To succeed in the 1996 job hunt.

When it comes to the 1996 job hunt, college students should take that Boy Scout motto very seriously, "Be prepared." It's a new job environment, more complex and demanding than 20 or 30 years ago.

"The job world has changed a lot since people went to work for AT&T after college and stayed until they retired," says Joan Mark, executive director of cooperative education and career services for Pace University in New York City. Today, the emphasis at Pace is on teaching lifelong job-search skills to students, not just how to find that first job. Experts predict a person can now expect to have over 15 different jobs in a total of 4 or 5 different career fields over a lifetime.

A NEW EMPLOYEE

MODEL

Fortunately, the skills needed to get a first job today are the same ones needed for lifelong career development. But the product itself has changed - the person companies are hiring. Being a specialist isn't enough, even if you are the best engineer in your class. Companies want people with other skills as well - good communications skills, motivation, leadership, and, above all, previous experience.

"We are no longer taking a cookie cutter approach to recruiting," says Michael Littlejohn, the managing director in charge of workforce diversity and college recruiting at Price Waterhouse. "Now we are emphasizing a broad range of values. Technical skills are still a prerequisite. But we are also looking for people who have a wealth of experience."

Today, having that "real world" experience seems to make a difference in the job hunt. Corporations expect more of prospective employees. Downsizing Seems to have reduced their resources and many have cut back on elaborate training programs for new hires.

"Nowadays, companies are so lean and mean that when they bring people in, these new employees have to be ready to go," explains Wes Masters, director of workforce diversity at Mutual of New York, the life insurance company. Even part-time work experience gives job candidates an edge, he says.

Of course, a four-year college degree may not be enough to qualify a person, even for certain entry-level positions. For instance, Revlon requires an MBA in marketing for many of its management-level entry positions and a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) or another advanced degree on the financial side of the business.

ON-CAMPUS

RECRUITING

FLOURISHES

But a four-year college degree still opens a surprising number of doors today. At Johnson & Johnson, the health care manufacturing giant, for instance, college students account for about 50% of its new hires each year. The biggest recruiters on most campuses today are national companies. Arthur Anderson, for instance, recruited over 3,700 students in 1994. Other nationwide companies active in recent years include retailers like J. C. Penny and Walgreens, insurers like State Farm and CIGNA, hospitality companies like Marriott International and high tech giants IBM and EDS.

Even regional companies can sometimes be found outside their regions embarked on targeted recruiting campaigns. CMP Publications, for instance, headquartered in Manhasset, NY, usually concentrates on recruiting in the New York metropolitan area. But in 1996, according to Leo Harley, staffing and recruitment manager, the company plans to take a look at the historically black colleges, especially those with strong English, journalism or business programs, and start recruiting more actively on those campuses..

SMALLER COMPANIES

ON CAMPUS

"We are going to educate individuals about our company and cast as broad a net as possible," Harley says. As the second largest technical publisher in the country, CMP is privately owned and thus not as well known as some other publishing companies.

For students, interviewing with campus recruiters should form a very important element in the 1996 job hunt process. But it may turn out to be discouraging. Competition is stiff, and most companies take only 200 or 300 students nationwide. So students must try other avenues as well - talking to alumni, networking with friends and relatives, scouring magazines for job advertising, attending job fairs, remaining active in student and national professional associations, checking job listings in the employment office - and, above all, developing the "real life" experience and leadership qualities companies expect to see.

WHAT RECRUITERS

LOOK FOR

Studies show that there are five major criteria recruiters look for these days when interviewing college graduates for jobs:

* "Real world" or internship experience

* Strong interpersonal skills and motivation (including leadership and being a good team player)

* Technical skills (especially computer literacy)

* Communications skills - both oral and written

* A grade point average of 3.0 or higher

Getting "real world" experience can be tough for students, while maintaining a good grade point average. Often students don't have the right contacts to get the summer or part-time jobs in the fields they want to enter. Or they can't afford to take time off from studies.

BUILDING UP "REAL

WORLD" EXPERIENCE

However, today many corporations are participating in cooperative work programs with local universities and colleges. These offer students an excellent opportunity to gain "real world" experience, while at the same time being paid for the work they do. The companies gain because they have a very motivated entry level group of young people working for them.

They also get a chance to train these potential full-time employees in what it takes to succeed in the corporate world.

"Cooperative programs are very popular today," observes Allen A. McFarlane, associate director in the office of career services at New York University.

He has seen a six-fold increase in the number of corporate internships being offered over the last six years.

Companies are very enthusiastic about this type of experience. "College kids need to get some kind of cooperative work experience in a strong organization," insists Lawrence Joshua, employment manager at Sun Micro System, the $9 billion technology company in Mount View, CA. "They've got to understand how important this is in their sophomore and junior years. It can open up more opportunities."

COOPERATIVE WORK

PROGRAMS

Today, many universities around the country participate in cooperative work programs - either with local employers or nationally. Many state schools like the University of Maryland, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and North Carolina A & T allow students to take off a semester to work full-time for corporations who participate in their programs.

The Central Intelligence Agency has a fairly large cooperative education program. "Currently we have several hundred students in our program," says Robert L. Simpson, CIA recruiter-at-large. The co-op program gives students an inside look at the agency. Some students work two or three semesters at the CIA before graduation.

In New York City, Pace University runs a large and very successful cooperative work program in the region. Over 460 employers participated in the program in 1994, placing over 1,000 students in cooperative jobs - part-time, full-time or during the summer. Marks, the director of this program, says that many of these students end up being hired full time by their cooperative work employer.

Another way to gain "real world" experience is through traditional corporate training. Although there are fewer of these programs around, they offer an excellent way to gain experience where companies offer them.

One company that runs a very active intern program is Hyatt International, which manages over 100 hotels in the US, Canada and the Caribbean.

Hyatt actually runs two training programs: A Corporate Internship for those who do not have any experience in hotel management, and a Management Trainee Program for experienced job candidates who are being groomed to join the company.

QUALIFYING FOR

INTERNSHIP

PROGRAMS

In the Internship program, college students work from three to nine months in operations at one of the company's hotels.

This means working in a wide variety of areas from food and beverages to rooms (the front desk and housekeeping). To qualify for the program, students must already be studying hospitality in a certified program.

Qualifications for Hyatt's Management Training Program are more rigorous. "We take only four-year college graduates and people with at least nine months to a year of experience," says Monteagudo. "These are the people who are going to start their career at Hyatt."

Minority students frequently find trainee programs specifically aimed at them. At Pace, Mark says, "Particularly for the summer, we get minority internships. Companies are really looking hard to hire these students."

There are also some very successful minority trainee programs like INROADS Inc., a national career development program started over 20 years ago in Chicago. INROADS now has affiliates in 46 states with headquarters in St. Louis. The organization works with over 800 corporate sponsors to provide internships to hundreds of students in their senior year of high school and throughout college.

The mission is to place talented minority young people in business and industry; applicants must maintain a 3.0 grade point average.

Companies cite great satisfaction with INROADS students. "We usually have four to six INROADS students working for ARCO during the summer in Los Angeles," says William A. Holland, director of workforce diversity and development at ARCO, the diversified oil services company. "Often, we end up getting full-time hires out of that process."

SPECIAL PROGRAMS

FOR ENGINEERS

Students interested in high tech, engineering or computer careers may find special programs in those areas. Programs like that may help enlarge the pool of qualified candidates among minority college graduates for certain types of engineering or high-tech jobs. Many companies are trying to build up this pool.

The Arco Foundation has given over $5 million to universities to help schools encourage more minority students to stay in these specialties through its Minority Engineering Program.

VOLUNTEERING BUILDS

EXPERIENCE

There are other ways for college students to build "real life" experience. Some of these require taking time off after college and before embarking on a chosen career. Organizations like the Peace Corps can help in this transition - or provide a full-time career to those who want to stay after a volunteer assignment.

In 1994, the Peace Corps was the second largest recruiter on college campuses, selecting over 1,700 students for entry-level volunteer positions. These volunteers help people around the world become more self-sufficient through working with them in five main areas: agriculture, education, environment, health and economic/business development.

"The Peace Corps can be a resume-builder," says Stephen Issa, a recruiter with the Peace Corps in its Detroit office. Issa himself joined the Peace Corps at the age of 29 to teach people in Latin America to build fuel-efficient stoves. When he returned to the U.S., he decided not to return to his auto manufacturing job in Detroit. Instead, he now plans to return to school get an advanced degree to teach urban studies in the primary school system.

DEMONSTRATING

MOTIVATION

Next to experience, the main personal qualities sought after by recruiters today center around motivation, community involvement and leadership. "When we interview, we want to see someone self-motivated and disciplined," says Wes Masters at Mutual of New York. Students can demonstrate this through special course work, extra projects or even software which they take on to enhance their career commitment.

"These things show that someone wants to be outstanding in the profession," says Masters. He also likes it when a student already understands the job before he or she is interviewed and also knows what additional skills might be needed down the road.

In the hospitality field, Hyatt's Gene Monteagudo looks for community involvement, even from students. "You don't have to be 30 years old to get involved in your community, Monteagudo notes.

In retailing, Hyman Albritton, manager of executive recruiting for the Sears Merchandise Group, one of the nation's largest retailers, looks for an outgoing personality and proof that the person has leadership qualities. "You can gauge leadership by looking at what the person did, particularly while they were in school," he says.

ON-CAMPUS

LEADERSHIP

Kelly Woodley, assistant manager of recruitment at General Mills, illustrates how all three of these qualities can help launch a student on a strong career track. While at Howard University, Woodley majored in accounting and became very active in the student accounting club. She also became treasurer of student government, and networked with alumni in the public accounting field.

"When I came out of Howard, I thought that accounting was going to be my life," Woodley now says. "But then I found out there were a lot of other things that fit more with my life - like human resources." Before discovering that, however, Woodley won a full scholarship to the University of Michigan to earn her MBA, through the Consortium for Graduate Study and Management. This non-profit group gives full scholarships to minority students to attend one of 11 business schools each year.

"A lot of students don't utilize alumni," says Woodley. "I talked to alumni who worked in accounting and then, later on, in human resources." She considers this networking one of the keys to her successful career moves.

Other criteria which remain important to recruiters are: communications skills, grades and technical skills. Communications skills are relatively hard to measure. But recruiters use a student's interviewing skills as a yardstick.

A STRONG GRADE POINT

AVERAGE

As far as grades are concerned, many employers take a hard line selecting cutoff points for candidates of a 3.0 or 3.2 grade point average. This may be waived for non-technical positions like those in sales.

But some employers are even more stringent. Sun Micro Systems, for instance, expects a 3.5 to 4.0 grade point average for college graduates, if they expect to enter the company's "Best of the Best" management training program in sales or engineering.

As far as a major is concerned, most companies are careful to match technical training with jobs in such areas as finance and accounting.

However, for those entering sales, many companies accept a more varied background.

Johnson & Johnson, for instance, hires a number of college graduates each year for sales positions. According to Tom Matlock, manager of corporate college relations, the backgrounds of these students varies considerably. In 1995, they came mainly from four majors: marketing, biology, health, science and business.

COMPUTER LITERATE 

STUDENTS PREFERRED

However, most companies expect virtually all students to have certain technical skills - even when they are going into sales, not finance. Strong computer knowledge is a must today for virtually all job applicants. There is no such thing as an entry-level job (other than receptionist) where you don't have to know how to use a word processor.

"Even our liberal arts students, if they have these added skills - technical (computers) and work-related experience - are going to get hired. It makes them marketable," says Mark at Pace University.

SUCCESS PLAYING

THE GAME

Such stringent requirements for job hunting today may intimidate some students. You can lessen this worry by seeking guidance from the career development office.

"They need a career check-up," says NYU's McFarlane. "They need to assess the jobs they have had to see if any fit into what they eventually want to do."

The career services officer can help students evaluate their experience and encourage them to move in a different direction, if necessary.

McFarlane's advice to students: "Build a relationship with a career services officer. Get an assessment of where you are and where you need to go."