Despite the challenging job market for recent graduates, Sydney Strecker (Fin’24) is grateful to start a new career this fall, offering hope and insight to those still looking for opportunities.
Sydney Strecker, a 2024 Leeds graduate, knows the warm welcome of recent college graduates in today’s job market. According to many media reports, from CBS News to Business Insider to The New York Times and The Denver Post, startups don’t exactly get the welcome mat laid out for employers. A May 2024 Wall Street Journal article declared: “The Class of 2024 is about to enter a job market that is almost as chaotic as their college years.”
Strecker feels fortunate that this September, he is starting his new role as a business consultant with McKinsey & Company in Denver, something he describes as a lucky strategy.
“I can say I’m lucky because the industry I’m in hires early. The job I did my freshman summer, I hired for my sophomore summer, which was two years before I started my job,” he said. “It’s more difficult to recruit people for interviews today, because the recruitment target is not the same as two years ago when I was recruiting. It is very thin. So, my heart goes out to the students.”
However, even though he has found a job, he still worries sometimes. “I feel pressure every time—if they’re going to cut … as the youngest person in the factory, I can be one of the first to go.”
Willingness to pivot
Pessimism aside, Strecker believes that even in a tough job market there are positive steps students and recent graduates can take. He reflected on his experiences of turning obstacles into opportunities.
Originally, Strecker planned to study medicine to become a heart surgeon.
“A few weeks into my studies, I realized, ‘Oh my god, all I’m going to do is this.’ I wasn’t afraid of homework in medical school; I love being a student, and I thought it would be great to spend 15 years studying. But then I realized that I would be doing the same process over and over again for the rest of my life…
A professor suggested philosophy, and Strecker found he liked the problem-solving involved. “But I hit a wall again, realizing that I really didn’t like philosophy,” he said, foreseeing that he would not enjoy debating such matters. like trying to argue the existence of God.
That led to another pivot: the decision to study business – one Strecker says he doesn’t regret. He obtained advanced degrees in finance and business, as well as maintaining his advanced knowledge of philosophy in order to benefit from the complementary knowledge of the two degrees. “I think that’s one thing that really affects my productivity, and people keep asking me about it.”
Taking advantage of opportunities and experiences
Another pivot came in Strecker’s sophomore year. He was not lucky enough to find opportunities to study and felt insecure about his knowledge. He decided to explore any experiences that could help him to be competitive.
Join EESA, the Global Entrepreneurship and Empowerment Seminar in South Africa. Through this program, participating students from CU, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Florida are matched with students from the University of the Western Cape, and together they are assigned to discussion groups working with multiple entrepreneurs. South Africa.
“You have to come back to the middle to explore what the business school has to offer and what CU has to offer, and use those experiences to put on your resume,” Strecker said. “I will promote the EESA program for the rest of my life. It’s about the wealth of experiences you get from something like this. ”
Strecker also said that Leeds Consulting Group helped him a lot in finding a consulting job. “For me, the effects are on the hard skills, but more importantly, the development of the soft skills that I have acquired,” he said.
“If I think about my EESA experience, you’re put in discussion groups with students from different schools, and the groups are purposely structured to include different skills. Everyone in the group is different—it can be ‘ “Are you the only student in business, someone else might be an expert in psychology or international affairs.”
The challenge of bringing together different perspectives and backgrounds helps solve problems and devise creative solutions, he found. “That was a great learning experience, and I was able to talk about it in the interview. It mimics real life and what companies are looking for in new jobs. ”
“You have to focus on seeing what the business school has to offer and what CU has to offer, and then use those experiences to apply to your career.”
Sydney Stretcher (Fin’24)
Taking advantage of work tools
Strecker also pointed to the value of Leeds’ work in helping him secure internships and ultimately his career. “Jess Baumgarten [assistant director of Career Services] He spent countless hours with me going over resumes, cover letters, prepping for interviews and strategizing how to network, to find out who I should talk to. I don’t think I could have done it without him,” he said.
Amanda Hansen, director of the Leeds Career Development Office, said Leeds students can access career development resources from their first year through to graduation and beyond. Experienced career coaches help with job search strategies, provide tips on improving resumes and cover letters, and act as a support network. The office is closely monitoring trends and has launched a series of webinars over the summer to help 2024 students with resume writing, using AI for job searches and acing interviews.
“This year, we found that recent graduates are having a hard time finding their first position after college. “There have been a lot of layoffs, and recent graduates are competing with people with years of experience and applying for entry-level positions,” Hansen said.
“Networking and referrals still seem to be the best way to get in front of a hiring manager.”
Amanda Hansen, Director of the Office of Career Development
“Companies that used to get a few applicants are now seeing hundreds of applicants,” he added. “Networking and having a warm referral still seems like the best way to get in front of a hiring manager. We encourage students to use our resources and Buff’s network, and ask alums for help.” It may also be a good time to research gap year and graduate school opportunities.
Looking ahead
Doing the job search was difficult at times, Strecker said. She has completed several interviews for several companies, including ethical interviews, which she benefited from prepping. He described the interviews as mini-interviews where the interviewers brought up a problem, and he had to work with them to come up with a solution within an hour.
Strecker is excited to be at McKinsey in a role that will cover functional areas and projects, exactly the kind of position he had hoped to find in many opportunities. “So, for three months I’d be doing some kind of project for a manufacturing company, and maybe my next project will take six months and involve exploring ‘ the target market or the new product or service offered by the technology company. It can go anywhere.”
She returned to EESA this past summer as a program coordinator, hoping to share the benefits of her experience in the program as a student. While there, he realized that he was very concerned about social enterprise, especially economic development and poverty reduction. “I would like my life to be like that again sometime,” he said.
While students like Strecker can breathe easy after finding a job, New York Times Opinion Writer Peter Coy offered hope to those still in the job search process. His article dated May 30, 2024, titled, “Highly Educated Students Don’t Get a Job.” What’s going on?” he wrote that while analysts and industry observers may disagree on the exact reasons for the troubled job market, including the fact that recent graduates may lack training and networking while learning remotely during the COVID, “The good news is that more people know. about the problem and trying to do something about it.”
Students graduating in the spring and summer of 2024 who are still exploring career opportunities are invited to participate in the next Career Development Workshop Series on Thursdays this summer at noon.
July 25 Webinar Aug. 1 Webinar Aug. 8 Webinars
#Career #Trends #Finance #Student #Sydney #Strecker #Aspires #Bright #Future
