Author: Teresa Eilers
The average Oxy graduate with a a bachelor’s degree earns $90,000 per year by the time they are about 45 years old, according to a 2010 study conducted by Payscale, an online collection of compensation data. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, today’s students and alumni are facing the nation’s worst downturn in the labor market in the past 25 years. Recent graduates will have to stick out low-paying jobs a decade longer than previous graduates due to the challenges that the current labor market poses.
Michelle Fits, a senior Physics major, remarks that this past summer she saw a recent Oxy graduate “sweeping a floor in a tattoo parlor,” not the job that she had in mind for herself or other Oxy alumni.
Michael Darling, a 2010 graduate and History major with an English and Comparative Literary Studies (ECLS) and American Studies minor, is currently living at home and makes sparing cash as a freelance writer for eHow. Darling doesn’t believe that it is Oxy’s job to necessarily train its students to be prepared to enter the workforce. He does, however, take note that most of his friends that majored in a hard science are currently employed. He believes that humanities majors are more suited as “cocktail party majors,” and that this results in “the job market not knowing what to do with you.”
“I wish there was a more practical use for being able to talk about the socio-cultural politics of alcohol prohibition in 1920s America,” he said.
Many Oxy students, however, are satisfied with both their decision to attend Oxy and the resources offered on campus that prepared them for the job market.
“Oxy classes encouraged me to ask questions and think critically about issues,” said Chloe Jenkins-Sleczkowski, a 2010 graduate and ECLS major. She also dismissed the idea that having a humanities degree will make a person less competitive in the job market “because there are a lot of diverse jobs out there.” Jenkins-Sleczkowski is currently working at an immigration law firm in Beverly Hills. She feels fortunate to receive two paychecks a month.
Other Oxy alumni attribute many essential skills that they now hold to the education they received from the college. Allison Reimer, a UEP major also from the class of 2010, reflects that Oxy helped her “write effectively.”
Much of the current student body credits Occidental with successfully providing students with a myriad of resources to prepare them for economic independence after graduation.
Jen Fox, a senior Physics major, “definitely feels that she has developed a lot of new skills.” She is currently trying to figure out how to spend the next six to eight years of her life, deciding whether or not to attend graduate school for a doctoral degree.
Aline Pogharian, a sophomore biology major, believes Oxy has a great system in place to foster students in her chosen field of study. “The pre-med department is very supportive and most importantly, classes teach students integrated thinking.” Pogharian regularly uses pre-med resources available to her by the Health Professions Interest Group, a club on campus.
Franklin Maharaj, an undeclared first-year, is focused on enjoying his first year at school and exploring Oxy’s “interdisciplinary academic emphasis.”Many current Oxy students are not dwelling on the pressures of the job market. “I think I will make enough to get by – that’s all I need. I will consider grad school in the future, but right now I am just thinking about traveling as much as possible, experiencing and participating in the real world,” said ECLS major Alex Steussy-Williams (senior).
Laura Harmon, a senior History and Math major, is waiting the economy out as she plans on attending law school after she graduates, and only expects to be employed after she finishes graduate school because she plans on working as an unpaid intern during summers.
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