Finding Your Place in The Job Market

While spending the first 1-2 years in college, drowning in academic assignments, many students tend to avoid thinking about life after college, (yet, it is approaching). We spend resources and dedicate time to evaluate our own interests, values and skills in pursuit of our career aspirations. However, at times understanding the jobs’ market and the potential future growth in a specific career is just as important when choosing and beginning a career.

The job market in 2017 is better than it has been in years. Unemployment rates are slowly dropping and employers are having hard time finding qualified candidates given the shortage in the job seekers market. This reality provides recent college graduates (potential employees) with an advantage. In comparison to previous years there is less competition on every job offered.

Like most career development preparation assignments, the market research begins with your own evaluation. Once you evaluated your interests and have a career path in mind you can begin planning to find a job match for your aspirations. Apart from your interest it may be beneficial to consider more practical, market related factors that are likely to have a significant impact on your career. They include the level of competition in the field of choice (how many jobs are open per college graduate), the future market growth, the compensation levels and more.

By examining the markets, you may construct powerful conclusions regarding your career of choice.  
Essential aspects for consideration:
1. Location after college – your city, state and overall job market location may have a dramatic impact on the level of competition you are expected to face right out of college. For instance, there are 4 available positions for every unemployed resident of Salt Lake City, UT, whereas in New York City the statistics show only one available position per unemployed. Given these numbers an individual is up to four times more likely to get a job in Salt Lake City, UT rather than in New York.  For the full statistics: https://www.indeed.com/jobtrends/unemployment

2.  Growing Fields – Some fields are expected to experience far greater growth rates in the next 5-10 years as opposed to others. Fields with high growth rates tend to provide college graduates with better chance at getting a job right out of college. The increase in demand for such employees is also likely to cause an increase in the compensation in the long run. Thus, it may be beneficial to plan your career ahead based on market growth. Fields such as IT, Medicine and Engineering are expected to experience the highest growth rates. A full list may be found in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/fastest-growing.htm

3. How Narrow or Wide is your field of interest? – How flexible is your degree of choice. Many degrees do not correlate with one specific occupation (Liberal Arts, Business Administration, and Finance) but rather cater to larger fields. A Liberal Arts student can go into the business filed, education or even law. Degrees in nursing and accounting however, are very specific in nature and lead to a specific occupation.

4. How fast can you progress? Starting fresh out of college you would probably get an entry-level job. Nevertheless, it is important to evaluate how fast you can move up the ranks to secure a senior position. Research should also be done to determine what steps you would have to take achieve that progress, it may be in the form of an academic degree, years of experience or licenses.

5. Compensation – look up the average salary paid for an employee working in the field of your interest to determine whether such salary level satisfies your compensation aspirations.