The Outlook is Sunny

I'm still doing prepwork for the 100 DAYS OF BLOGGING that I'm set to begin on June 1st, but until then I wanted to share this.

I was reading the Wall Street Journal today (which, incidentally, if you're a business major and NOT at least skimming the Journal every day, you're DOING IT WRONG) and ran across this article about job prospects in the current economy.

Now, this is potentially amazing news for me. As a 2011 grad (whoo-hoo!) with continued access to my university's recruiting sites and whatnot, I've definitely seen an uptick in the job market in the last year. Compared to my internship search, my full-time job search as a resounding success. I got recruited -- nay, courted -- by some really solid firms with some valuable brand names. I got three final round interviews, and almost every interview I had at least got me to the second round. That said, I've had more success with my independent job search rather than my search via the university's career center.

Part of that has to do with what I was looking for; my major tracked me into management/strategy consulting, but my university recruitment was focused more on accounting/finance jobs and sales/marketing positions. This makes sense; these are the three biggest majors in-house. However, it also meant that my career center could only help me to a point. I got some case-coaching, some networking, and a few consulting firms, but when Bain can only have 12 slots open, 8 of which go to workshop students, and my GPA is a B+/A- ranged one, well. Let's just say my chances feel slimmer than they necessarily are.

Anyway, the economy has definitely been picking up. Aside from a lot more listings this past year on my university's website. And I've been getting more callbacks. In part, it's because I've been more aggressive in following up leads. It's also due to my resume revamp from the summertime -- a second revamp occurred in March as well, to tailor my resume towards consulting even more. What definitely helped is having "Consultant" on my resume, even though it was potentially misleading. (At the time, I didn't feel the title was misleading. In retrospect, it probably was. It set up expectations about that job experiences that didn't necessarily pan out.)

Basically, this entry is me cheering that my prospects are far rosier than I'd anticipated, and me confirming this article's central thesis via my own experiences. Remember, though, unemployment is still at a 10-year high, and the world is changing. That said, a little hope goes a long way, especially given that economics is all about consumer (and producer) expectations.