SU seniors open up about the job process

Every incoming college graduate’s least favorite question has begun to circulate: what are your plans for after graduation? 

With commencement about a month away, much of SU’s class of 2025 is now deep into the job hunt. PR senior Bella Valentine finds the job search more stressful than finding an internship, especially since the communications industry follows a different hiring timeline.

“I’ve had success landing interviews, but like many others, I’ve dealt with the frustration of being ghosted, which just adds to the uncertainty,” Valentine said.

At Orange Pulse, we surveyed 50 SU students who are graduating this year to find out how their job application process is going. Each college or school at SU was represented in the survey, with most respondents coming from Newhouse, Maxwell and Whitman. 

Finding jobs through career pages and networks

In terms of using resources to find jobs, most respondents said online postings (36.4%) and network connections (38.6%) have been the most effective. Internship-to-job conversion was another way that about 20% of respondents found employment.

Around 5% of respondents chose faculty recommendations as their most effective way of finding jobs. This included recommendations from career center staff and professors within the school. The final option, career fairs, was not chosen by any of the respondents.

LinkedIn gets the most use

Over half of respondents (61.4%) said that LinkedIn is their most used platform for job searching. The online service gives its users the best of both worlds: a vast web of job postings and networking capabilities on the same platform. According to Jobscan, 87% of recruiters utilize LinkedIn to source and evaluate job candidates.

Handshake and company websites tied for the second most used job search methods, together accounting for 27.2% of respondents. As SU’s official career management tool, Handshake provides users with job and internship listings in addition to virtual career fairs and other special events. There is also a feature to schedule career advising appointments.

Company websites also typically have career pages where they list job postings for specific roles. An advantage of applying directly on company sites, according to Ivy Exec, is that you know your resume is going directly to the manager or someone on the team hired to recruit—there is no gray area where your application might get caught up.

Challenges found in all aspects of the process

Respondents fell into multiple categories when it came down to the challenges of the job application process. Cover letter writing and networking tied for the most challenging aspect of the job process, each with about 28% of respondents.  

20% of respondents noted that finding job openings was a challenge, with interviewing not far behind at 17.8%. Other areas of the process that some found challenging included resume building and getting responses from companies. 

Optimistic outlook for after graduation

When asked how confident respondents felt about securing a job before graduation, the results were on both ends of the spectrum. On a scale of one to five, with one meaning “not confident” and five meaning “very confident,” 20.5% selected five, while 20.5% selected one.

However, when asked how optimistic they are about locking in a job within six months after graduation, most leaned toward very optimistic (47.7%). The not optimistic category made up less than seven percent of respondents.  

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) conducted a survey in 2023 and found that about 85% of bachelor’s degree graduates and about 90% of master’s degree graduates were either employed or engaged in further education within six months of graduation. 

While graduation can certainly bring the pressure and stress of making future plans as soon as possible, the numbers do show that post-grad plans come to fruition for many with time. With commencement about a month away, it is expected that more SU seniors will dive deeper into the job process. Despite the challenges of the job application process, responses showed that SU’s class of 2025 is being proactive and finding ways to overcome them.