Outlook grows brighter for grads

"There can be an industry that's hiring like gangbusters and it also may have a turnover rate of 150 percent," says Tom Gimbel, chief executive of The LaSalle Network, a Chicago staffing firm. "You've got to find out what's right for you and follow your true ambitions.... Too many people who are looking for jobs focus on the hot sectors instead of focusing on a job that they'll like."

The aging of baby boomers means healthcare will boom in the coming decades, he points out - an assessment confirmed by a look at Bureau of Labor Statistics projections through 2012, in which seven of the top 10 fields are in healthcare.

"But if you don't like healthcare, you don't like nutrition or hospitals, you're not going to be happy," Mr. Gimbel says. "And advancement comes from happiness within the field you're in."

Others maintain that skills are often transferable. Derek Fohl, an Indiana University senior from Brookville, Ind., succeeded in his job hunt by staying flexible.

A four-year marketing student, he plans to make his mark in real estate. But he didn't hesitate to accept an offer with an insurance firm, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in suburban Chicago.

"I tried to figure what's going to give me the best opportunity in the long term to help prepare me for real estate," he says. "I'm going to be dealing with ... decisionmakers within insurance, and I'm going to be learning a lot about sales."

As in Carriere's case, graduates' declared majors should never limit their search, says James Smart, director of the University of Miami's career center. A third of pre-med students don't go on to earn advanced degrees and practice medicine, he says. Five years out, only about half of graduates are employed in accordance with their undergraduate majors.

Students are finally beginning to realize that their marketability is tied not to their degree so much as to their capacity for problem-solving, says Mr. Smart - for example, "a nurse who's trying to figure out how to make [hospital] systems work better."

Would-be employees should try to build careers around "invention and empathy," adds Dan Pink, author of "A Whole New Mind," a book that examines the importance of irreplaceable human-touch, hands-on skills. These will be indispensable in an era when industries are inclined to automate jobs or outsource them to India or elsewhere.

Many graduates are learning another important lesson, says The LaSalle Network's Gimbel.

"I think right now what we're starting to see is the first group of college grads coming out that aren't being spoiled by their peers in hearing about the dotcom boom," he says. "There's a little more of a reality check right now, [and] we're starting to come away from the inflated expectations."

Gimbel recalls 1998 and 1999, when he says graduates emerged feeling entitled to $60,000 starting salaries. "That's changed quite a bit," he says.

The expected salary range for bachelor's degrees in liberal arts today: $29,400 to $35,000, according to CollegeJournal.com. For engineering: $44,300 to $50,000. For computer science: $39,300 to $47,400. For communications: $28,900 to $36,700.

Expectations today seem more likely to be self-imposed. Carriere knew she could handle her UBS internship last summer, but still she fretted by the phone for about a month waiting to hear if she had made it into the program.

It turned out to be a Survivor-style audition, whittling down a 60-intern pool to the three who would be offered positions.

"I think they saw that I had something," says Carriere, who will work in several departments over the next two years, looking for a niche. "For me," she says, "it's perfect."

Who's hiring people just out of school? College grads might take a look at Enterprise Rent-A-Car or the FBI, according to CollegeGrad.com. Its survey of hundreds of top entry-level employers found that all told they offer more than 130,000 jobs, a 14.2 percent increase from 2004. Here are the survey's Top 10 employers:

Employer/ Projected 2005 entry level hires

1. Enterprise 7,000

2. Pricewaterhouse- Coopers 3,200

3. Federal Bureau of Investigation 3,000

4. Schlumberger 3,000

5. US Department of Agriculture 3,000

6. HCR Manor Care 2,525

7. Ernst & Young 2,500

8. IBM 2,250

9. US Customs and Border Protection 2,250

10. Teach For America 2,100

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