Jobs, Jobs, Jobs oh my!

Upswing in the jobs market

J-O-B-S

Is it just me? Or, is everyone talking about jobs? Jobs will definitely be the most important topic during this year’s election and mostly likely a tagline used in both parties campaigns. Also, as manufacturing costs overseas rise, the U.S. economy will be experience an “insourcing” of these industries, creating millions of jobs…Here’s an uplifting article about the U.S. economy and jobs market I found in this mornings Business Week.

As graduation quickly approaches, I have obviously been doing a ton of research on the “jobs” topic. Fortunately, I am finding myself in a great position to get hired. Five years ago I made a crucial decision to drop out of Texas A&M University and move to NYC. I was unsure about “what I wanted to do when I grew up” and needed to do some soul searching. BEST DECISION I EVER MADE. As you know, the U.S. economy feel into a recession shortly after my move. I would have been graduating and looking for a job during the height of the unemployment rate…I, of course, did not forsee this, but am happy it worked in my favor. After spending the past 3 1/2 years at FIT and working numerous internships, I finally feel prepared to move into the workforce. And thankfully, it looks like the jobs market thinks so too.

Corporate vs. Start-up

I ran across a interesting article from Fast Company yesterday as I boarded my flight to come back to NYC from Austin. The article was justifying an issue I am going to face in the next couple months… A corporate job or start-up company? I have been applying to numerous advertising/branding agencies over the past couples months. Some are ad giants like Grey Group or Mccann Worldgroup, but others are young, smaller digital agencies. Assuming that I receive multiple job offers…this decision will definitely be a hard one. Corporate positions will pay more upfront, have better benefits, longer vacation times, and training programs. Here’s one man’s reasoning to why picking a start-up may be the better choice…

1. You’ll have more responsibility. 

2. You’ll be given more opportunities. 

3. You’ll be able to do a lot of different things. 

4. You will learn from true innovators. 

5. Your work will be recognized (as will your failures).

6. You’ll work in an awesome atmosphere.

7. You’ll learn to be frugal. 

8. You’ll be instilled with the value of hard work, ownership, and self-sustainability. 

I am definitely going to take the reasons into account when making final decisions on where I am going to spend the next couple years. Although corporate positions have numerous perks, the greater opportunities to improve skills and personal growth at start-ups may outweigh these perks.

Steve Carrell

Steve Carrell from The Office

Student Loans = The New Mortgage Crisis

Graduate

Don't get too excited about graduation...

An article, “Student Debt is Stifling Home Sales” from Businessweek.com caught my eye…

Maybe it’s time to consider (I apologize in advance if this offends anyone) that all American children shouldn’t have the right to attend college. Currently, I am a student at The Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC and will be graduating this coming May. However, I am dreading graduation and the uncertainty of the next 5 months of my life. With the job market still struggling more students are having trouble finding employment after graduation. This means graduates are working minimum wage jobs, instead of the higher paying jobs they went to college for. How are students supposed to pay of college loan debt when the educations they received isn’t providing a viable solution for employment.

My advice to upcoming graduates is to get the most experience you possibly can before graduation. To the point where you have to weed out internships to fit it all on one page. Hopefully my six internships in three different (but related) industries will ensure a position for this coming May…

What’s your advice? And what industries do you think are dying or up and coming?

Interesting article about the 2012 Obama Campaign.