time hiring,” said Mark Brostoff, associate dean and director of the Weston Career Center at Olin.

The reason why BSBA jobs have been relatively stable is that companies tend to cut middleman jobs during economic challenges, Brostoff said. Companies desire to maintain “a talent pipeline,” which creates a continued need for entry-level jobs.

Brostoff said the figure has not changed from 2008.

The biggest difference for students this year was not that they were unable to get a job, but rather that they had only one job offer as compared to three or four in past years.

Although job-offer figures remained relatively stable, the median starting salary for the MBA graduating class of 2009 remained flat this year at $90,000, while that of the BSBA decreased from $56,500 to around $55,000.

Brostoff explained the reason behind this dip is that one of the highest-paying undergraduate jobs—investment banking—took the greatest hit, which in turn dragged down the median salary figure. In addition, many students decided to go into the non-profit sector, while others joined the military.

According to Brostoff, 2009 was “a very, very difficult year.”

“There were complete industries that really skidded to a halt, and only began to hire just one or two positions,” he said. “If the economy stays at where it is today, even if it stays at a very flat level of growth, I think the number of positions and opportunities for our graduating BSBA students next year will be very similar to that of this year.”

“Companies’ requirements haven’t changed, but they’re looking for that drive, energy, commitment and proven intellectual rigor,” Brostoff added. “The companies are looking for students who are going to commit in the investment that the company is making.”

Companies have also altered their methods of hiring. Contrary to conventional methods, recruiters are shying away from on-campus hiring to reduce travel costs. They are depending more on career centers and telephone interviews, Brostoff said. Students are now more active in their searches, rather than the other way around.

Junior Adrian Githuku, a marketing and international business double major who interned with Proctor and Gamble, praised the Weston Career Center for helping with her internship search.
“I feel like the job market right now is tough. A lot of companies are hiring a lot less people,” Githuku said. “At the same time, I think the Weston Career Center does a really good job of making sure we know how to differentiate ourselves.”

Brostoff said he believes positive figures this year reflect the business school’s efforts to create and maintain relationships with employers in both good and bad markets.

The Olin Business School and its Weston Career Center made efforts this past summer to create more opportunities for their students. Brostoff and his team traveled to Shanghai and Hong Kong to meet with potential recruiters. They returned with 15 companies who were very interested in the talent pool at Olin.

In addition, the Weston Career Center recently published a new comprehensive Career Guide with nearly 50 pages of tips on résumés, business etiquette, interviews, the follow-up process and receiving and negotiating job offers.