The top paying undergraduate majors this year are all in the engineering field. But these and other 2011 graduates face competition from the underemployed and unemployed graduates of 2009 and 2010. Several graduates from those two years are still looking for their first entry-level jobs in their fields. Most of these graduates have either been working in retail and sales jobs or gone back to school to increase their qualifications.
But beyond the figures lies the fact that several times it's how a newly minted degree holder presents himself and how he behaves that determines whether he gets the job. The Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania in its second survey on the state of professionalism found several new graduates lacking in proper office etiquette.
New graduates also need to be realistic about their chances of promotion and benefits package. At a time, when small and medium sized businesses are still hurting, trying to negotiate too many benefits and small perks can make the potential employer balk at hiring such people. The main thing is to avoid a sense of entitlement. This extends to not just pay and benefits but also other office behavior. Employees are also expected to be professional. This extends to not just their dressing sense, but also overall attitude and they way they express themselves.
The most common mistake that these new graduates are making is that they think it is perfectly acceptable to access Facebook and Twitter in office. The media hype about the importance of social networking and their college habits make them think that most businesses think the same way when it comes to using Facebook. But while the company may have its own account on all the popular social networking sites, it does not mean that its employees are allowed to use their office time for updating their Facebook status.
In this tough economy, most new hires can also expect to have to work longer hours and possibly weekends. The era of 40-hour workweeks is pretty much gone. Employers are trying to get by with fewer employees, so the workload is distributed accordingly. This means being able to multitask and have a diverse skills set.
