While a sluggish economy is leaving many graduates feeling coolabout their employment prospects, some students are not worriedabout job hunting -- potential employers are hunting them.
Seventy-five percent of manufacturing companies will hold off onhiring this quarter, and many are facing a continuation in therecent job cut trend, said Karen Hayes, director of Career andEmployment Services.
"Even though things don't look good as a whole, graduates in theright fields will find plenty of job offers," Hayes said.
Students with bachelor's degrees in accounting, engineering andnursing dominate the National Associations of Colleges andEmployers top 10 jobs for 2002-03 graduates.
Large accounting firms are waiting to fill empty positions withUniversity of Memphis Bachelor of Science in BusinessAdministration degrees, said Kenneth Lambert, director of theschool of accountancy.
"New graduates can expect to start out in the 40s at largerfirms like Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young," Lambert said."Not everyone is suited for a career in accounting, it's veryimportant that a person's personality fits. But it can be afinancially rewarding profession."
Engineering graduates will find their skills are also at apremium -- three of the top 10 jobs are in the engineeringfield.
The term engineer is ambiguous and can include anything fromdesign, construction, industrial or project engineering, said PaulPalazolo, assistant professor in the College of Engineering.
"Engineers solve problems," Palazolo said, "If you want to getpeople across central, do you build a bridge to go over or a tunnelunder it, that's an engineering problem."
Engineers are usually employed by a variety of companies andgraduates can expect an equally wide range of starting salaries,Palazolo said.
"The U.S. Corps of Engineers and the Tennessee Department ofTransportation hires a lot of our graduates," Palazolo said.
"They can expect to start out making anything between $30,000and $50,000 per year," he added.
With nursing shortages at critical levels locally and nearingthem nationally, new nurses will not have a problem finding ajob.
"Hospitalization is a prescription for nursing care,"Bargagliotti said.
"Sixteen percent of the registered nursing positions in Memphisare vacant," said Toni Bargagliotti, dean of nursing.
"We have to deal with a traffic jam of potential employeesconstantly," Bargagliotti said.
People living longer lives bring with that a host of differentmedical problems, many of which lead to an increase in the need ofnurses, Bargagliotti said.
Nursing graduates are in demand in all areas of healthcare, fromcritical care nursing to working for insurance companies,Bargagliotti said.
"One of the things so exciting about nursing is that you canchange careers without changing professions," Bargagliottisaid.
