Unemployment rates are the lowest in years and studies are projecting promising career opportunities in selected fields, however, some students still find the job marked daunting.

Students graduating with a degree in business, engineering, and computer-related fields will find jobs with ease, according to a new report published by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

The report also said that accounting, electrical engineering, business administration and management, and economics and finance are among the top fields in terms of demand for new workers.

According to statistics from the California Employment Development Department, the California unemployment rate dropped to 5.4 percent in March, from 5.8 percent in February. Some 954,000 California residents were unemployed in March, making the unemployment rate the lowest it has been since July 2001.

However, these statistics do not account for the people who are no longer actively looking for work.
At this time last year, when business administration major Danielle Roth was graduating, the unemployment rate in California was seven percent. After graduating, Roth searched for marketing jobs in southern California.

“I used Craigslist, MonsterTrak, and Yahoo! Jobs to find a marketing job,” said Roth. “I would interview with companies that claimed they were looking to hire marketing employees, but really they were pyramid business scams.”

The classified “marketing” ads were usually door-to-door sales positions disguised as marketing companies looking for managers, said Roth. At the job interview, Roth was questioned about what type of marketing she thought was most effective.

“They wanted me to say that I thought person-to-person marketing works the best,” said Roth.
She was then called back for a second interview, and instructed to wear comfortable shoes.

“I didn’t show up for the second interview because I refused to do sales going door-to-door,” said Roth. “They wanted me to shadow one of their top door-to-door salesman for the day.”

After 20 unsuccessful interviews and a move from Los Angeles back to San Francisco, where the job prospective for the marketing field seemed to be more promising, Roth finally landed herself an unpaid marketing internship at Bleu Marketing in the Marina.

“I have been supporting myself off loans taken from my parents,” said Roth. “I am hoping that Bleu Marketing will hire me at the end of my internship.”

Rejection from jobs began to take a toll on Roth’s emotional health, she said.

“I felt really down,” Roth said. “It kept making me think, ‘What is the point of going to school?’”

At one point Roth paid $75 to an Internet search engine that distributed her resume to 600 public relations and advertising firms. She got a handful of callbacks from this job attempt.

“Going to do the dumb job interviews that weren’t actually jobs but scams really helped me,” said Roth. “After a while I was able to overcome my nerves and act like myself when I was on the spot, answering questions.”

Currently the San Francisco unemployment rate is 5.2 percent, down from a recent high of 6.0 percent in April 2004.

Even thought the employment rate in San Francisco has improved, senior kinesiology major Kokeetia McElwee still hasn’t found a job for after graduation.

She has been searching for jobs in sports management and athletic training. Unfortunately, most of the jobs she has been looking for require a master’s degree or 2-3 years work experience.

“I was hoping to make more money with my degree than what I made as an administrative assistant during college,” said McElwee. “I don’t see a big salary raise with the jobs that are available to a kinesiology major without a master’s degree.”

So far McElwee is not yet discouraged. Her new strategy is expanding her job search to internships in the hopes of gaining more work experience in her field, she said.

Jack Brewer, director of the Career Center at SF State, said that most employers don’t care much about
a graduate’s grade point average in school.

“Communication skills, honesty, interpersonal skills, motivation, (a) strong work ethic, teamwork skills, analytical skills, flexibility, computer skills, and self-confidence are all individual qualities that employers look for in college graduates,” said Brewer.

“Students who can demonstrate to employers that they have these qualities through campus activities, student organization involvement, volunteerism, part-time summer employment and internships will be very competitive.” 2007, Murillo said.