Looking into the Crystal Ball

Once a year, Professor Phil Gardner of Michigan State University does a massive survey of companies throughout the United States entitled "Recruiting Trends." I will summarize some of the career-related highlights.

Projections for the 2010 hiring indicate that small companies ( less than 500 employees) will be hiring while medium to large companies project a downturn in hiring. Employers appear to be looking for candidates who are flexible and can fill a variety of positions because of their broad base of competencies and soft skills. Employers will focus more on what you can do and your experience rather than the major you studied. They are leveraging internships into full time jobs rather than other traditional ways of hiring. They are using social media such as LinkedIn and Facebook in that effort. Respondents to the survey indicated that they expected to hire more PhD candidates to replace more experienced retiring workers.

Employers are looking for workers who are able to build professional relationships, evaluate, analyze, interpret data, pursue continuous learning, communicate through persuasion and justify their position, plan and manage projects, create new knowledge, and have a global understanding as well as the core competencies (we have a handout listing those competencies and soft skills). Star performers take initiative, have technical competence, and have cognitive thinking ability. ( See Kelley R, Caplan J."How Bell Labs creates star performers." Harv Bus Rev. 1993 Jul-Aug;71(4):128-39.)

Areas that will be in demand: : Environmental sciences, Statistics, Information systems/sciences, E-commerce and entrepreneurial experience.

Gardner recommends that students remain "focused, directed and connected" in order to find a job. Perseverance will remain key to land a job in this economy.

There is a copy of the "Recruiting Trends 2009-2010" report is available at our office. You are welcome to stop by and read it.