This year’s senior class will be entering the job market in what many are calling the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. With job opportunities few and far between—especially in the finance industry, a field that has traditionally attracted a large number of Georgetown students—seniors are facing uncertainty and stiff competition in their search for employment.
With numerous financial institutions shrinking or declaring bankruptcy, those seeking work in the finance sector are among those most acutely affected by the crisis. According to the Career Education Center’s surveys, investment banking has been the top career field for Georgetown students for the past three years.
In their Class of 2007 Survey, the most recent year for which data is available, 165 of the 482 respondents reported joining the finance industry.
While some seniors have been lucky enough to secure job offers already, many are still concerned or doubtful about their long-term job security.
“I know a lot of people who have had jobs in the finance industry but lost them last week or a couple of months ago,” Sartaj Narang (SFS ’09) said. Narang interned for Credit Suisse in New York this past summer and was offered a full-time position with the company after graduation. “I have a job right now, but I still keep in the back of my head the possibility of not having it tomorrow or in the next several months.”
Andrew Zheng (MSB ’09) said he witnessed a marked decline in the number of full-time offers made to interns at the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, where he interned this past summer. According to Zheng, the retention rate for his intern class was about 30 percent, compared to 70 to 80 percent of interns who traditionally received full-time offers after a summer internship at Morgan Stanley in past years.
While Zheng was among the 30 percent offered a job, he is still unsure of how the economy will affect his career.
“I’m concerned with how things will be different when I go back as compared to my experience this summer in terms of office environment, compensation, and the type of work I’ll be doing,” Zheng said.
The Career Education Center is optimistic that, despite the economic downturn, Georgetown students will still be able to find jobs. According to a report written by Executive Director Mike Schaub that addresses how the Career Education Center is coping with the recession, employers from many industries are still posting internship and job opportunities on the Hoya Career Connection.
The Center is also focusing on sectors that are expanding despite the economic downturn, such as government, health care, and accounting.
“We are trying to increase employer development efforts to companies that have not historically recruited at Georgetown,” Schaub wrote in an e-mail. “The goal of these efforts is to have these companies post jobs on Hoya Career Connection, host information sessions, and attend career fairs.”
Nadine Shahbaz (SFS ‘10), who is currently looking for an internship, perhaps in the banking sector, said she thinks the Career Center is doing all it can to help students.
“I think the Career Education Center is doing the best that they can given the situation,” she said. “It’s not like they can create jobs out of thin air.”
After interning for Lehman Brothers this summer and securing a full-time offer in August, Kris Rodgers (COL ’09) had to start his job search anew after the investment bank declared bankruptcy in September. Although he was able to secure an offer from Morgan Stanley and later learned that Barclays, the company that bought Lehman Brothers’ North American operations, was honoring all Lehman job offers, he is still aware of the unpredictability of the finance industry.
“There’s obviously still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the industry, and there are no guarantees,” he said.
“Having seen my Lehman offer disappear once, I’m fully aware of how quickly things can go wrong, and it’s always a little nerve-wracking to read the [Wall Street Journal] and hope that [Morgan Stanley] won’t be on the front page for the wrong reasons.”
