URI's director of career services
has good news for this year's graduates

KINGSTON, R.I. -- April 12, 2000 -- The director of Career Services at the University of Rhode Island has good news for college graduates seeking to enter the work force this spring.

"Business growth is leading employers to increase the number of positions for college graduates overall by 14.5 percent," said Director Bobbi Koppel, who cited a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

She added that 20 percent of employers are shifting hiring strategies to increase positions for college graduates, and 50 percent said they would hire more college graduates this year.

"Initial results at URI show students getting multiple offers in technical and non-technical disciplines with offers topping the $50,000 mark for bachelor's degree candidates," said Koppel.

Among the hot majors are accounting, marketing, economics/finance, computer science, and computer, electrical and mechanical engineering. All are providing significant salary offer increases over last year, Koppel said.

"At URI, the top five industries with job postings on our BEACON system are engineering, finance, manufacturing, sales and technology," Koppel said.

BEACON is URI's state-of-the-art web-based recruiting program launched last fall.

Koppel said top jobs listed on BEACON are accounting, computer science/management information systems, computer and electrical engineers; management, retail, wholesale and service; marketing and telemarketing.

"Our job fairs in Health and Human Services demonstrate a strong need for health and human services professionals; mental health counselors, camp counselors, nurses and pharmacists," Koppel said.

"We receive numerous job postings in biotechnology for scientists and researchers as well," she added. "Our teacher job fair reflects the national trend-in addition to a shortage in employees all across the board, teachers are highly sought after."

For those in the liberal arts, Koppel said the opportunities are almost limitless. Not only are students with degrees in English, history and psychology following traditional career paths such as teaching, communications and counseling, they are also being sought out in the industries of marketing, entertainment, finance, and business forecasting. "These are the individuals with great communication skills, and they know how to work within a team," Koppel said. "These graduates can analyze and make sense out of complex material, and then put it in terms average populations can understand."

Liberal arts majors are also seeing 5 to 7 percent increases in salary offers from last year.

Even journalism majors are finding that this new technology-driven economy is expanding their job choices and salary levels. In the past, a person with an interest in reporting would focus primarily on newspapers, magazines, television or radio. Now, however, journalism majors can find work at news web sites, many run by traditional media outlets, and those being developed independently, Koppel said.

"In addition to increasing opportunities for graduating students, a major trend is employers hiring and paying undergraduates through internships, summer jobs, and co-ops," Koppel said. "Even some first-year students are working on their resumes to land jobs that provide work experience and reality testing."

For more information, click on http://career.uri.edu. For those employers who wish to post job opportunities with URI, please call Peggy Ferguson, assistant director of Career Services, at 874-2583.

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For Information: Bobbi Koppel, 401-874-5177, Dave Lavallee, 401-874-2116