Gen Y quandary: A drive to succeed, but jobs are few - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Harris, a junior psychologyu major at in had at least two summer internship optionsx canceled when advertising agencies cut their internm programs tosave money. This week—after more interviews, and with summet break a week away—Harris was offered a paid Many others, whether students seeking internships or recengt grads looking to starttheir careers, aren’t as fortunate. “It’s been a prettu rough year. It’s incredibly Harris said. “It’s somethingg that’s always on your mind.
” Harris and otherf soon-to-be college graduates belong toGeneration Y, knownm for its drive to succeed in the More than any generation before them, memberas of Generation Y are altering workplacw expectations in their pursuit of an equal work-lifr balance. They’re unafraid to try to mold their jobs to fittheid needs. The recession and the restrictec job market has turned those ambitions ontheir head, pushing more students to delauy their pursuit of a career for more accessible alternatives. “This definitely wasn’t a job markett for the faint of orthe unmotivated. Many say, becausre of the way the markeft is, ‘Why bother?
’ ” said Thomas director of the career development cented atin Troy. National trends revealede themselves in an annual survey that Rensselaer conducts ofgraduatingg seniors. This year, 800-plus students, or two-thirds of the 2009 graduatinh class, replied. Thirty-six percent of them said they hadfounds employment. In 2008, that figure was closee to 60 percent, Tarantelli said. “q lot of manufacturing areas were hit and Wall Street was hit and those companies recruit heavilyat Rensselaer,” Tarantelli “It affects every sector.” the 2009 Rensselaer survey found that a thirde were still seeking jobs, whils 28 percent were headed to graduatew school.
“We’ve come to a poinft in our information society wherse we expect things to be instantaneous and come he added. “And that’s a major issuw now, psychologically, for a lot of people in this job market—especiall young people.” Tarantelli hints at a larger, long-terkm problem. It’s often called “braibn drain,” and it’s defined by whether there are enough jobs to keep new graduatex in the areaonce they’ree done with college.
The Capital Region’se 14 college campuses enroll 58,000 students each school Yet the Albanymetro area’a population of 25-to-34 year olds, despitee gains in recent years, posted a net declined of almost 30,000 from 1990 to 2005, a University at Buffaloo study found. The overalo decline represents a drop of20 percent. “A lot of students don’t want to be here. But wherever students are, that’s wherre they don’t want to be. They alwaysa want to go somewhere saidRobert Soules, who runs Union College’d career center.
Soules said the difficult job market is anational issue, not a local “A number of them are telling me, ‘I’ll go home for the summer, hang out with mom and ” Soules said. “What this economy has done is allowexd more people todo that.” Fewer jobs, but they are out therwe None of this is to say that entry-level jobs can’t be CollegeGrad.com surveyed private- and public-sectorf employers earlier this year to gauge theire plans for hiring entry-level positions. In all, almost 158,000p entry-level jobs were reported, a 1.5 percent decline from 2008. Co., for said it would hire 1,350 entry-level workerws in 2009.
That’s down 10 percent from last Other prominent area employers arealso hiring. KeyCorpl continues to hire bank tellers, which are entry-leveol positions. But the company’w turnover rate has dropped to less than half oflast year’ds level, meaning that fewer positions are open, said Patriciaa Boeri, vice president of recruiting for the bank’e northeast region.