2012 job market looks slightly better for WUSTL students

| Staff Reporter

Students’ job prospects are improving from previous years, Director of Career Planning & Placement Mark Smith said.

“When I look at things like on-campus interviews, number of interviews, all that good stuff, it looks slightly higher than last year,” Smith said.

He said that Washington University students have been highly successful in regard to a few specific companies.

“In the past few years we’ve had some employers who have really hired a lot of Wash. U. students. For example Epic Systems, which is out of Madison, Wis., hired 30 Wash. U. students in 2011. It looks like Capital One will hire over 30 from Wash. U. this year. Accenture and Deloitte should both be in double digits,” Smith said.

These companies are hiring much more from the University than they did in the past, according to Smith.

“Capital One wasn’t doing that much hiring from us seven years ago and now they are hiring 30 people,” Smith said.

Smith said that internship opportunities have followed a similar pattern.

According to Smith, it is important for students to make the most of their summers. “I think more and more employers are expecting multiple meaningful summer experiences,” Smith said.

He also stressed that it’s not too late for seniors to make plans for post-graduation. “I understand that if you are graduating and you don’t have a job, [a better job market] really doesn’t matter to you,” he said. “We can help you figure out what you want to do, we can help connect you with people who can tell you what it’s like to work in a particular industry.”

Though some seniors have used the Career Center to find a job, others have not. Senior Ariel Dobkin will be working for a new government agency called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“I think the Career Center isn’t really helpful at all if you don’t want to stay in the Midwest, and I knew I wanted to go to the Northeast,” Dobkin said. Dobkin didn’t use the Career Center during her job search with the exception of looking at listings on the Career Center website.

Kevin Teng, a senior, will be working in the finance industry in New York next year. “I used the Career Center to get an internship to help me network into getting a full time offer, but the full time offer wasn’t in the same area as the internship. So it helped, but it wasn’t directly related,” Teng said.

Other students found the Career Center more helpful.

Senior Kathryn Zekus used the Career Center when she was applying to public policy graduate programs.

“I have a career advisor and she’s fantastic. They are a great resource,” Zekus said.

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