Employer Activity Trends

• Employer demand exceeded the space we had available at 5 career fairs this year. Employers who could not be accommodated were offered a virtual career fair alternative, allowing them to highlight their positions via a link from the fair web directories visited by hundreds of students in advance of each fair.
• Employers are using many strategies to gain visibility with Cal students. The Career Center's Berkeley Circle partnership program and Employer Spotlight registrations are at an all-time high in 2006-07. Some employers are offering scholarships to undergraduate students. Many employers are reaching out to student organizations, offering speakers or donations.
• The April 25-26 Just in Time Job Fair will host 190+ employers, a 21 percent increase over last year. Participating employers range from employers participating in their first Cal fair to long-term employers who still have unfilled positions to fill.
• Major On-Campus Recruiting employers came to campus early this year, trying to get a jump on recruiting in a very competitive market. They were joined by an increased number of employers new or returning to campus after a long absence. Despite that early activity, for the first time in several years the number of employers setting OCR dates in spring exceeded the number in fall. Some employers returned in the spring to fill unmet or expanded full-time needs and to source summer interns.

To learn more about the robust employer activity at the Career Center, contact Associate Director for Employer Relations and Recruiting Kathy MacClelland or Assistant Director for Employer Relations and Recruiting Nancy McFarland.

In partnership with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, we are pleased to offer a grace period for graduating seniors so they can continue to use our services for three months immediately after graduation at no cost. The grace period will begin with the May 2007 graduating class.

According to our Career Destinations Surveys, many seniors put their job or graduate school applications on hold until after graduation. Typically, 20 percent of seniors do not actively start seeking employment until after graduation. The grace period will be particularly helpful to these students.

During the grace period, all services that are available to currently enrolled students will be available to graduating seniors, including career counseling appointments, CalJobs (full-time, part-time, online job and internship listings), and graduate school services such as advising and online statement reviews. The grace period extends to August 31 for May graduates and November 30 for August graduates.

After the grace period ends, all Cal students can continue their access to Career Center services by purchasing a Career Center Alumni Advantage membership.

An Alumni Advantage membership grants any UC alumni access to the full range of Career Center services except On-Campus recruiting. While any UC alumni can purchase an Alumni Advantage membership, its services are optimized for alumni who have graduated in the last five years. Alumni Advantage membership costs $100 for 12 months of service.

If you have any questions about the grace period or Alumni Advantage, please contact Andrew Green, Assistant Director.

 

Career Week starts Friday, April 13 and is co-sponsored by the Career Center and the California Alumni Association (CAA)

Do your students need to develop a game plan for the future? Are they puzzled by the career exploration process? While finding a career path is not all fun and games, this year’s game themed Career Week will present career and internship information in a way that is both lively and designed to help students become more strategic about their transitions from Cal to career.

You and your students are invited to Career Week, "Make Your Move," a full deck of 35 panels and presentations featuring an array of career and internship related topics. When you and your students attend Career Week programs you will get first hand, current information from experts that can help inform career and graduate school decision making and provide leads for job and internship networking.

While this year’s Career Week theme focuses on games, its programs offer a wide spectrum of choices designed to make the career exploration process less puzzling. A sampling of programs include:

• Professional Etiquette
• Intern & Career Opportunities in Publishing
• Diversity & Cultural Careers
• Careers in Computer Gaming
• Exploring Careers in Public Policy
• Working on Wall Street
• Careers in Sustainable Development
• Careers in Medicine...and many more.

For a complete, searchable list of all programs, including dates, times, and locations, see the Career Week section of our website.

The law school admissions statistics for the class of 2006 are now available on the Career Center website and they reveal a large decrease in the number of Cal graduating seniors who applied compared to the class of 2005.

In 2005, 259 seniors applied, but in 2006 only 183 seniors applied—nearly a 30 percent decrease. This reflects a national trend. According to the Law School Admission Council, across the country the number of applicants to law schools is down 12.4 percent with the Mountain West seeing the largest decrease (19.2 percent) and the Northeast seeing the smallest decrease (10 percent).

So, what could be behind the decrease? As we have seen at our career fairs and On-Campus Recruiting, employer activity has increased and there are more opportunities for employment. Traditionally, when employment prospects are promising, graduate school applications decrease. Also, while Cal ’s 30 percent decrease seems to be greater than the nationwide decrease, the statistics on our website only reflect graduating seniors--not all of our alumni who applied to law schools in 2006. If we compare the number of all Cal grads/alumni who applied in 2005 (1271) to the number of all Cal Grads/alumni who applied in 2006 (1107), the decrease is 13 percent, which is more in line with the national decrease rate.

While the number of applicants was down for 2006, those that applied had the highest acceptance rate in 4 years (81 percent compared to 75 percent in 2005). The applicants who received offers of admission also received more offers to choose from (averaging 3.47 offers, up from 2.86 in 2005) and achieved this success even though they had slightly lower GPAs and LSAT scores than in the past. Overall, these trends point to favorable conditions for those students who are ready to apply to law school. Students interested in law school can schedule appointments with career counselors to talk about their concerns.

 

Career Counselor Chris Pohalski catches up with Undergraduate Math Advisors Henrietta Williams and Thomas Brown in the Career Center InfoLab.

Our success in serving students goes hand-in-hand with the relationships we have with academic colleges and departments. As part of our continuing effort to provide customized services to each academic department on campus, the Career Center hosted several March meetings for Career Center staff and Undergraduate Advisors from the College of Letters and Science (L & S) to engage in lively discussions about how the Career Center can better work with them and their students.

Discussion centered on topics submitted by L & S advisors, such as:

• our new online appointment system that allows students to schedule 45 minute appointments through our website with the most knowledgeable counselors
• the upgraded and enhanced CalJobs system that allows students to search online for full and part-time, on and off-campus jobs and internships
• preliminary plans for the renovation of our facility
• our plans to strengthen our internship services
• the latest results from our Career Destinations Study.

Save the Date! More Career Center meetings with campus staff will be planned, including a June 6th meeting focusing on the needs of pre-med students. The meeting will feature admissions officials from UC Davis, UCSF, and Stanford as well as members of the Career Center pre-health team. Advisors and other staff from all colleges are welcome to attend. To learn more, contact Career Center Associate Director Jim Sullivan.