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April NfHC Column: The Job Market

When it comes to the economy, everyone has an opinion. A quick glance at your local paper, a scan of online headlines and even thorough analysis from your favorite weekly will reveal discrepancies. No matter where you look, opinion varies concerning the scale, span and source of our fiscal state of affairs. Regardless of the latest numbers and the spin of your news source of choice, one thing is for certain: finding a job has never been an easy task.

In the midst of an economic recovery, this is certainly still the case. While organizations like the National Association of Colleges and Employers are predicting a better job market this year, with surveyed employers saying they will hire 13.5 percent more bachelor’s degree recipients this year than last, many recent college graduates are facing competition from experienced candidates who lost their jobs during the recession.

Whether it’s tackling big questions concerning vocation or landing the first job after graduation, we know that the role Hope plays in the lives of both our students and alumni is as important now as it has ever been. In fact, identifying job opportunities for graduates was one of the most important services acknowledged in the 2010 Alumni Attitude Survey. The survey also revealed that many of the services available to students and alumni are not adequately promoted.

With this in mind, here are some tips for taking advantage of the career resources available through the Hope College Alumni Association:

• Get online and get involved. Check out the event listings at www. hope.edu/alumni for career related events.
• Don’t underestimate your network. Search by class or city in the alumni directory or join Hope’s Career Resource Network.
• Keep your resume relevant and ready. Hope has partnered with Optimal Resume to offer online resume management for all students and alumni.
• Make JobStop a stop for you. From student jobs to internships and entry-level positions, Hope posts job leads at jobstop.hope.edu. Experienced positions are coming soon!
• Embrace social media. Connect on our LinkedIn group, which now has more than 2,000 members sharing career advice, networking tips and job leads. You can learn more at www.hope.edu/alumni/career

This column was first published in News from Hope College this April.  Download the entire publication in pdf format.

My life. Thoughts on globalization.

As the sun first shines in through my Michigan window, it is shining its last of a hot day in Australia.  I wake up and have breakfast: waffles made with mix from Seattle, butter from Boston, syrup from Grand Rapids, blueberries picked locally by Mexican laborers,  and a “Belgian” waffle maker whose maker’s in China.  The waffles sit on German plates resting on a table put together in Malaysia.  Coffee from Costa Rica, sweetened by cream and sugar stored in Peruvian pottery, tops off the meal.  Glancing at a painting my wife purchased at a market in Guayaquil, Ecuador, I head out the door. 

I pull out of my driveway in a truck built in Venezuela by an American company.  My wife’s car, manufactured in Tennessee by a Japanese firm, is still in the garage. I tune into a British Broadcasting Corporation report with news just in from Iran, via twitter.  At the office, I check email from an alumni board member living in Germany and another on a business trip in Brazil. I share campus with faculty and students from over 30 countries around the world, many of them connected in real-time to over half a billion people via social networks like Facebook, with 70% of its users living outside the United States. My mobile phone rings.  It’s designed by a Canadian firm, manufactured in Mexico, powered by a Japanese battery and banned in the United Arab Emirates.  It’s my wife.  She’s calling from her Korean made device on a network owned by a British multinational. 

After work I feed my daughter a bottle made in the United Kingdom while she sits on a high-chair made in China.  A north wind from Canada blows in the window and I relax by reading a magazine published by a company with offices in New York, Chicago, Miami, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo, London and Paris.  My computer is streaming an Italian radio station as the sun sets over Michigan.  Meanwhile, a new day dawns in India.