Life after a degree

Senior Laura Vonch is getting as much experience as possible to keep from becoming part of the national statistic that reports 45 percent of college graduates move back in with their parents after graduation.

Vonch has completed two summer internships and expects to graduate in May 2014 with a degree in public relations and advertising, and a minor in speech communications.

“An internship gives you the confidence you need getting a job with a full-time position, because you know how it works — you’ve done it before, you’ve been there before and you’ve seen how it works,” Vonch said. “Without an internship I don’t think I would feel like I knew what I was doing if I was put into the field right now.”

A 2012 Pew Research Center analysis reports the percentage of graduates who move back home is up 14 percent from 2001.

To keep that trend from affecting USD students, the Academic and Career Planning Center offers advice and assistance to students searching for jobs and internships.

Megan Lueders, head of employer relations for the Academic and Career Planning Center, said an employment survey is sent to USD students two weeks prior to their graduation, and is open six months after graduation to give them time to complete it.

Fifty percent of USD students respond to the survey, Lueders said, which is better than the 34 percent national average of students who respond to employment surveys.

Lueders said she wishes more students understood tasks such as putting together a resume, cover letter and learning how to go through a job interview.

“If you already know those things that’s fantastic, but a majority of people don’t know how to do that,” she said. “I don’t know if people are hesitant to come through and talk to us about it, but if these students are a little more prepared ahead of time they might have better job placement because of it.”

Vonch said she did not use the resources USD has available to land her internships, but said if students need that extra push they should reach out to the center.

“I was just really motivated and I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me I couldn’t do what I wanted in my field,” Vonch said. “I wanted to get a job in Boston, and I wasn’t going to let anyone tell me I couldn’t. I’m very driven in that way, but a lot of students might be afraid of trying to put themselves out there.”

Vonch spent her first summer internship in Boston, Mass. at an advertising agency after her sophomore year at USD. That internship, unpaid, was a learning step for her, she said.

Her second advertisement agency internship came last summer in Minneapolis. Vonch said her persistence helped her land those internships.

“When I started applying in November of my sophomore year I didn’t get a job until I went to Boston for my spring break. I had three interviews while I was there and got one offer,” she said. “A lot of students are afraid of being annoying, but from talking with everyone else, you need to be like that — it shows that you really want something.”

Lueders said taking an unpaid internship should not deter students from getting valuable experience.

“You have to look at if it’s a good experience for you if it’s unpaid,” she said. “If it’s paid that’s obviously a great opportunity, but you still need to look at the experience. Maybe it’s a paid internship, but you’re not really going to get much out of it.

“A lot of industries have unpaid internships, especially in the non-profit sectors, because their funding comes from different sources — they don’t necessarily have a budget or a cash allowance sitting there they can use to pay interns,” Lueders said. “The opportunities, generally, with the unpaid are just as valuable as the opportunities with the paid.”

Lucia Carlson is taking a different path to prepare herself for a post-graduate career. Carlson graduated in December 2012 and said she ended up moving back with her parents after her graduation because she couldn’t start graduate school until September.

Carlson knew she wanted to attend graduate school her junior year because she wanted to become more knowledgeable in her field of international studies.

“I want to get a job in the U.S. Department of State, and I figure the more knowledgeable you can be with your degree the better,” she said.

Although nothing is certain, Carlson said, graduate school will add to her qualifications.

“I can’t say for sure I’m going to finish grad. school and I’ll have a job — I don’t think anyone can say that, but I’m going to apply for an internship this summer either in Washington, D.C. or abroad with the Department of State. It will help a lot toward my job prospect,” she said.

Carlson did not have an internship during her undergraduate studies, but said looking back she wishes she would have.

“It’s important for students to stop thinking that just getting by is enough. Now that I look back at my undergraduate years I think I kind of operated under that mentality. I graduated with a 3.5 GPA, which is not average, it’s good, but I didn’t do much of anything outside of academics and now I regret it,” she said. “Academics need to be at the forefront and need to be taken care of, but people also can’t forget about outside activities either, because the outside things are what make your resume shine.”

Aside from completing her internships, Vonch also updates accounts such as LinkedIn and Twitter to potential employers interested in hiring her.

I’ve been told by employers that my LinkedIn profile looks good or that my resume looks good. People will look at it and see that you’re watching your news or the types of things you’ve retweeted,” she said. “You have to be aware of the people who are looking at your Twitter and the people who are looking your Facebook or LinkedIn. Being knowledgeable and even having things like a Google+ are really important as well.”

Ultimately though, Lueders said experience is vital for graduates.

“Everybody is graduating with similar degree programs, you could be sitting in a class with several students who have the same GPA as you, students will do relatively well with their degree program and are as outstanding of a student as you are.

“What’s going to help you get those jobs after graduation or land a spot in the graduate program are the things you did above and beyond your college degree, whether it’s study abroad, doing an AWOL trip, doing some undergraduate research or doing an internship or job shadowing opportunity,” she said.