As Penn State's spring career fair wraps up today, students looking for jobs and internships are facing what may be the toughest recruiting environment in 25 years.
"Everything is in kind of a downward spiral," said Jack Rayman, director of career services. "It's going to be a much more difficult year."
The number of employers doing on-campus interviews this spring is on track to be the lowest in the past quarter-century, he said, adding the drop-off compared to previous springs was unusually steep.
He said cancellations also probably increased for the spring career fair, although the number of employers at the career fair was similar to the count in previous years.
"We're fairly heartened by the number of employers that are here," he said.
Rayman said there was some decline in recruiting activity in the fall, "but nothing like this spring." He said a few companies are rescinding job offers or delaying them until a later date.
Jack Latham, assistant director of career and corporate services for the Smeal College of Business, said some companies are still hiring, but it's now a "buyer's market."
While students used to be able to chose between multiple offers, it's now companies that can be selective, he said.
"You have to be different," he said, citing grades, leadership positions, internships and networking as some of the factors that help students stand out.
Latham said this year there was also a big increase in the number of students accepting job offers from companies where they held internships, signifying that students were opting for the certainty of an offer rather than risking an unknown job market.
Adam Brown, secretary of the Penn State Investment Association, said he knows many students who are having trouble finding summer internships.
He said he had received a few offers, but some of the investment companies he spoke with had cut the number of summer interns they were hiring this year in half, from between 80 and 100 students to about 40.
"People are not necessarily getting the job they would have a year ago," he said.
At this semester's career fair, companies recruited for non-technical jobs on Monday and technical jobs on Tuesday. Today, some companies are conducting on-campus interviews.
The fair was the last major "easy" way to get a job this semester by having the companies come to Penn State, Rayman said. Students who are still looking for jobs now will need to take their search to the employers by contacting them directly, he said.
Rayman recommended prospective employees visit a drop-in counselor at Penn State's Bank of America Career Services Center. The center offers help preparing résumés and training for interviews, among other services.
Resumés with typos are "deadly," especially in this job market, he said.
"They're just thrown out almost immediately," he said.
Nicky Kundnani, president of the Financial Management Association, a student club that focuses on networking with corporate representatives and building members' professional skills, said networking provides a key advantage in this job environment. Students who know executives can sometimes still get hired even if jobs in the company as a whole are scarce, he said.
Kundnani, who had a job offer rescinded but managed to get another one, said clubs offer a good way to tap into a pre-established network.
In fact, Rayman said 80 percent of students get their jobs through avenues other than career fairs and the career services center, he said. For this reason, he encourages students to let parents and friends know if they are looking for jobs.
He also recommends going to graduate or professional school to gain additional skills to leverage when the economy improves.
Rayman said he isn't sure if the job market will improve by next fall, although he is hopeful President Barack Obama's stimulus package will help.
