Graduates face tough times

[Badshah Mamun]

Graduates face tough times

By Jonathan Dart

Kate Busch has a smile exuding excitement, and relief.

After graduating with more than 100 commerce students at the University of Sydney on Friday, she will travel to South America before doing something unconventional among her peers ? starting a job.

Many commerce graduates said the prospect of paid employment, in a sector of the workforce hit hard by the global financial crisis, was distant.

But Ms Busch, 23, secured a summer internship last year at the financial consultancy Deloitte before the credit crunch struck and was then offered a graduate position.

"People who tried to get jobs at the start of this year found it pretty tough so I think it was just a matter of getting in while the market was still strong," she said.

"I do know of some graduates [at other companies] who were made offers and were rejected ? they were made redundant before they even started."

Sean Fifer, 23, who also received his commerce degree on Friday, will travel to Canada to work on the ski fields for six months before heading to Europe for a month, rather than look for work here.

"It's tough in Sydney at the moment," he said. "A lot of my friends have tried to get into investment banks and I think they're only hiring for nine to 10 positions whereas last year it was double that or triple that.

It's difficult. Even if you're really bright and you've got good grades, you need great grades and really great references."

Elaine Yang, 24, agreed now was not the best time to leave uni with a commerce degree. Ms Yang said she expected more jobs to be available in the finance sector towards mid-2010.

Maya Rob, 24, who found a job in human resources after getting a combined science and commerce degree, said students should choose professions that were in constant demand.

"[Human resources] is emerging as one of those areas which is pretty important to good management," she said.

Published: 11 October 2009

Source: http://content.mycareer.com.au/advice-research/search/graduates-face-tough-times.aspx