With the competitive job market, students are struggling to prioritize their academic goals
Have you noticed that it's becoming more difficult to get a job?
Some are fortunate to have an established network of people who help make securing a job easier. However, seeking a job solely on your own which can involve sending out several cold emails, endlessly browsing job boards, and creating a network, often proves to be more difficult than anticipated.
As a co-op student, it felt harder than necessary to secure a job for my first placement. Out of the 70 jobs I applied to, I only received four interviews.
Although this may not be the case for everyone, many students have also experienced this when it comes to job hunting.
The co-op program at McMaster University requires students to secure a job placement before their allotted work term. If a student is unable to get a job their work-term can either be moved to another semester, they may only be required to complete three work terms or they may also be removed from the program if they have not been actively searching for a position.
With limited prospects in the current job market, having to pursue one of the alternatives listed above can significantly impact our academic terms.
For many co-op students, in third year we often have our fall semester as an academic term whereas our winter and spring/summer terms are work placements. We then have a regular term during our fourth fall semester. In the winter of our fourth year, we begin looking for our next placement for the upcoming spring/summer and fall semesters of fifth year. We finally end our undergraduate careers on with one last academic term.
For a student whose work term is moved to another semester, also known as resequencing, they may not get into their required classes. We must enroll for the co-op course instead, while some of our required courses are only available during certain terms. Since students will be on work terms during the spring/summer semesters, it may become more difficult to catch up on missed pre-requisites as they are on a co-op placement during this time.
Although it is possible to begin catching up while on a work placement, co-op students are only allowed to complete one course per semester during a work term with permission from their supervisor. If your course is offered during these semesters, it can be difficult to balance this and full-time work.
If we fall behind, we don't have much room to catch up with courses. Failing to find a co-op placement in part due to the current job market being so limited faces us with dire consequences when it comes to obtaining our degrees. We are disadvantaged from successfully completing our academic requirements. We also may be putting our dreams of a thesis at risk as resequencing causes us to have a work term during our fourth year.
However, this struggle is not only limited to co-op students. The current job market has not been kind to any student. With positions being more difficult to secure, the stress we experience interferes with our academics.
The process of actually finding a job may not be the cause of stress for non-co-op students. The financial aspect of what a job promises can cause students to displace their focus from academics to job seeking. Meanwhile, many students need a part-time job to pay their expenses that OSAP and other financial aid services might not cover cover.
With jobs difficult to secure and the rising cost of living, we are detracted from prioritizing our studies. How can we, if we have to worry about next month's rent with no income to support ourselves?
When we worry about fulfilling our most basic needs like rent, food and tuition, it becomes difficult for us to focus on our education.
When we worry about fulfilling our most basic needs like rent, food and tuition, it becomes difficult for us to focus on our education.
I am not sure if you can relate, but I am more inclined to skip a lecture when I have more urgent matters to attend. Can't get into a course that is crucial for a concurrent certificate? I'm skipping a lecture to talk with an academic advisor. Can't secure a position for co-op with the deadline fast approaching? I'm skipping another lecture to try and find a solution.
Although these are conscious choices that I am making, the external influence of the tight job market becomes detracts greatly from my academics as I worry about the implications of not having a job.
This is something many students face. I hear it frequently when talking to my peers. Many of us are seeking jobs to help supplement what OSAP does not cover, but are struggling to get a job because of the current market. This constant struggle keeps us distracted from our academics, negatively impacting our performance.
It's tough finding a job in the real world.
As undergraduate students, we have access to resources that make the job-hunting process slightly less challenging. Jobs listed under the student-work program and co-op-specific job board are exclusive to McMaster students. Access to these resources limits the size of the applicant pool, increasing students' odds of securing a job.
Nevertheless, the process of job hunting doesn't get easier after we graduate. The co-op job hunting process is not a reflection of real-world competitiveness due to the supports and exclusive job board we are given.
With many companies cutting back their available positions due to a lack of funding, everything has become increasingly competitive. Being thrown into this without support can be challenging.
However, using university resources to your advantage to create a network can help improve your chances of securing a job. By connecting with your professors early on and attending campus events, you are building bridges to help facilitate the connections needed to get you into your field of work.
Using university to your advantage to create a network can help improve your chances of securing a job. By connecting with your professors early on and attending campus events, you are building bridges to help facilitate the connections to get you into your field.
Although job hunting is not easy, my biggest piece of advice is to keep working away at it. Maintaining resilience and working early ahead are the best things you can do to overcome the challenges we all face as students while maintaining your academic performance. By starting the job application process earlier, you will increase your chances of securing a position because the more jobs you apply to, the more likely it is to secure a position - it's a numbers game.
And remember, you aren't alone! Take advantage of the support McMaster has to offer. It may take some time, but you will be able to secure a position.
By: Donna Nadeem
Despite McMaster’s large undergraduate population, many students do not seem to want to stick around in Hamilton despite the growing number of jobs in the city.
The city of Hamilton has seen a drop in the unemployment rate as of May 2017 of 6.3 per cent to 5.2 per cent, which is the lowest rate the city has seen since Sept. 2015.
Yet students have typically been less likely to stay in Hamilton because they cannot find jobs that relate to either their education or interests. A “Your City Survey” was done in 2011 and then updated in 2016 that showed that McMaster was doing a better job of advertising job opportunities and that they have made significantly more efforts than the city of Hamilton.
In 2011, when the first survey was done, around 55 per cent of individuals surveyed that they would consider living in Hamilton after graduation. In 2016, a newer iteration of the survey showed a 20 per cent increase which now meant that 75 per cent of individuals would consider living in Hamilton after graduation.
Initiatives like Hack the City, a project created in 2016 by the current McMaster Students Union vice president (Finance), Daniel “Tuba” D’Souza, has given students the opportunity to learn more about employment opportunities in the city.
“I think Hack the City provided a valuable opportunity for students to learn more about projects occurring within the city of Hamilton in the healthcare, infrastructure and energy sectors,” said D’Souza.
A recent 2017 BMO Regional Market report done showed that the employment rate in Hamilton is up 12.5 per cent and that the unemployment rate is 4.2 per cent, the lowest in Canada outside of Quebec City and putting Hamilton in the top 10 for city labour market performance ranking in Canada.
Other initiatives like Hamilton Employment Crawl have been designed to educate third and fourth-year students on employment opportunities in Hamilton post-grad. Hamilton Employment Crawl was a partnership between McMaster, Mohawk College, Redeemer University College and Hamilton Economic Development.
This event helps educate students on the career opportunities that existed post-grad in the city of Hamilton through a series of industry tours. One of the tours is a Small Business Enterprise Centre at City Hall where students learn how have their own start-up business in Hamilton.
“As both employment opportunities in the city and awareness of these opportunities from students through programs like the Hamilton Employment Crawl and the Career Fair, both hosted by the [Student Success Centre], continue to rise, I believe that students will have more of a reason to live and work in Hamilton after graduation,” said D’Souza.
A recent 2017 BMO Regional Market report done showed that the employment rate in Hamilton is up 12.5 per cent and that the unemployment rate is 4.2 per cent, the lowest in Canada outside of Quebec City and putting Hamilton in the top 10 for city labour market performance ranking in Canada.
The job growth in Hamilton has increased astoundingly and that has definitely helped with the grad retention problem that Hamilton faced. Now that there are more employment op-portunities, students have a higher chance of finding jobs that are affiliated with their desired profession therefore making it more intriguing for them to want to stay in Hamilton.
“Hamilton is a fantastic city with an incredibly supportive community and a strong young professional network. I would love to stay in Hamilton if I can find an opportunity that will both challenge me and provide the opportunity for me to grow after I complete my term in April,” said D’Souza.
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The so-called gig economy is the new reality for millennials and it will take its toll.
An ad for Fiverr, a website that connects freelancers to paid opportunities, made the rounds on Twitter recently because it promoted the ridiculous lifestyle that many fresh graduates face. The text read: “You eat a coffee for lunch. You follow through on your follow through. Sleep deprivation is your drug of choice. You might be a doer.”
This ad reeks of the prevailing wisdom found in both the comment sections in every article about millennial employment rates and in many boardrooms across the country. The belief that all you need is “hard work and a positive attitude” to get a job is equal parts wrong and insulting.
A CBC article from March 12 headlined “The millennial side hustle” outlines a common experience for university graduates: precarious work, multiple jobs, no benefits, and underemployment. Someone who is both bartending and walking dogs is probably not fulfilling the baby boomer’s definition of “hard work” because there isn’t the same amount of physical labour involved.
Their work is taxing though; the uncertainty that weighs on a debt-ridden graduate is hard to quantify, but the rising number of mental health issues with 20-somethings is a good place to start.
Keeping a positive attitude is a rich suggestion and probably comes from someone who hasn’t had to look for a job in years. The modern job search system is set up to beat the optimism out of you. When you click through jobs in LinkedIn or on McMaster’s job posting portal, you can see how many people have viewed or applied for the job.
I’ve been looking for entry-level communications jobs and the number of applicants for just one of the job boards is usually in the hundreds. Start to do the math and your optimism fades fast.
It is time that the older generation starts to embrace the facts: compared to 1976, education levels have risen, yet unemployment rates for people aged 17 to 24 have stayed the same and full-time employment rates have dropped. If this demographic achieves full-time employment, it is more likely to be temporary work. These numbers come from Stats Canada.
Lamenting the state of today’s youth isn’t going to solve the impending problems that come with a workforce that is underemployed, struggling to pay off debts and unable to afford a home.
Millennials have proven to be an innovative group that will solve problems when they can. (Seriously, just go to a party where the keg tap breaks and there’s a quarter of the beer left. Somehow, we will find a way to get it open.)
The harsh economy is not something we can solve on our own. We need older generations to step up and create change. If they don’t, everyone will lose out.
Michael Ryu
The Silhouette
A recently published study called “Bridge That Gap: Analyzing the Student Skill Index” puts into the spotlight a critical problem: students who have graduated from post-secondary education are unable to uphold the quality of work that employers expect. In fact, employers are experiencing an increasing divide between the standard of work they expect from students and the standard that students actually provide.
The study interviewed 2,000 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled in two- or four-year college programs, and 1,000 hiring managers. Students were asked whether they felt qualified to work in a professional environment while hiring managers were asked to evaluate the readiness of recent college graduates.
The results demonstrated that students tended to overestimate their abilities. 50 per cent of students answered that they felt completely prepared for professional environments, while hiring managers answered that they believed only 39 per cent of recent graduates were prepared to work in their respective fields.
Students and hiring managers were then requested to name factors they found to be most important in the hiring process. 45 per cent of students thought the name of their institution was a large factor, whereas only 28 per cent of hiring managers thought it was important. 77 per cent of students believed that personal connections would help them secure a job, while only 52 per cent of hiring managers stated that it was significant.
Qualities that most hiring managers held in high regard were the demonstration of an initiative to lead, participation in extra-curricular activities and the completion of a formal internship prior to graduation.
Lynn Stewart, the director of Outreach and Community Engagement of McMaster’s Engineering Faculty said, “For engineering students. The divide is less about technical work than… the ability of students to interpret and navigate… the professional workplace. When students are on an engineering internship, many will identify dealing effectively with people in the workplace as a more significant challenge than dealing with technical problems.”
This problem was not exclusive only to the engineering community but applied to students as a whole. 63 per cent of hiring managers found that graduates were very prepared to apply technical skills to the task at hand but were relatively lost when they had to apply soft skills.
“The communication, the team-building, the prioritization and time management skills are… skills that employers are wanting more from students,” explained Lisa Barty, manager of McMaster’s Science Career and Cooperative Education office.
“Employers have changed their expectations of new hires,” said Sandra Preston, Assistant Professor and Director of Experiential online pharmacy no prescription Education of Social Sciences. “Employers want students to be job ready for their specific job and aren’t as willing to invest in young people who are just learning to navigate the work world… I do believe the discrepancy [between employer expectations and student performance] exists, but it has more to do with students not fully understanding how their skills do relate to the ‘real world.’”
The responsibility of diminishing the divide does not fall upon only the academic institutions but also the students themselves. The study highlighted the lack of soft skills that most graduates demonstrate.
“Students are under immense pressure to succeed academically, and maybe what we’re seeing is that students are coming out of post-secondary institutions lacking some of these skills because they have not found that balance between academics and all the other available [opportunities] that are going to help develop those [soft] skills,” explained Barty.
Preston pointed out that, “there are many opportunities on campus for students to gain the kind of experiences that will help them translate their skills from the academic to the employment world.”
Stewart agreed, and said “[We should] encourage students to develop these professional skills, as much as this is possible while they’re in school: participate in extracurricular activities, push outside of the comfort zone to interact with people from diverse academic backgrounds… it’s not just about getting good grades, it’s about both personal and professional growth.”
By Tanoy Biswas
As the new carries on, so does a new round of hiring both inside and outside of the
university. The McMaster Students Union in particular hires its employees and volunteers
throughout the year because of the demand for the various services and resources offered
by the school.
With departments such as the Silhouette, TwelvEighty, the Union Market, Campus Events,
Compass Information Centre, the Underground Media + Design Centre and over 30 services
to hire for, the MSU is responsible for employing individuals for over 300 part-time positions, hundreds of volunteer positions and multiple full-time positions.
The vast majority of employees in the MSU are either students working part-time or recent graduates working full-time, with a few exceptions for some of their permanent full-time staff.
The MSU’s hiring cycles differ from one another based on the time of the year and are usually contingent on the hiring board’s availability.
“The November 2017 hiring took two to three weeks with the jobs posted, reviewing applications,
conducting interviews, selecting successful applicants etc. In November, we filled positions
for SWHAT coordinator, Horizons coordinator, Creating Leadership Among Youth
coordinator, Welcome Week Faculties coordinator, Mac Bread Bin director, Shinerama
coordinator and Farmstand director” said Preethi Anbalagan, MSU vice president (Administration).
The interviewing process is standard for all positions to ensure the MSU
maintains equitable hiring practices.
“We typically allocate 30 minutes for the interviews and provide the set of interview
questions ahead of time, albeit we ask two to three additional situational and job-specific
questions that are not provided in advance,” said Anbalagan. “Providing questions ahead of
time provides accommodations to those that may have extreme nervousness or general anxiety in interviews.” The MSU website also contains information on how to prepare for job interviews.
The various hiring boards of the MSU’s hiring process include the outgoing part-time
manager to assist and guide the selection process. Additionally, the MSU invites campus and
university partners as guests to sit on hiring boards to provide insight and guidance for
decision making for the niche positions at McMaster.
For example, the MSU may ask McMaster’s sexual violence response coordinator to sit in on the hiring of the Women and Gender Equity Network coordinator’s hiring board as a content expert.
This is consistent with hiring practices within the institution. For example, McMaster
University also attempts to use more inclusive pronouns during interviews.
The hiring cycle for summer jobs is currently underway and all sorts of work opportunities at McMaster University can found through the McMaster Students Union website, OscarPlus and MOSAIC.
