In tough job market, college students learn etiquette

Before ordering French onion soup during a business lunch with a potential employer, consider the cheese.
The effort it takes to maneuver those long, gooey strings of melted Swiss around your spoon in between slurps of broth can be a major distraction to you as well as the person who's thinking about hiring you.
In a tight economy, job seekers can't risk fumbling with a messy meal.
That was one of the pieces of advice that Nicole Feldhues, director of career services at Duquesne University, passed along to students during a recent four-course dinner designed to teach them proper business-meal etiquette.
Duquesne has offered the session on campus in years past, but this spring, as students clamor for a limited number of job openings, the school's career-services office is advising them to pay even greater attention to what they wear and how they behave during interviews and business events.
"My goal is to increase students' confidence in handling professional situations like networking or a meal," said Feldhues. "We want them to shine through and not be worried about the details."
Employers plan to hire 22 percent fewer college graduates this year than in 2008, said a recent job-outlook survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
Of the survey respondents, 67 percent had cut back on initial hiring plans in the past few months as the stock market plunged and the economy worsened. Almost 22 percent do not plan to hire at all during the spring-graduation season.
While Feldhues and career officials at other universities say they expect fewer students to graduate this spring with job offers in hand, companies have been turning out to talk to students at job fairs and some continue to do on-campus interviews, even if they don't have jobs to fill in the near future.
As corporations slash recruitment budgets, some are conducting remote interviews with students via teleconference or video conference, said Shawn Graham, assistant dean and director of MBA career services at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business.
Because of the economic downturn, Graham advises students to be more flexible about the industries and geographic locations in which they seek jobs, to over-prepare for interviews and to network more aggressively.
He compares job hunting to dating and even wrote a book using that premise, "Courting Your Career: Match Yourself with the Perfect Job," published in 2007 while he worked in career services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
"I always tell students to play the field when they're looking for a job just like when they're looking for a relationship," he said. "In college, do different internships. And go for the good-night kiss at the end of an interview. Close the interview strong and reaffirm your interest. Let them know you want to see them again."
In an effort to better prepare students for job quests, the University of Pittsburgh last year restructured its career services into career development and a separate placement office.
"They are competing not only with other entry-level candidates but with people who have been laid off," said Brian Heddleston, manager of employment development at the university. "If employers see a form letter or a template resume, they'll bypass it."
At the university's undergraduate business school, job candidates in accounting fields are probably getting the most attention from recruiters, said J.P. Matychak, director of the career and leadership development center at the College of Business Administration.
"Companies are still looking for accountants to find out where the money is going," he said.
Another sector where he has noticed increased hiring is the federal government -- especially as the Obama administration rolls out stimulus programs that will require financial experts.

(E-mail Joyce Gannon at jgannon(at)post-gazette.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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