(Iowa Dispatch Article written by Brooklyn Draisley)
(Des Moines) As thousands of students walk the stage this week to receive their diplomas, some may be facing a slower-to-hire job market.
A University of Iowa expert is advising new grads to treat the job search like a class project, something she knows they have plenty of experience doing, and look for “utility player” positions.
The University of Iowa stated in a news release that more than 6,100 students will earn their degrees, with commencement ceremonies spanning from May 14 to June 5. Cindy Meis, director of undergraduate career services at the UI Tippie College of Business, said many graduating students will use the next six-to-eight weeks to dive into the job hunt. .
“They are worried about finding a job, and that is not new, but I think the time it takes to perhaps secure that job feels longer — or may be longer,” Meis said. Employers “are being a little bit conservative in terms of their hiring numbers,” she said.
At the University of Northern Iowa, nearly 1,500 students will earn their degree this spring, with 90% of the group Iowa residents and nearly one-third identifying as first-generation students. Three commencement ceremonies will be held on May 15-16, all of which will be livestreamed online.
More than 4,900 Iowa State University students will receive their diplomas over five livestreamed commencement ceremonies between May 14-16. More than 4,100 of those students are undergraduates, joined by 528 master’s students, 128 Ph.D. candidates and 155 veterinary medicine candidates. Close to 900 of students slated for graduation identify as first generation.
Meis said concerns she’s heard from students set to graduate often come from comparing themselves to classmates, depending on the major and the industry they’re trying to break into. She said students know size of the class they’re graduating with and that “the job market is somewhat plateaued.”
Artificial intelligence has also come up as a concern among students, Meis said, in not knowing if AI tools will filter out their job applications based on keywords they don’t have in their resume. There may be some wariness toward AI on the employer’s side as well.
“I don’t know that employers know quite how to react to artificial intelligence yet, so they’re really proceeding with caution and being really conservative in their hiring,” Meis said.
How to best handle this is for students to make sure they can use artificial intelligence tools, whether they be ChatGPT or Claude or another system, and to convey their ability on their resume for employers.
Meis said those making hiring decisions also want to have “repeat interactions” with candidates, at places like job fairs, webinars, referral meetings or other events. This can be a challenge for full-time students, some of whom are looking at companies spread across the U.S. or the globe.
The “best-case scenario” for graduating students is that they’ve already secured something like an internship, experiential learning or credential-earning training before graduating, Meis said, or have completed things like that earlier on in their undergraduate career and can put them on a resume. This was also her advice for students still years away from graduation, to take the time and get involved in these kinds of opportunities, or use free time productively to learn something new or gain a skill they can tell an employer about.
A recruiting contact once gave Meis a tip for resumes: Make sure there are at least three interesting things listed on the resume, as that is what he’s looking for when he goes through candidates.
“My objective is to make sure students are showcasing themselves in a way that’s attractive to employers, highlighting perhaps three interesting things,” Meis said. “And then I think the other key component is making sure that employers know that they’re technically savvy or have technical skills, and never assume anything about that as part of your candidacy.”
For students starting to look for jobs after graduation, Meis said they should “stay broad” in their search and explore organizations where they could operate as a “utility player” rather than holding a “niche position,” which she said is becoming less common. Also described as a “Swiss army knife,” Meis said a utility player is someone in an organization who has their hands in a lot of different areas regardless of their job title.
Planning out the job search like how one would tackle a big project for class is also a good idea, Meis said, including creating a timeline, identifying and using available tools and resources, setting goals for networking or number of applications completed and setting times for when to work and when to set it aside for other matters, like celebrating the success of earning a degree.
“I do want to make sure that our recent grads, or our graduates, take time to enjoy their accomplishment and celebrate with their family and friends, because the amount of job postings can change in 10 days,” Meis said.
