With the economy slowly regaining speed, 2013 graduates may face a difficult time obtaining desirable jobs.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article an “improving economy could leave [graduates] behind or push them out of the market.” This means it may be difficult for ’13 grads to move upward from their first job.
The report also showed that 48 percent of graduates are working jobs that don’t require them to have to have a college diploma, and that 38 percent of graduates are working jobs that don’t require a high school diploma.
While many general studies or arts students may have a difficult time moving upward in this economy, there is one major that almost guarantees a job out of college.
The University of North Texas offers a specialized major called decision science which guarantees a 99-100 percent job placement.
And unlike many students, UNT senior Michael Hawkins, is not nervous about finding a job once he graduates in May.
Decisions sciences allow students to use quantitative data and methods as a tool to help businesses make decisions.
“We pretty much look at data and then find patterns, and see if there is a problem that needs to be fixed, and then we fix it,” Hawkins said.
And decisions sciences majors can go into almost any field once they graduate.
“I can go into health care, the government, finance, any job that has quantifiable data,” Hawkins said.
“Typically our decision science majors can work in any functional area of business, solving the problems that come up,” said UNT professor Jerry Dake.
Hawkins is one of four decision sciences majors that are graduating in May, but there are about 70 undergraduate and graduate students at the school.
Out of the four students set to graduate, three of them already have jobs as consultants and researchers.
Michael is still searching for the right fit.
“The hardest thing is getting the interview and looking for the right one that I want,” Hawkins said.
“I’m not really worried about finding something. Hopefully I find something that I want to do, but that’s a different story than finding something in my field of choice.”
While graduation is less than a month away, even Dake agrees that it won’t be difficult for Hawkins or any other decisions sciences majors to find a job.
“In the 11 years I’ve been here now, we’ve had virtually one hundred percent placement,” Dake said.
SMU’s Cox School of Business does not offer a decisions sciences major, but the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering offers something similar.
“When we find students who enjoy math and they enjoy analysis, the demand for them is fairly high,” Dake said.
