Class of 2018: Congratulations! You are going to have a banner year!
Genesis10 launched our college-hire program, The G10 Associates Program, in 2008, a time when college graduates struggled to find entry-level opportunities due to the Great Recession. After remaining stagnant for a few years, the job market eventually turned up in 2011.
In any market, each year since our program’s inception, our recruiting team has competed fiercely with other companies seeking to hire the top talent out of college. This year will be no different.
As Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute reports, the Class of 2018 will benefit from a job market that has improved for seven years straight, a stretch not seen by the researchers in its 47-year history.
Within specific STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) majors, demand for college graduates is outpacing the supply, driving an increase in starting salaries (good news for the grads!). The National Association of Colleges and Employers finds that Computer Science graduates were the highest paid in 2017, with an average starting salary of $65,540, up 7% from 2016. Electrical Engineering and Mathematics majors also saw a boost in compensation of more than 2%. Across all degree categories employers anticipate a boost in starting wages by 2%-15%, further supporting findings of growing demand for new college graduates.
What does this mean for employers? Companies dedicated to retaining the strongest talent will be even more aggressive in the recruiting process, moving timelines for campus visits, interviews and offers to the fall of 2017, with plans to make most hiring decisions for summer 2018 hires by year-end 2017. And to improve their marketability, companies will likely expand early-student engagement and internships to students 1-3 years away from graduating.
Despite the strong hiring outlook, employers still cite challenges associated with finding the right college talent.
When we launched the G10 Associates Program, our training program was designed to offset the perceived deficiencies of graduates. In 2008, surveys indicated that the grads lacked soft skills, an issue for employers which continues to top the list this year, according to MSU. Ranking just below, other employer concerns include:
- Competition from other employers
- Candidates lack work experience
- Candidates lack needed technical skills
- Candidates lack interest in the types of jobs offered
As competition for members of the Class of 2018 continues to be fierce, companies will need to look for creative ways to retain IT and business talent. Genesis10 is continuing to innovate our workforce optimization services to meet these talent challenges and demands.
Genesis10 is a partner for companies looking to hire and retain the next-generation talent coming out of colleges and universities, providing the training and mentoring needed to offset the challenges associated with hiring new graduates. Our campus recruiting program is national, allowing our clients access to a larger pool of talent.
