College graduates facing a frightening trend in the job market
 
Phoenix - The founder of AZ College Consulting, LLC is spot on the money noting a terrifying cyclical trend in the job market.

‘Before your high school student heads off to college and even before he/she starts looking for a major, they must research a career path’ says J.D. Wyczalek founder of AZCollegePlanning.com.

Recently published online at informationweek.com, an article entitled “IT MANAGERS TO HIRE FEWER COLLEGE GRADS IN 2008” describes how there are fewer jobs available in the Information Technology field than previous years.

‘I’ve seen this before,’ comments college expert J.D. ‘it is easy to spot. What they (colleges) are promoting as the hot career, after a period of time there will be a glut of new graduates in the market. It’s the old “supply and demand” cycle rearing its ugly head.’

Understand that colleges are in the business to: A. Educate and B. Make money. Hopefully their priority emphasizes educating students. However, if they do not make money colleges would not be in business very long.

TV commercials are promoting the “hot new jobs”. One of the hot tickets right now is computer animation/computer gaming.

It won’t be long before there are more graduates that hold this degree than there are jobs. We are in the stages now where we are seeing this with IT support. The ending result is the number of new jobs offered will be fewer, with lower salaries.

There are resources out there that have demographic information pertaining to job growth in a particular field. Spending 4 to 6 years earning a degree in a specific medium only to find out that there are no jobs available and/or the employer wants experience is disheartening.

‘Research your career before you start college’ says J.D. ‘You (the student) must know if there is going to be a job market in your discipline, so that you don’t waste your time studying for a job that wont be there. I’m going to go out on the limb and say that pharmacy majors may find themselves finding fewer and less paying jobs in the not to distant future, due to market trends along with supply and demand.’

Students starting college now will be 4+ years behind in the employment market before they are out of school and available for the job market with a degree. Knowing that there will be employment after graduation is crucial. One way to have the odds be in your favor is for the prospective student to get an intern position. This will give them real world experience and positions them for success in their future years.

The unfortunate thing is that High School guidance counselors are over worked, under staffed and under paid. With the average ratio in Arizona of 700 students to 1 counselor, it is no wonder that this is near epidemic proportions.

The growing trend for not only the affluent, but for middle class families is to seek advice and direction outside of the public and private school systems. Small businesses like AZCollegePlanning.com offer a wide variety of services including student counseling/direction as well as financial counseling for parents of high school aged children.

Researching your career options now will give you choices and stability later.

Online article found at http://www.informationweek.com/news/management/trends/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207400198

For more information about local community college workshops click the link RSVP.

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