Timing Is Everything College Graduates Are Entering A Job Market Eager For New, Qualified Applicants

Sandy Martin lost her job as an administrative assistant at Key Tronic two years ago. Lucky for her, she jumped directly into a college program to be retrained in Web software development.

After two busy years of classes at Spokane Community College, Martin, a 46-year-old mother of three, is set to land a $50,000-a-year job — about three times what she was earning in the previous job.

Martin had hoped, like many other graduates in the area, to not need to move to get a good job.

“I was prepared to leave town to earn that much,” she said.

But her timing was excellent. Martin gets to stay in the area, putting her Web programming degree to work at a Spokane-based company that didn’t exist two years ago.

Her employer, The City Source, will launch a Web site this year offering specialized services and information to ethnic groups. Eager to recruit Martin, the Internet-based company even asked her to start working part-time before graduation.

“They didn’t mind if I did that (part-time) work from home,” she said.

Similar stories fill the halls of area colleges and universities. Across the land, technology companies and other firms shifting gears to use the Internet have created a 30-year high-water mark for job-seekers.

“This is one time when people will look back and say, `Remember when it was such a good job market for graduates,”’ said Al Jamison, career services director for Washington State University in Pullman.

As it has been for three years, demand is highest for graduates in the engineering, computer programming and technology fields.

But this year’s nitro-fueled economy also translates into stronger demand for grads in the liberal arts, business and social sciences, school administrators say.

“We’ve had more companies recruiting on campus than ever before,” said Dan Blanco, the University of Idaho’s career services director.

Some 240 companies visited the UI, looking to hire new graduates. “And about a third of them came back both semesters” instead of making the traditional once-yearly visit, Blanco said.

Some graduates aren’t taking jobs right out of school, for an assortment of reasons, said Blanco and others.

Some grad are not eager to head right into the work force. Others, said Blanco, have yet to sharpen their resumes and make a diligent job search.

“There are always some students a bit behind the curve” in selling their skills in the job market,” he said.

Others have looked around and decided they’re still better off waiting for a better offer in this kind of economy.

Those least likely to get their preferred jobs are graduates unwilling to move from Spokane, said Diane Thomas, manager of Whitworth College’s career services department.

That willingness to relocate has helped Whitworth’s largest degree program - teacher education - place more graduates into jobs last year than any other Washington college or university.

A large number of Whitworth’s liberal arts or social sciences grads opt for graduate school or enter the social services sector, she said.

“The other graduates of ours looking for big paychecks head for Seattle,” Thomas said.

Starting salaries vary, according to size of company, job location and type of position. Clearly, top dollars are landing in the pockets of engineering grads, who can command starting salaries ranging from $30,000-$65,000 a year.

“One of our mechanical engineering students has had a dozen job offers this spring,” said Blanco.

That student is trying to find the most interesting job nearest to his parents’ home in Boise, he added.

The student will certainly earn at least $50,000 to start, said Blanco.

“He’s not even an electrical engineer. Mechanical engineers are lower down on the starting-salary rung than other areas in high demand,” he added.

Salaries for those with a liberal arts degree have crawled upward, as well, said Blanco.

“Right now, those earning degrees in liberal arts or social sciences can find starting salaries ranging from $21,000 to $36,000.

A large number of job offers, for those with liberal arts and social sciences degrees, are coming from school districts and regional law enforcement agencies, said Blanco.

Recruiters from California, Nevada and Oregon have made regular visits this year to the UI, Eastern Washington University and the University of Montana.

“We’re much more active in our recruitment in that region than we have been,” said Lt. Fred Douthit, supervisor in charge of new applicants for the Oregon State Police.

His agency, like hundreds of western U.S. school districts, now regularly visit on area campuses to recruit job applicants.

The extra interest by police agencies and school districts is caused by a common concern: Both of those sectors face a high retirement rate among current employees over the next six to eight years, say job market analysts.

The Oregon State Police this year recruited 49 new troopers, most of them resulting from campus visits. That demand results from the agency facing the retirement of about 400 officers in the next eight years, said Douthit.

Starting pay as a trooper with the Oregon State Patrol is $33,084, with ample benefits and advancement choices available, said Douthit.

Recruiters looking for teachers to take jobs in Nevada and California have become regular campus visitors, said Bob Hille, career services director for EWU.

Another shift, due to the hot economy, is keen interest among companies looking for summer interns, said Hille. He said EWU’s intern database has grown to 800 companies from around the country.

Those businesses know that a good way to land a job recruit is to start a year or two before graduation.

“The firms know that an internship helps them make a positive impression,” Hille said.

More frequently, students with strong skills are being hired before graduating, working part time and earning decent salaries as they complete a degree.

Whitworth College computer science graduate Josh Hug spent 15 to 20 hours a week working from Spokane on software projects for software company Real Networks in Seattle.

After graduating last month, Hug moved to Seattle, where his starting salary exceeds $50,000 a year. “It’s more than most of my professors make, which to me seems kind of unjust,” he said.

Today’s thriving economy has also convinced more high school students that an education must extend beyond 12th grade, say school officials across Eastern Washington.

Thousands of area students graduate from 12th grade not interested in entering a four-year college. But more than ever, many in that group are enrolling in specific vocational or tech-training programs, said Sharon Wessman, dean of students for the Spokane Area Professional and Technical Skills Center.

Most of those students enroll in community college programs or specialized vocational programs from providers like ITT or Turning Point to gain technology skills, she said.

“They know this is a post-industrial period. They have to establish computer competency and at least gain skills in areas like electrical maintenance, auto technology and others,” she said.